10:08PM – Here we go. I’m fully expecting to cry through most of his speech, and I expected that before Olbermann read some of it as a preview.
10:09PM – Though wow is this video heavy-handed.
10:13PM – As a speaker, I think I know that look on his face. He is about to blow this thing wide open.
11:02PM – By God. That is an historically important speech – the craft of it, the earnestness, the humor, the empathy. By god. “It’s how Henry won at Agincourt,” says Chris Matthews. Nation of whiners my ass. Own your failure, you ownership society types. Democrats and Republicans fight and die under the same flag. What a stunning piece of work, which simultaneously laid out his plans, criticized the bullshit that’s in DC, and taught Americans how to defeat and debunk the Republicans & John McCain. Jeez louise he just hit that OUT OF THE PARK.
ENOUGH, he said. I agree. We have had enough. Change doesn’t come from Washington; the people go to Washington and demand it. Damn straight.
Sign me up for the PA canvas. & Otherwise you can donate through the Trans for Obama campaign.
1:30AM – & on the second listen: “You’re on your own” = Obama’s summation of Trickle Down Economics.
& Pat Buchanan says it wasn’t a liberal speech. Silly, silly man. What it was is something so rare in American politics that we don’t recognize it when we see it, A Genuine Article Populist Speech.
(gasp!!)
I cried….45 years to the day after the King speech we nominated a man of African-American heritage for President.I would have cried for Hilary,too, but hell..I cried.
He nailed it too, and went the attack with confidence and some great lines.
Like you said: He blew it wide open.
The video? Yeah, a little much. I do think a lot of “independents”(code for working class white guys)may actually realize after watching it that he’s(gasp) half-white!!
thanks for watching with me, Darya.
I’ve been waiting for THAT Obama to show up! Looks like he’s going to start taking the fight to McCain! Damn! That was some speech!
the speech is being broadcast again, right now, on MSNBC, at 1AM (Eastern time).
Wow again! I’m speechless, and I’m never speechless.
Right on; Populist speech. He walked right on that edge of thundering preacher, but never crossed it. I’m beyond convinced, now; he’s the guy who will shake the tree. He also challenged the business community, which was the right way to do it; he created a gigantic hole for a new possibilty, and possiblity is the best thing Americans do.
You said it all actually, Helen.
I was on the edge of tears, myself. I don’t cry for political speeches, and this one just about had me going. I loved how Obama called out McSame and the Republicans!
Most of the populist economic plans aren’t going to happen. There are forces in the world that are stronger than the President and Congress of the United States. Still, I appreciated that Barak Obama set out specific policies, even when I thought some of them were just as much the failed policies of the past as the ones of the current administration.
I thought this speech really soared when Obama addressed cultural, ethical, and moral issues. That is his strength, and that’s the strength of the presidency. He attacked the culture of cynicism, and that might have been the most important thing he said. Cynicism, fed by hypocrisy, might be the most dangerous thing in the US and in the world today.
We need Obama as president. We need a man who can exhort people to be better, to work harder, to take responsibility. We need a man who can shake America out of its cynicism and tell it that American ideals are real and worth holding onto, especially in the face of those who would destroy those ideals, both inside and outside the country.
I don’t think Obama is a saint or a saviour, but I do think he has what it takes to make the US a better place, and to exhort the citizenry to make the US a better place, than it has become over the last eight years, and indeed over that last several decades. I think he really does evoke Martin Luther King in his vision of hope. I think he also evokes another visionary of hope, a man whose murder was the other tragic loss of the late 1960s: Robert F. Kennedy. What better combination than that?
Incredible! Indelible!
I was *lucky* enough (after phone banking and getting community credentials) to be there in Sect. 511, waving the American flags and CHANGE signs. I still am at a loss for words that can begin to describe the energy and feelings there … from Stevie to Gore to the MLK finale through the fireworks… Not to mention the eerie views of snowplows parked blocking I-25 and the snipers…
Obama really was on point and on the attack. I’ll just have to watch the reruns to catch things he said that were drowned out in the crowd noise.
We will be continuing the push now. Get out the vote! Do not underestimate Bush (McCain)!
It was a good speech. I only wish Barack had been a little more specific on just a few key issues. The older more jaded voters have heard the content before just not said so eloquently. Ultimately he is going to need to better define his policies. Even the AP, a friend of “B” stated that too.
The campaign is now moving beyond emotional attachment and superlative oratory. IMHO, Obama will be known as one of the great orators of the last 100 years in the category of Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK and Reagan. But he will now need to say “how” he is going to do what he says he is going to do. That always gets tricky.
Personal opinion, as Veronique says, much of the econ issues are macro problems that no President can directly resolve. That means he probably has over committed in his speech. That won’t help in the later part of the campaign. Just as an example: GM total capitalization is only $7.6 Billion. Toyota’s cap is $154 billion. Green vehicles? New jobs for the UAW? Where is the money going to come from to retool Flint? Its not there. Barack or McC nor anyone else can directly solve that. “B” will either have to say the Feds are going to fund it. That gets him into a can or worms about the Feds funding private industry or that it is just a dream…. or what? More taxes? It might have been better to hold back on some of those comments.
The stage setting was impressive. However, it might have drowned out Obama’s connection with voters. He is massively charismatic. Yet, when the cameras panned back and one saw him in a sea of 80,000, the direct intimacy to TV audiences might have lost its edge. In the back of my mind, I thought, “Oh No! The setting looks like Nuremburg, 1936!” I would have preferred it to be presented in the Pepsi Hall where there was more intimacy. I don’t know, the media experts might want to chime in on that.
As it stands, the viewer ratings were fantastic. Close to 40 million people watched the speech, very impressive for a convention acceptance speech. Yet, the bounce didn’t happen even after 40 million watched… at least not yet.
I got shivers down my spine listening to it.
I was listening to it on the radio while picking my youngest son (9) up from soccer practice. First he said “I don’t wanna listen — presidents are boring,” but I told him that he didn’t have a choice.
When he talked about expanding education for everyone, he said “I hope he loses. I don’t want more school.”
Then he got quiet and pretended like he wasn’t listening.
The weirdest moment was when Barack said “We may not agree on same-sex marriage. But surely we can agree that our gay –” and the radio feed cut off. Completely. Fortunately, we have 2 NPR stations around here, so I was able to switch to the other.
My son said, “At least he finally stopped talking.”
But he kept listening when I got it back.
And at the end he said, “Well, I think he’ll be better than Bush.”
I did a lot of explaining and answering questions, but I am so *happy* that it worked out that he heard it too, and someday he will be happy that he did.
And helen, the line you are using as your sig was, to my mind, the absolute best moment of the speech.
the line Phoebe is referring to:
“In Washington, they call this the “Ownership Society,” but what it really means is that you’re on your own.” – Barack Obama
(i realized later that “you’re on your own” resonated because it’s in that voiceover by Prince in “Let’s Go Crazy.”
“in this life, things are much harder than in the afterlife. in this life, you’re on your own.” took me days to locate it, though.)