Some analysis--3rd night of the Convention

Things are certainly not winding down here at the DNC.  Instead, the energy has risen and the excitement is mounting.   Tonight, instead of watching speeches with the Ohio Delegation, several of the students and I went to a rather large community watch party at the Wells Fargo Theatre. I'm really glad we did this because I believe it provided a better sense as to how Democrats on the street reacted to the speeches. I want to talk a bit about a few of them.

There is no doubt that Hillary hit the ball out of the park on Tuesday night--thus raising the bar for Bill. It was clear when he stepped up to the podium that Democrats still adore him. Most of the theatre (thousands of folks) jumped to their feet. The same must have been true at the Pepsi Center as President Clinton admonished the crowd to sit down. However, from there on out, I do not think his speech lived up to that of Hillary's. While he too, checked off all of the boxes of potential conflict between the Clinton-Obama camps (is he ready? is he too inexperienced, etc...), in my opinion, he just didn't have the delicate mix of passion and grace that Hillary had on Tuesday. Frankly I was surprised by his performance. I thought it would be a gold standard speech.  However, I think it was more in the category of a bronze...maybe silver. My criticism aside, it appeared that the crowd at the theatre ate it up...so...who knows?  

I also wanted to comment on John Kerry's speech. He was outstanding (by any account). He was forceful, humourous, and serious. He was particularly good at drawing contrasts (I may have blogged about that as an important issue for the Democrats earlier). The lines about candidate McCain and Senator McCain needing to debate against one another were classic. His pointing to Obama's patriotism and his family's service was especially moving. When he told the story of Obama's great uncle and then pointed him out in the skybox...I looked around the theatre and saw many wet eyes. Very effective (although I admit I thought it was right out of Schindler's list...the final scenes). Folks around us were saying...who knew that Kerry could get so fired up? Where was that guy four years ago?

Beau Biden's speech (and the video montage of Joe Biden) was also very effective. There appeared to be a real connection to Biden's story (especially about his great loss and dedication to his children). His own mother's appearance was also very inspirational to many in the theatre. Again, I saw a lot of tearing up during Biden's speech. When he was finished folks started heading to the aisles and then....

Bammm...Here comes Barack Obama. It was energizing to the crowd and you could feel the excitement spillover throughout the downtown area. All in all, I would argue that Kerry, the Bidens, and Obama really took the air out of B. Clinton's speech. We'll see what the pundits say tomorrow...

Later,

RA

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