Lotta clapping
10:57 PM … The speech has been fine until now. But this ‘who were you in this for?’. That resonates.
11:01 PM … ‘Four more years of the last eight years’. Not bad.
11:03 PM … Twin Cities, Sidekick. All good stuff.
That was quite a speech. It occurred to me as she built to the conclusion in the last few minutes, that the pre-2008 Hillary Clinton would not have been capable of that speech. That’s not a dig. But she grew incredibly as a candidate over the course of this campaign. And this was an immensely powerful delivery, and a richly woven together speech. The beginning seemed fine but not remarkable. But it slowly built into something very powerful.
I’ll try to think through some more thoughts. But I’d like to hear yours.
From TPM Reader RR …
I was a pretty fervent Hillary supporter during the primaries (fervent enough to have had an email exchange with you), but as a yellow dog Dem first and foremost, it is not as if I needed to heal, or needed Hillary to ask me to support our nominee. All the same, her speech this evening made a difference. In all the media hype about disaffected Hillary
supporters, what has been ignored are all the former Hillary supporters – and, I suspect, a good many Dems who supported Obama through the primaries – who are not disaffected, but who have not been feeling the voltage as we head into the general election. A close election is to be expected, but instead of Obama opening some daylight, in the last couple
of weeks McCain has been pulling even. Your recent commentaries have reflected the sense of lost traction. The dread feeling started growing on me that we Dems have nominated another high-minded loser.That has no bearing on my support as such, but it does matter when it come to fire in the belly. Given that there are no differences to speak of on issues or principles, I supported Hillary in the first place for purely strategic reasons: the perception that she is a fighter. Nothing creates enthusiasm like the smell of victory in the air, and that is what has been oddly lacking since Obama won the primaries. In the short term, hearing Hillary has fired me up, but more important, I hope it is a message the Obama team will absorb. If they do, he and we will win. Jeez, the guy came up in Chicago. It’s time for him to start showing a
little Chicago, and Hillary has set an example for him to follow beginning on Thursday.
Late Update: TPM Reader PJ responds …
In response to your reader ‘RR’ who would like to see a little more fire in the belly from Obama….
I’ve been hearing more or less this same chant from a lot of people who think that Obama hasn’t provided sufficient voltage thus far. But I think we need to consider what a high hurdle Obama is trying to cross here– he is a young black guy who hopes to be President in a nation that has been electing middle-aged white men since 1776. That’s a really big deal, and given that he will face significant resistance because of the color of his skin, Obama cannot afford to come across as an angry firebrand. Looking balanced and sober and responsible is exactly what Obama should be doing. The electorate needs to be reassured that he doesn’t represent a threat; if he projected even a hint of ‘angry black guy’ his campaign would be sunk.
I think Obama’s selection of Biden as VP makes it clear that his campaign is going to take the gloves off, and with Hillary, Schweitzer, and others standing by to help with the dirty work, I’m confident that Obama’s campaign will have the requisite edge and forcefulness. IMHO, Axelrod and Plouffe have played this perfectly thus far.
TPMtv talks to Harry Shearer, Arriana Huffington, Rep. Ike Sketon (D-MO) …
The Intrade trading markets has Mitt Romney at 65% chance of being McCain’s veep.
We can hope.
On other hand, I saw where there actually appears to be a big push among several of the more whacked people in the McCain world to pick Joe Lieberman. We can dream.
Alaska Rep. Don Young is trailing Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell in the Republican primary with about 70 percent of precincts reporting — but just barely, and the outstanding precincts are rural areas where Young has traditionally done well. Stay tuned …
The McCain campaign’s new ad today pushes the national security theme, saying Barack Obama is “dangerously unprepared” to confront Iran. That and other political news in today’s Election Central Morning Roundup.