I’m giddy at the prospect of the next Democratic president having both Clinton and Obama make speeches for them.
The highlight for me: “I didn’t save the auto industry (etc.). You did.”
When he said, “I’m the president”, did anyone else think of Michael Douglas’s line, “My name is Andrew Shepherd and I am the president”. It made me wonder if that was the intention.
You can see the same thing happening here.
Tangentially, if anyone claims the Daily Show is in bed with the Dems, this clip from their DNC coverage is a pretty fantastic counterpoint. It’s almost painful to watch.
Just had to have the last word, didn’t you? Here I was, politely dropping it as you asked, and you just had to come back in and characterize my posts as nonsense. Not very kosher, I must say.
Besides, what’s nonsensical about them? You haven’t said so far..
While I dislike Obama less than any Democratic president since John Kennedy, it would be a stretch to say I like him. I’d probably like him if he were a neighbor and I only knew him superficially, but I detect elements of dishonesty and unscrupulousness in his character that keep me from being able to say I actually like him. (Plus I’m diametrically opposed to his politics.) Also I think your assessment of the impact of his speech on the election is merely wishful thinking. I doubt you’ll see anything like a 25% reduction in Romney’s numbers even tomorrow, much less two months from now. He may be inspiring and likeable to passionate Democrats, but to most of the populace I suspect he’s merely a moderately likeable to dislikeable guy who doesn’t really know what he’s doing.
But all that aside, when has anybody ever been elected president simply because he gave a great convention speech? Or lost because he gave a dull one? A lot can happen over the next two months, and it’s how people will be feeling then that will decide the election.
Here you go:
Mr Obama dismissed the Republican Party’s plan for restoring America’s economic fortune by cutting taxes.
Mr Obama vowed to continue his fight to
… said his mission was to restore
You’re welcome.
He’s talking about a 25% reduction is his likelihood (odds) to be elected, not that he’ll get 25% fewer votes. It’s possible, but I agree it probably won’t be that much. Romney’s chances are going to sit about just over 20%.
But look, the number of people who can be persuaded to change their minds as to whom they will vote for POTUS are vanishingly small. This election will be all about turnout, which is the big reason why the GOP are trying to make it harder to vote. More turnout = Obama crushes. Despressed turnout = Romney has a chance. That’s it. It’s not about changing minds; it’s about inspiring your side and getting people out to vote.
On that point, Obama did very well. I am eager to vote for him again, and his speech has something to do with that. Clinton’s too, of course. I think Democrats are going to be a lot more motivated to make sure Obama is re-elected than people have been thinking. Nate Silver has an insightful blog about this, pertaining to “registered” vs. “likely” voters. If the number of likely voters is close to registered voters, Obama wins in a landslide.
Could you give a better speech? I’m told I give great presentations, but I’ll never be in the same league as Obama. And I’m betting you won’t be either, with an attitude like that.
“It’s almost like he gave up”? Sure…
I think you could very well be correct. I was reading Silver’s blog you linked earlier tonight and his analysis was very interesting.
I’m also very eager to see what the polls tell over the next week. I suspect there will be a significant difference in the post convention “bounce” between the GOP and the Dems. The Democrats did a much better job of orchestrating their show and seemingly have the more charismatic speakers at the moment. The message over the last three days was all designed to build to the Prez’s speech tonight and did it really well.
I imagine there were a lot of people energized tonight who had been fairly lukewarm up to now.
Although I’d like to ding whoever decided to invite Shuffle-a-Pedophile CEO Timothy Cardinal Dolan to give the benediction…
Speaking 100% anecdotally, I can say that my leftist friends, who until very recently have been rather lukewarm towards Obama over disappointment that he hasn’t been a more progressive president, are now pretty darn fired up to get out and vote for him.
I’m not really seeing that among my rightist friends regarding Romney.
Could just be my friends. My conservative friends often speak privately about their dismay at how the GOP has gone off the rails in so many disturbing ways. I’m not sure how representative this is, but it does seem to me that likely GOP voters don’t seem remotely as fired up post-convention as Democratic voters are.
I think the people on both sides of the political spectrum can agree on this point:
The Democrats really do seem to have the edge in beautiful women.
By “living in” you apparently mean “posting from.”
Today’s headline in CNN Money: Jobs Report Brightens
I thought it was a really canny and effective speech. As a piece of oratory it didn’t match some of the earlier speeches and I think that was deliberate. Obama could have delivered a stemwinder but that was not the tone he wanted to strike. That shows an enormous amount of self-discipline ;Obama didn’t feel the need to compete with the speeches delivered by his wife and Clinton.
I think the speech was aimed mostly at people who are disillusioned and skeptical about the political process. They are worried about the economy and put off by political rhetoric. He had a nice self-deprecating line early in the speech: “If you’re sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me, so am I.”
Obama had to give these people a reason to vote for him and he had a tricky balancing act to perform. He obviously had to tout his achievements which are substantial, without sounding too upbeat, because the overall economy is mediocre and the national mood sour. Again he had a terrific line which threaded that needle: "And while I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved together, I’m far more mindful of my own failings, knowing exactly what Lincoln meant when he said, “I have been driven to my knees many times by the overwhelming conviction that I had no place else to go.” "
There was a fair amount of policy substance, much more than in Romney’s speech. The three policy priorities he discussed: manufacturing, clean energy and college education were nicely chosen. They are small enough to be doable but large enough to matter. In each of the three, Obama has some real achievements which gives him credibility.
He didn’t knock it out of the park but it’s irrelevant anyway. Speeches aren’t going to win this election.
Quite true. And what did the speech really say? All I heard was platitudes. That works fine when you’re leading in the polls as a challenger. It’s not sufficient when you are an incumbent with an underwater approval rating.
That says more about your ears than it does about the speech.
Yeah I did catch that (and damn but that looks like Bill Murray at about 1300 minutes in) and it was FUNNY (if not a bit sad) …
I’m sorry, I know you have to be filled with the spirit to truly understand like all those people weeping did.
More Messiah rhetoric from the right. Nice.