The morning after Barack Obama's triumphant appearance at Mile High Stadium before some 75,000 people, one gets the sense that something very big is afoot. It may just be that I am deadly weary of the brutal incompetence and corruption of the Bush administration and am therefore delusional, but if so...well, judging from the huge crowd, the enthusiastic acclaimations, and the whining and sniping of the conservative punditry, I'm not the only one.
The McCain campaign certainly had a premonition that Obama's climactic convention speech might prove to be worrisome from their perspective. This very morning, in a rather pathetic attempt to steal the cable news chatter, McCain announced that his vice-presidential candidate will be Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Well, Johnny, I admire the attempt, but I just can't see that picking an unknown and inexperienced woman governor from a sparsely populated state is going to win you any of those supposedly disgruntled Hillary supporters. The "PUMA" thing never really got much momentum behind it, and it has the suspicious stink of a Karl Rove plot about it anyway.
As he accepted the Democratic party's nomination for President of the United States, Barack Obama appeared presidential, stately, and intellectually-serious. Certainly more so than tired and cranky John McCain or the laughably idiotic Junior Bush. (Remember when Junior played dress up in a flight suit?)
Obama addressed each and every charge leveled against him by his critics: his supposed foreign policy inexperience, his "rock star" persona, the scurrilous attacks on his patriotism. And he went on to hammer McCain. The tone was respectful, with an acknowledgment of McCain's service as a war veteran, but Obama lacerated McCain for being out of touch, domestically, and for exercising poor judgment vis-a-vis Iraq and Afghanistan. In this he went right at McCain's perceived strength.
But coming out of that convention, with Obama's challenge ringing in our collective psyche, one has the feeling that the mountain is starting to move. Just as Tropical Storm Gustav comes barreling toward New Orleans, threatening to highlight Bush incompetence by evoking memories of Katrina even as the Republicans hold their convention, the Democrats emerge roaring for blood. Can you hear it, Johnny? There's a rumble coming down from the Rockies...
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| Rumble, rumble |
2 comments:
I so hope you're right. The much-invoked Wisdom of the American People has not always come through, even when the wiser direction has seemed clear. I wish I could muster some genuine optimism.
It will be interesting to see how the democrats go after Palin while remaining sensitive to gender issues.
She is a surprise no doubt. Still, her NRA credentials and anti-abortion stance will go beyond her lack of foreign policy experience to speak to those conservative religious voters.
Obama was on his game as usual, he never mentioned race, not once.
He did speak to gender, class (middle class), and disabilities.
With respect, he still is no better than McCain unfortunately.
Peace,
Ridwan
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