The headliners for day one of the DNC convention were Ted Kennedy and Michelle Obama. Both delivered for Obama and the party in different ways.
Kennedy was praised by his niece, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, and her speech (text and video) introduced a tribute video to the Senator created by documentary maker Ken Burns. The Senator, in a somewhat expected surprise, then showed up himself to make a pitch for Barack Obama for president. His hair is thinner and his voice weaker than the last time that I saw him speak, but this is to be expected as he battles cancer. On the whole, this was an effective package. Both Kennedys spoke well, energizing the base, and Burns' movie was at his usual well-honed level of perfection.
The Michelle Obama portion of the evening started with a video biography that was nicely done. (A special mention of her mother should be made, who narated the piece with style and great inflection.) She was then introduced to the crowd by her brother, Craig Robinson, coach of the Oregon State men's basketball team. He acquited himself nicely in daunting circumstances. A sharp family that one is! Michelle then spoke... and was electrofying. Seriously, anyone who thinks that Barack Obama doesn't respect women and take them very seriously hasn't seen his wife in action. This woman is something else. We need her almost as much as we need him.
Neither Ted Kennedy nor Michelle Obama went after McCain and the Republicans head-on. Many were critical of them -- or rather of the tactic -- for this. This, I think, misses the point. The country dislikes where we are as a nation and the course on which we find ourselves. The "Republican Brand" is at a post-Watergate low. McCain himself doesn't float the boat for many. So why then is McCain in a statistical tie nationally with Barack Obama when all this is true? It is simply that folks need to be reassured that he is up to the challenge of being president. Do that and this is a walk in the park. Part of this is reassuring Americans that he is patriotic enough to be president. (And yes, that is most infuriating to write.) Part of it is demonstrating that he's a normal family guy, a guy who puts his pants on one leg at a time. Michelle's speech humanized her and thereby humanized him.
This is not to say that the political attacks won't -- and shouldn't -- come. It is just that last night was not the night for them.
Rachel Maddow, the Air America radio host who I positively adore, said something interesting last night as her role as a commentator on MSNBC. After Michelle spoke, she indicated that it was in 1992 that she first took real notice of a presidential election. She was 19 and mostly apolitical, which is comical if you follow her now! She supported Bill Clinton after the convention largely on the basis of perception... that if they met her, the Clintons would like her... that they wouldn't condemn her for who she was. (Maddow is a lesbian, although I have no idea if she was out at that time.) She didn't feel that way after the 1992 Republican convention of the Bush family.
Maddow's reflection is interesting in that it accurately describes how much of America votes. They don't really look at policy or problems or anything else that I wish was taken most seriously. Rather, they are looking for the candidate -- and his or her family -- that will be most welcome in their home for the next four years. It is to this reality that Michelle Obama spoke.
She also spoke as a woman, a powerful, charismatic, accomplished woman. Seeing her in action went a long way, I think, to softening any lingering anti-Obama feelings on the part of all but the most rabid pro-Hillary Clinton supporters.
Ted Kennedy, in a different context, did the same thing. He has been the lion of the Democratic party for four decades and comes from its most famous family, one that is larger than life in American lore. Whether you agree with his political views or not, he is known and this in its own way is comforting. As the "godfather" of the current Democratic party he can help bridge the gap between the Obama and Clinton camps and, in the larger sense, make Obama more assessable to independant voters and -- especially -- elderly voters, both of whom have known Kennedy for ages.
What is interesting is that last night the fictional Huxtable family was mentioned again and again. For eight years America was captivated by an African-American family that lived the American dream, one that now is reflected in the Obama story. Barack and Michelle Obama have done everything that their critics on the political right have wanted them to do -- have charged them to do -- as citizens. They studied hard as children, working to get into the best schools that they could. This they did and on their own merits. (Barack Obama didn't even tell Harvard that he was black when applying to law school.) They achieved accolades in school -- Barack especially being chosen by those who knew him best to preside over the Harvard Law Review -- such that lavishly-paying jobs awaited them. Instead of remaining in such positions, they returned to the poor, mostly black communities of Chicago to be role models for a new generation of children and to help those in need. Personal excellence. Personal sacrifice. Community service. Family values. Seriously, why isn't the world lining up for this? Perhaps they will once the truth is known, once it overcomes the slander of modern politics.
A final note or two before I end this post. First, I urge you to watch all of the speeches and videos to which I linked above if you missed them last night. You'll thank yourself. Second, the media coverage, as you might expect, is pretty poor for the convention. The main networks are a joke and the cable networks are little better. MSNBC is probably the best of that lot, but only because it broadcasts more of the floor speeches that the other networks ignore in favor of their talking heads. CSPAN or PBS are probably the way to go.
My wife and I, remember, will be leaving for Denver in the morning to see Obama accept the nomination on Thursday. Thus, I doubt that I will be blogging much if at all until my return. If you have thoughts on the convention, don't hesitate to append my posts with comments. I welcome them.
26 August 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment