Now that was a speech...

[sleigh]

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.

Comments

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

Where would you rather live, Bushville or Barakopolis? :-)

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Given that I live in Cincinnati, I already live in Bushville! :-)

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

A link to McCain's memo (http://johnmccain.com/images/mccainreport/8.27.08%20Memo.pdf).

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link, Steven! Everyone else, go take a look if you're so inclined.

2;

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Obama's speeches start slow and then rolls to a thundering conclusion. Much like his campaign. He likes the big finish; perhaps that's his lawyer training. It shows he has a plan, and the plan usually works. I like people who think in paragraphs; better yet: chapters.

McCain knows how to work a sound bite, but really isn't good at rhetoric. While I don't think this is a minus in ability to govern, it's a serious lack in ability to lead.

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

Actually, Jay Leno did a routine about Barack being the son of Zeus, and it was darn funny. People need to hold onto their sense of humor. :-)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

I gotta tell you, when I saw that page on McCain's website, I was really angry, and if that makes me humor-impaired, then tough. My husband lost his job a couple months ago. I bike to work to save the cost of gasoline. My daughter has a medical condition that means we have significant medical costs every month, my heat has gone up 50% in the past year, and McCain is wasting his time and ours by sneering at Obama's choice of campaign backdrop.

This country is facing serious problems, and by all signs and portents, McCain seems perfectly willing to keep leading us off a cliff. If he wants me to vote for him for President, he should give me a hint that he gives a damn about people like me and the problems we face. I need some hope from whoever wants to lead us. Instead, he's treating us to nothing but sneers and condescension.

Screw him.

So no. Not much of a sense of humor here.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

I don't believe for a Cheney heartbeat that Palin's shallow resume will stop the Publicans from continuing to hammer Obama as inexperienced and "not ready".

My immediate cynical reaction to her selection was that McCain believes the claims that there are billions and billions of PUMAs who can be persuaded to vote for him.

I was just reading up on her Wikipedia entry. She's certainly a counter to the "Party of Corruption" charge the Democrats have been using against the Republicans. She's also a conservative Christian, which McCain needs to keep the Republican base from sitting this one out. She's not completely fanatic, however; she vetoed a bill that would have barred the state from providing benefits to same-sex partners.

Another benefit of choosing her is that Biden won't be able to go after her in the VP debates without being accused of being mean and sexist and all that stuff.