I don’t think Clinton’s speech was as good as Obama’s “race speech” in 2008, not even close. Clinton’s speech was damn good but nothing about it was super memorable. There was no real thesis - it was really more a rebuttal than a speech - and no rhetorical flourish, no line that will be long quoted.
Indeed, John Kerry had by far the best line of either convention.
Well Obama has the burden of his office, whereas Clinton can just let er fly. My favorite of Obama is his Correspondents Dinner Stand Up, but he can’t do that here.
And for the most shallow, pointless tangent of this thread, I must add that the Biden’s daughter (I assume the gorgeous brunette in the maroon dress standing next to Dr. Jill Biden was their daughter) is a stone cold stunner …
You might want to ask BG, since he’s the one who made an issue of it.
Solid speech. Turning it back on the audience and attributing all of the great changes that have come about in the past 3+ years to them was nice-- ACA, repeal of DADT, factory workers with jobs, etc. That’s a great way to help close that enthusiasm gap. It may sound corny, but it makes people feel needed and reminds them that they’ve been part of some things that have been big, historic and not always bragged about publicly. It inspired me to text $10 in, fwiw.
Obama is the President, and he made a very clear proposition as to why he should continue to be President. Great speech, exactly what was needed.
I absolutely and totally loved the framing of citizenship. Citizenship is the perfect contrast to the independent success and independent failure concept that the Republicans offer. That’s why I always see the infrastructure discussion as more more than just roads and bridges. It’s about America and belonging to America as a citizen. And with that citizenship, we leave no person behind.
It makes the alternative look so small.
Loved Biden’s remark:“Bin Laden is dead and GM is alive.”
He was correcting someone who was being purposefully obstinate and offensive and off-topic. Now do you have anything to fucking say about the DNC, or are you just going to continue to sidetrack the thread with nonsense?
To get you back on track, SA: I say Obama knocked Romney’s chances at winning down a good 25 percentage points tonight with this speech. Obama is inspiring and likable. Romney is neither. This speech tonight reinforced that fact like nothing else so far in this campaign.
Reading this board is like living in a bizzarro world. What portion of the speech was great? From my totally non-expert and 100% completely unbiased opinion, it’s almost like he gave up (or is preparing for a gloomy jobs report).
Obama gave a fine speech with a few surprising, good jabs at Romney but Clinton’s speech is the one that will stay with me.
I really hope this was meant to be ironic…
I agree.
I grew up in a conservative part of the country, but now I live in a liberal part of the country, so my Facebook friends run the entire political spectrum. After the RNC convention last week my liberal friends were laughing about it and making jokes. They thought it was an epic fail. After the last three days of the DNC my conservative friends are sullen and angry. They can sense there’s blood in the water.
Which was? (for us who didn’t see it)
Well I guess we’ll just have to see what the polls and small individual contributions look in the days ahead. But I’m guessing that people who use the word “conservative” in their message board handles aren’t the people the president was speaking to tonight, so you’ll forgive me if I’m un-nonplussed by your reaction to it.
Because the speech was not aimed at you. Clinton’s sort of was, but this was more of a base speech for Obama - he needs a lot of those first time voters from 2008 to show up again.
Well, as someone who thinks that overall, Barack Obama has been a thoroughly mediocre President, I have to admit that his speech was pretty damn good (as were both John Kerry’s and Joe Biden’s) and many orders of magnitude more inspirational than anything heard in Tampa.
Full Disclosure—I voted for Obama, and most likely will again, (although voting for a Democratic Presidential candidate in Utah is strictly a protest vote) but will say that he is seemingly a better speaker than he is a POTUS, but Mitt Romney would be a fucking trainwreck of epic proportions, so…
My guess is:
“Ask Osama bin Laden if he is better off now than he was four years ago.”
Yup. But I did think breaking out into a Jamaican-tinged rendition of “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid was a bit much.
The part where it was better than Romney’s.
As speeches go, no, it wasn’t great in and of itself. It dragged in the middle, to be honest, and there wasn’t really the sort of punchy flight of rhetoric that really turns my crank.
But it was better than Romney’s, by a lot. It was better by any measure; it was warmer, more accessible, more optimistic, more charismatic, and criticized the Republicans without sounding bitchy.
Much of this is because it had the structural advantage of coming AFTER Romney’s speech; like batting last in the ninth inning, the guy who speaks last has the advantage of knowing if he needs to go for two runs or just bunt for one. He just needed a safe one-run speech and he did it precisely right. Romney’s speech wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good enough to make up for Obama’s inherent advantage in going last and in just being a more interesting, less robotic speaker.