An honest assessment of the Dem. convention

Oops. This is Ted Kennedy addressing the 1980 Democrat Convention, not the 2008. So much for the Democrats being about change.



Some thoughts from the fiscal liberal of the family, so he's arguably more objective than the rest of us -

Interesting first night at the DNC--I though it was generally a bust. The highlight was the Ted Kennedy speech--his niece gave a nice intro and the sailing video wasn't bad. Kennedy's speech wasn't especially articulate, but it was short and he's at the age where a certain "curtness" can be attributed to "Uncle Ted." However it was not the "no dry eyes in the house" speech that the media had said it would be.

The biggest surprise was the Michelle Obama speech--which I thought was a real bust. It should have been a short bio of herself and Obama--with lots of things for the delegates to cheer for--and some humor (ie. personalizing the Obamas). Instead they gave the speech to some college student to write and he piled on a whole raft of "target audiences" onto what should have been an uplifting chat. There were endless references to Obama supporting the workers and Obama struggling--and on and on. There was virtually nothing for the audience to cheer about (until the end--and the Hillary reference). The college student-esque references to "the threat that links us together" was way too abstract and put the audience to sleep. Worse, the whole thing was so wordy that Michelle lost her place from time to time and was forced to make these artificial "pauses for emphasis."

In short, instead of "humanizing her," the speech came across as totally staged. Which was sad, because she seems like a terrific person. She should have been left alone to be herself--and instead was hijacked by the same guys who decided to make John Kerry's speech all about the Vietnam war (and his opposition to it). Anyway "humanizing" Michelle failed.

I disagree with Carville and the Democrat hounds who thought the first day should have been about attacking McCain however. Obama is about "new politics"--and this night was supposed to be about that. I think Obama and Company simply failed to deliver.