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QUICK & DIRTY DNC NOTES: SUBTLE RED MEAT
The best speech of the evening was obviously Hillary Clinton's. As someone who has written a few speeches in my day, I was impressed with how artfully crafted and structured it was. The best bit was where she asked her supporters whether they'd been for her for themselves or for the good of the country; a brilliant rhetorical device. The speech as a whole was a strong pro-Obama *and* anti-McCain statement, which should marginalize the PUMAs (party unity my ass) among her supporters.Yo, PUMAs, STFU.
The cable teevee yakkers didn't like Mark Warner's speech but I did. The contrast he drew between Obama as Futureman and Walnuts as Pastman was probably too subtle for the media but as far as I was concerned it was subtle red meat. It was reminiscent of the 1996 campaign wherein President Elvis kept talking about a bridge to the 21st Century, which cranky old viagra dropping Bob Dole was unlikely to do. That, too, was subtle red meat.
The best anti-Walnuts line of the night came from Senator Bob Casey's speech, which wasn't well delivered but I hope the line doesn't disappear cos it's what born again blogger Clancy DuBos would call a winnah. Casey pointed out that McCain had voted with Bush 95% of the time, which made him "a sidekick, not a maverick."
Repeat after me: subtle red meat.
Repeat after me: a sidekick, not a maverick.
Repeat after me: good night and good luck. We'll need it with Gustav on the loose...
I had a different take on Hillary's speech. I thought it did its job, but
was not as gracious and selfless as it could have been.
Hillary was excellent. She was a good soldier -- as always, thinking about
the legacy -- what the Clinton's are always criticized for, is what gives
them such skill as politicians. Schweitzer was a fantastic cheerleader.
I only saw the end of Schweitzer's speech when I switched to CSPAN. Sounded
good.
I'm still wading through her ego to see if she actually said anything.
I'm starting to see the logic behind the staging of this convention. At
first I thought giving each Clinton so much prime time was sort of letting
the convention get out of control... but now I think it plays out well.
Getting Hillary's big night out of the way early and then Bill's whatever
he's going to say tonight done and then moving to Obama's bit football
stadium speech forces the "reconciliation" story through regardless of what
either Clinton actually says. It looks like a final bellow of "the past"
giving way to the introduction of "the future" It plays into Obama's
narrative... even if "the past" bellows awkwardly. In fact, it works even
better that way.