Now that was a speech...

Obama gave his acceptance speech last night before a crowd estimated variously between 75,000 and 84,000 people. On the McCain site, the Republicans disparaged the setting and event, calling it the "Temple of Obama" or "Barakopolis" and suggesting that the proper attire is a toga. (UPDATE: when I went to link to that page, I found that it's been taken down.... guess they were getting too much flak about it... However, the Daily Kos still has their response up.)

I watched the speech on PBS. One of Lehrer's commentators noted that while Obama had no difficulty filling the stadium, McCain's campaign wanted to get 15,000 people into McCain's VP announcement in Dayton, Ohio today... and they're struggling to find that many people who are willing to attend, resorting to bussing people in from other states. This -- I would tell you because I live in Cincinnati, only 45 minutes away -- in a heavily Republican and conservative area of the state.

Excellent speech by Obama, though -- the man can definitely speak well! Like many political speeches, it was perhaps a bit long on promises, but he certainly gives his audience hope for a better future. The bar for McCain's own acceptance speech has been set very high, indeed.

Good choice?

The McCain campaign has evidently acknowledged that McCain's VP choice is Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska. Overall, I'd have to say she's a good choice for McCain. She's known as a reformer who has fought to reform the political abuses in her state, even those of her own party. She's young, thus somewhat negating the "McCain's too old" worries. She's female, an obvious attempt to court some of the Hillary supporters who said they'd vote for McCain. She's pro-life and staunchly conservative, so the Republican right-wing base will be happy.

She does, however, blunt much of the recent McCain campaign strategy of hammering Obama for his "inexperience" and that he's "not ready to lead." Palin has less of a pedigree on the national stage than Obama -- so if he's not ready to lead, neither is she. If he's inexperienced, she's even more so.

She's also currently involved in an ethic scandal investigation herself in Alaska (though, in fairness, from what I've read it appears that this may well be 'payback' for her aggressiveness in her own reform efforts.)

It will remain to be seen how this plays out, and whether it helps, hurts, or makes no difference at all. But -- I'd say McCain has made a better choice for himself than the 'frontrunners' all the pundits were touting.

What do you think?