A new Gallup Poll indicates Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s acceptance speech went over well with the public and was better received than the speeches of recent past Democratic Presidential nominees and Senator Hillary Clinton:
Fifty-eight percent of Americans give Barack Obama’s speech a positive review, including 35% who describe it as “excellent.” Both marks surpass those given to the 2000 and 2004 presidential candidates, with the excellent ratings for Obama’s speech 10 percentage points higher than any other recent candidate has received.
Obama is widely praised for his rhetorical skills, so perhaps his positive reviews are not surprising. His speech was rated more positively by Americans than Hillary Clinton’s Tuesday night convention speech, which also was highly regarded by the public
Democrats give Obama’s speech rave reviews, with 62% saying it was an excellent speech and another 21% describing it as good. A majority of independents rate Obama’s speech as either excellent (27%) or good (25%), but Republicans were less impressed (12% excellent and 25% good).
The poll also found that 45 percent who watched said they’re more likely to vote Democratic after watching the convention, versus 29 percent who are less likely.
What does all of this mean?
1. Obama had a huge audience — perhaps the audience of his lifetime except for the first debate with rival Republican Sen. John McCain — that could watch him without interruption or any media analysis filter. He connected with many of them. This will make it somewhat harder for Republicans to define him.
2. McCain immediately knew he had to plan to run a different kind of presidential race and adjusted his Vice Presidential pick accordingly. See a post that will be posted above this post soon. Obama had hammered on the message of change and McCain had to do something to appear more than a standard GOP candidate with a candidate from the Republican primary ranks.
3. It raises the bar on McCain’s acceptance speech. Various reports say a top speechwriter has been working on this speech now for several weeks. Just as Obama faced the trap of turning his speech into yet another “Yes we can!” speech noting how historical his nomination is, McCain now faces the trap of overdoing his own narrative. Obama addressed issues and rebuttal points many had felt he had to make. McCain has to address the change issue when he gets the audience of his life.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.