Some thoughts about the last night of the DNC…
Best moment of the evening by far was seeing the stewed anger on Tom Finneran’s face as Tom Oliphant turned to him and offhandedly said (I paraphrase), “Oh, you probably know what it’s like to be an accomplished legislator who’s unable to reach the executive level.” And this on the national broadcast!
All throughout the convention, the pop music selections have been bizarre, but with Willie Nelson’s lefty-dirge response to Toby Keith, the disjuncture of message reached surreal heights. I thought Democrats were supposed to be the pop culture savvy party. Surely we can do better.
Was Mike Barnacle really meant to be the liberal counterbalance to the WSJ-spouting Republican analyst that NECN/WGBH trotted out?
Pelosi captured what was worst about most of the speeches at the convention. I was trying to put my finger on it, when my friend Rebecca pointed out that it was a litany of arguments by assertion. Instead of arguing why, say, one regime of health care would be better than the current one, Pelosi just asserted it. No trying to anticipate or counter objections, no attempt to put oneself in the mindset of the independent or wavering voter. And preaching to the faithful is no excuse; the delegates this week have been excited by the eloquent speakers who do make forceful arguments. As Garance Franke-Ruta points out, the malaise may have to do with the Democratic pols’ heavy reliance on their speech writers.
Wes Clark was great. Not the best speech of the week, hardly, but not only does he seem conversational in his speaking style, the cracks of emotion in his voice seem genuine.
The Kerry daughters spoke with amazing poise and ease and in sum may be an asset. But the story of waiting for the Nantucket ferry or the photos of riding horses belied the “normal family” image they were trying to paint.
Kerry’s speech was much better than I expected, but it won’t be a golden ticket to the White House. I actually suspect that the strongest wedge this campaign will have against Bush are 1) the underfunding and overextension of our armed services — along with what Kerry called the back-door draft of the Army Reserves; and 2) the lack of quality health care for veterans. Rhetorically, it’s a sharp retooling of Bush’s “not ready for duty, sir” line from 2000.
I don’t expect a huge “bounce” from this week - I don’t think this is that kind of election - but all told, things went pretty well for the Democrats.
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