10:59 pm
Live Blogging Barack Obama
So here we are. The. Moment. We. Have. Been. Waiting. For.
10:02 Okay the movie just started and I got choked up. I’m bathing in Kool-Aid at this point. Snorting it too. Mainlining. You name it, and I’m doing it with the Kool-Aid.
10:06 Movie: Joking about his name a nice touch.
10:08 Movie: black and white photos evoke Kennedy. Sure that was intentional.
10:10 Movie: “It is a promise that we make to our children: that they can do anything they want with their lives.”
10:12 Here we go. How long will the ovation last? Two minutes.
10:14 Michelle chanting “Yes we can.” Clintons appear to be absent.
10:15 Obama accepts nomination. Shout out to Hillary. But she’s not there.
10:16 Will the Secret Service accompany Joe Biden on Amtrak?
10:18 We meet at one of those defining moments: nation at war, economy in turmoil.
10:19 Broken politics in Washington, failed politics of Dubya. We are a better country than this. So it looks like the speech is going to be hard hitting.
10:20 Veterans sleeping on the streets is a recurring theme for Dems this year. Katrina reference.
10:21 We love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight.” Now that’s a keeper. Eight is enough line is a bit stale.
10:22 Wish the Dems could stick to one percentage on McCain’s votes. 90 or 95
10:22 “10 percent chance on change” Heh.
10:24 Using the “nation of whiners” line very effectively.
10:24 McCain doesn’t not care, he just doesn’t know about the lives of Average Americans. But he’s going a little fast. Slow down, Barack.
10:25 “It’s not that John McCain doesn’t care. It’s that he doesn’t get it.”
10:26 This is a strongly populist speech, focusing on economic distress. It’s the same tack Gore took in ‘00, to mixed success. Will it work this time for Obama?
10:28 “In the faces of our brave soldiers. . .I see my grandfather.” Using story of American people to tell the story of his family and vice versa.
10:30 The sound you hear is the celebrity meme getting squished. But a friend just said that he’s talking too much to people who have been following the race and not enough to people just tuning in.
10:32 With “I am my brother’s keeper,” he evokes Christian theology without sounding evangelical
10:32 He’s started talking about what he’s going to do. Will it be too wonky?
10:33 “I will cut taxes for 95 percent of working families.”
10:33 Pledges to end dependence on Middle Eastern oil in 10 years. Kennedy-esque “go to the moon by the end of the decade” moment. Lots of detail on energy plan.
10:35 I wonder – were people told to put down their “Change” signs and wave flags instead?
10:37 Republican reply will focus on how Obama will pay for all these new programs.
10:38 Republicans also will note that Biden was the author of the bankruptcy law that Obama says he wants to overturn.
10:39 I wonder whether this is too much “I will do this and I will do that” and not enough “We need to act.”
10:40 Just went all Bill Cosby on social issues.
10:41 If John McCain wants to have a debate about who is more suited tempermentally to be commander in chief, that’s a challenge I will take.
10:43 Is this too much of a laundry list?
10:44 Firebreathing. About time. The section on foreign policy is the strongest yet, but where are torture, Guantanamo, etc. Ah, he just mentioned moral standing.
10:45 Says he’ll take the high road. Not sure how I feel about that.
10:46 Nice use of his famous red America/blue America line to praise the soldiers. Important to remember that almost everyone watching the speech tonight never saw his ‘04 speech.
10:50 “If you don’t have any fresh ideas, you use scale tactics to scare voters.” He’s taking the bull by the horns, but how will it play beyond Democrats?
10:51 This election has never been about me — it’s about you. Audience did not go bananas.
10:53 Now making the appeal to broader audience. Talking about sacrifice that average Americans make to build a better America. What makes us rich and strong and envied is the American spirit, the American promise that pushes forward no matter how uncertain things are. We’ve hit the beginning of the rhetorically powerful part of the speech.
10:54 We come to MLK “I have a dream” reference. Almost forgot about it. Interesting he isn’t naming King, just calling him the preacher. “America we cannot turn back.” “We cannot walk alone.” “We must pledge once more to march into the future.”
It was a strong speech, a workmanlike speech, but it didn’t match the rhetorical brilliance of his best past efforts. The key question will be, does that matter? Or were people looking for substance, and thus this speech was just the one he had to make. The people I’m watching with seem to think there was a bit of a contradiction between the red meat and the post-partisanship.
What