When it comes to Senator Obama and his speaking ability, there is little doubt that he is one of the best. His address tonight to the 75,000 people at Invesco Field was among the best delivered speeches in recent memory. Nobody can deny that his soaring rhetoric was delivered with near perfection.
The visuals of the large crowds and the cheering delegates on the field were impressive and the final display of fireworks exploding in the air were like a movie studio spectacular. His attacks on Senator McCain gave red meat to the party delegates on the field and his soaring words inspired many in the stadium.
But……
I think there are a few chinks in the armor that will start to emerge as the campaign moves on and I wonder if the emotional power of tonight will have much impact once we move into the regular campaign. As I watched the speech I was struck by something that I just couldn’t put my finger on. There was something that felt out of place and I wasn’t sure what it was.
When I started watching the various talking heads one of them mentioned just what it was. While the speech was clearly very well received, much of the energy for the first 2/3 to 3/4 of the speech was on the field and not in the stands. The delegates were deliriously swept away from the very start but the crowds in the stands did not really get into the speech until close to the end.
When you look at the various sections of the speech (as posted all over the net) I find that the sections which got less energy from the crowds in the stands were the more policy-oriented statements while the sections that got them on their feet were the sections that everyone could agree on, things like the goodness of Dr. King or the need for all of us to come together.
Other parts of the speech were fairly boilerplate: I’m going to cut your taxes, I’m going to make the economy better, I’m going to make things better. These are things we hear in every speech from just about every candidate for just about every office. I don’t fault Obama this, it’s pretty much standard fare for a convention speech but that tends to make convention speeches fairly minimal in their long-term impact.
It is partly for this reason that I think the glow of the speech may not have as much of an impact on the campaign as Obama would have hoped. This is not really his fault and I am not sure that there is one in recent memory that really had much of an impact on the campaign. Indeed, given the hype prior to the speech, it is probably enough for Obama to have done as good a job as he did.
But I would not count on it to seal the deal in the way that some of the commentators think.
I also think he left himself a bit more open to critical comments than he would have wanted to. His speech was long on a lot of promises about how he would cut taxes as well as increase spending. He said that he will show how he plans to pay for everything but when you cut taxes for 95% of the taxpayers and increase spending then it is going to be tough to avoid further deficits.
He also made a lot of promises in terms of solving problems but, from what I have seen of his campaign, he has not fleshed things out yet. While in the short term the soaring emotions of this address are giving him a positive buzz, I think in the long term making promises without fleshing them out in greater detail could hurt with his empty suit problem.
Overall of course one cannot deny that tonight was a triumphant event for Senator Obama. Just five years ago he was an obscure state senator and tonight he spoke to millions of his fellow citizens as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. That is an amazing accomplishment and he deserves every bit of praise for his success.
In addition his nomination is also a great step for starting to move past many of the racial divides of the past.
But, unlike many of my fellow bloggers, I am not sure that it will have much impact. By this weekend we will have moved on to Senator McCain and the GOP convention (or possibly the impact of Hurricane Gustav). Parts of the speech may show up in a campaign ad but that won’t be much different than the clips of prior speeches in his current ads.
Obama did what he needed to do tonight but I think that it is a fleeting glory.