"I think at some point the disconnect between the country these people are describing and the country we actually live in is going to undermine the Democrats’ credibility," – Jonah Goldberg.
Month: August 2008
Clinton And Kerry Reax
Crowley on Clinton:
…that was full-throated, sincere-sounding, and sophisticated case for his wife’s former mortal rival. He didn’t even mount a touchy retroactive defense of his record fom the 1990s, which I had somewhat expected. I predict a wave of, "Oh, Bill, how can we stay mad at you?" commentary in the coming days.
I was feeling sorry for John Kerry having to follow Bill Clinton in the speaking lineup, but he electrified the audience as I have never seen him do before. As Scherer just said to me: Zell Miller without the mean.
Bill Clinton gave two speeches tonight. He closed with the stronger one, namely that the GOP doesn’t deserve to be rewarded for the past 8 years. That argument works because it’s fundamentally true in many ways. But he began with a speech endorsing Barack Obama, and that was, well, embarrassing…What he showed tonight is that even one of the best salesmen in the Democratic Party can’t make the case for President Obama.
Bill Clinton’s speech rightfully grabbed attention, but John Kerry’s appearance–interrupted by a commercial break on CNN–was the best stab the Democrats have taken towards establishing something they’ve desperately needed: A master narrative for understanding John McCain.
It was striking that Bill Clinton never uttered the words "John McCain." Four years ago, that steady insistence on retaining the robes of the presidency, levitating an inch or two above the fray, made sense. It was Clinton choosing a particular, and honorable, path that forever defined him as an ex-president rather than an ex-candidate. But after heatedly involving himself in the Democratic primary, after often attacking Barack Obama by name, it seemed peculiar that he would hold that portion of himself in reserve. Four years ago, Clinton wasn’t a campaigner. This year, he was.
John Kerry is whining. He isn’t helping Obama. He just used “swift-boating” as a verb. Now he’s droning on about having been criticized as an anti-war protestor. [sic] They should have kept him as far away from a podium as possible.
Bill Clinton gave the strongest, most compelling, and persuasive political speech of this entire season. He has upstaged Biden, but that doesn’t matter…Here is a sign that things don’t look promising: as soon as the speech was over, Sean Hannity of Fox News started whining about why Clinton was not staying for Obama’s Thursday night speech. This is a speech that needs to be refuted, not complained about.
Gustav
The hurricane could make landfall in New Orleans Monday night just as George W. Bush is addressing the RNC. Where is John Hagee when you need him?
Biden
The thing that surprised me most? It was not a slash and burn attack on McCain or even Bush. Can you believe he didn’t even mention Dick Cheney? The attack dog didn’t get personal and didn’t lay out the strongest case against the Bush administration’s heir. While the McCain Republicans have launched brutal, personal and callow attacks on Obama’s integrity, sincerity, and patriotism, the Obama Democrats have treated McCain with respect and deference – more respect and deference than his nasty, petty, little campaign deserves. They are taking a risk. They are living their message, even as McCain is trashing his own reputation with the asinine, adolescent Weekly Standard brattishness that is now his trademark. Biden’s attempt to describe how awful the Bush administration has been was fine, but not exhaustive and not as biting as it could have been (hampered by a few funny verbal misfires).
Here, for example, is a simple question I’m frustrated has not yet been asked in prime time. Why has the evil mastermind of 9/11 not been captured in seven years?
For all their bombast and brutality and bombs, the Bush-Cheney team have failed in the most basic responsibility asked of them after 9/11. They haven’t found, they haven’t killed and they haven’t destroyed Bin Laden and the evil he represents. They have allowed him to regroup and threaten free people again – even as they have trashed America’s honor and decency in the dark cells and torture chambers they borrowed from Saddam Hussein and the Soviet Union. I don’t know why Biden cannot remind us of that. To my mind, it was a missed opportunity. Like the past seven years.
But it was also, I suspect, a successful speech. "Joey" Biden, his wife and story and mom and background and son in the service aims directly at the white working and middle class Democrats Obama needs. It’s hard not to feel affection for this scrappy old guy – especially if you’re a Catholic. (This was a very culturally Catholic speech, especially at the beginning, and Biden will speak to people who might be leery of this young African-American.) It was also focused on middle class economic anxiety and spoke about it in intimate ways that voters will immediately understand.
It seems to me that the Democrats have decided to fight this campaign centrally on the economy. And Biden is the path to those most concerned about it: the Reagan Democrats, alienated by Bush-Cheney, but still unsure about Obama. If they come over, Obama wins. Big.
(Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty.)
Not Hallucinating
A reader writes:
You were not hallucinating. Senator Kerry just gave the best speech that I have ever heard him give. In fact, it was so good that I was somewhat angry at him. If he had given such an articulate scathing critique four years ago, he might be running for re-election now. It is somewhat reminiscent of Vice President Gore who suddenly found the power of his convictions, and the ability to express them powerfully, after he lost the election.
Where were these statesmen when we needed them?
A Better Link
Watch the convention live directly from the DNC. (It took a couple of minutes to download the software). A reader tipped me off and it’s great high-def streaming video.
You hate the cable chatter? You don’t have to endure it any more!
Who’s Watching?
About nine percent of the U.S. population is checking into convention coverage, according to Nielsen . The share is higher among African Americans — about 12.7 percent are tuning in to see the first nomination of a black candidate by a major party in American history. Divided by age, the audience for this convention skews towards older Americans. One out of five Americans over age 55 caught some convention programming.
More from Nielsen on their blog.
Kerry On Fire
Was I hallucinating or was that not a stirring, passionate, acerbic and moving speech? Kerry expressed the rage so many of us feel when contemplating not just the failures of the last eight years but the chutzpah, contempt and arrogance that have accompanied them. And he went after McCain’s betrayal of the very virtues he still lays claim to.
This convention has turned. The roll-call vote, the Clinton speech and now Kerry have ramped this up. Game on.
A Clinton Masterpiece
Readers know my personal disdain for Bill Clinton. But longtime readers will also know I have always defended his solid centrist, smart record in office and defended him against his most over-reaching enemies. Tonight, I think, was one of the best speeches he has ever given. It was a direct, personal and powerful endorsement of Obama. But much, much more than that: it was a statesman-like assessment of where this country is and how desperately it needs a real change toward reform and retrenchment at home and restoration of diplomacy, wisdom and prudence abroad. Yes, he nailed it with this line:
"People around the world have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power."
I don’t buy his evisceration of everything the Republican party has done in the last quarter century. I think the GOP did a great deal to rescue this country in the 1980s and early 1990s.
In fact, I think Clinton would have failed as a president without the foil of the Gingrich GOP. But since 2000, the worst aspects of Republicanism have crowded out its once necessary virtues. The reflexive impulse to use force over diplomacy, to use aggression over persuasion, to spend and borrow with no concern for the future, and to violate sacred principles such as the eschewal of torture with no respect for the past: these must not just be left behind. They have to be repudiated.
The United States needs this repudiation, as does the world. McCain, alas, cannot provide it. He may once have. But his party is too far gone, and his moment passed. His use of fear and deception and brattish contempt in this campaign have sealed the deal for me. But Clinton reminded all of us of what is more broadly at stake. He did it with passion and measure and eloquence. And surpassing intelligence.
We’ve seen the worst of Bill Clinton these past few months, Tonight, we saw the best. And it’s mighty good.
(Photo: Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty.)
Bill!
Introduced, one notes, by a young African-American.
The Dish 