The Convention Begins

Thanks to our neighbor Vicky, who taped the convention, we were able to watch the major speeches last night, and thank God for her, because, somewhat surprisingly, it was something I'm extremely glad I didn't miss. Clinton as usual amazed me. I can't really remember ever personally seeing a politician who married true wonkishness with an absolute confidence in the power of his oratory the way he does. He knows how to bring things down to their essence - in this case, the essential difference between the Democratic and Republican approaches - in other words, shared responsibility, helping out one another, protecting the environment, providing children with quality education and the uninsured with health care and benefits for veterans, and working with the world community, as opposed to strong-arming our own government and the world and providing tax breaks for the rich. Having Clinton speak of course is a double-edged sword, because you know, everyone knows, that the thought is - yes, he's truly inspiring, he really is, but how can Kerry possibly compete? Everyone holds their breath and waits for the moment of truth...

But the true surprise, and Kelley kept talking about this, was how great Gore sounded. I agree with her that it was possibly the best, most concise, focused, and effective speech I've heard him deliver. One hopes that Kerry sees clear to hiring Gore's speechwriter and humor coach, because whoever they are, they're earning their pay in spades.

Seeing Carter was particularly interesting to me right now since I just finished the Carter section of Bob Woodward's "Shadow", his book about the after-effects of Watergate on all subsequent Presidential administrations (a book I strongly recommend, at least so far). And the Rev. Alston, Kerry's former shipmate on the now legendary swift boat (and yes, as www.jibjab.com suggests, they are going to drive this message of Kerry's service thoroughly through the American skull...) was phenomenal as well. He needs to learn to take a pause now and again, but only because his manner of evangelizing is so powerful that it would be that moment to let the emotion he's evoking escalate in the audience. A true find, and one hopes he's going to be following Kerry around everywhere on the campaign trail.

All in all, a very auspicious beginning to the convention. One can only hope that the message that is getting spoken at the convention gets out into America at large because hearing it articulated, especially by Clinton, made the choice disarmingly obvious.  I can't wait until the debates begin...