Posted on 08/28/2008 8:25:11 AM PDT by shortstop
DENVER – He better hit it big tonight.
As it turns out, the Barack Obama campaign could come down to one speech in one football stadium in one Rocky Mountain town.
For all the sunshine and smiles here in Denver, if we're being honest, it's do or die for the change you can believe in. John McCain has slapped one cheek, Hillary Clinton has slapped the other and if he's not careful, Barack Obama could be down for the count.
That sounds nuts, doesn't it? Every talking head in America has this guy walking on water. But the reality is he's walking on eggshells and it's been a very bad week for Barack Obama.
First, John McCain.
Gallup, for the first time, shows John McCain in the lead. On the second day of his convention, at the glorious celebration of all things Democrat, with the much ballyhooed vice-presidential nomination announced with wall-to-wall coverage, Barack Obama lost ground in the polls.
The Inevitable One became The Trailing One.
What you hear is America saying, “No thanks.”
Second, and more importantly, Hillary Clinton.
The last thing Barack Obama wants to be at his own convention is the second-best speaker, and after Hillary Clinton's speech on Tuesday night, it'll be a miracle if he comes up with anything better than a silver.
Stand back, here comes unrestrained praise.
I'm a Republican to the bone, and I'll vote for McCain if I have to come back from the dead to do it. But the Hillary Clinton speech at the Democratic National Convention was one of the best political speeches in either party for the last several years. I don't agree with her policies or her conclusions, but there was a substance and a charisma and a logic to her presentation that was – please don't strike me dead – presidential.
She did what she had to do. She laid out the agenda of the Democratic Party. Not nebulous con-game crap about hope and change and bridges and today is our day, but the things that Democrats really believe in and really want to see enacted.
And she did it with humor and inspiration and a delivery that was far better than that offered by anyone else to take the convention podium.
And you just know that as they listened, a great many Democrats in the hall and across the country wondered if they had made a mistake. That sick feeling in the pit of their stomach is known as buyer's remorse. The candidate who gave that talk Tuesday night could beat John McCain. And yet that candidate is not on the Democratic ticket. She was rejected.
And there is one standard against which Barack Obama will be measured – it is the standard of Hillary Clinton.
And she set the bar extraordinarily high.
The memory of her performance – of her strength – will be clear in the minds of Democrats as the dog-and-pony show plays out on Thursday night. And heaven help Barack if he falls short.
Because it will be hard to convince Republicans and independents if you can't convince Democrats.
It may turn out that the most compelling argument for Democrats to rally to Barack Obama comes from Hillary Clinton, not Barack Obama. She was right. It's not about personalities, it's about principles. They didn't campaign for her exactly, they campaigned for what they believe in.
Again, I don't share those beliefs. I think they are wrong-headed.
But a Democrat's got just as much right in America as anybody else. And a Democrat's got just as much right in America to influence our government as anybody else.
I disagree with their beliefs, but I respect the sincerity and passion of those beliefs.
And it would be a shame for those beliefs to get less than fair consideration because the Democratic Party picked the wrong candidate.
And we'll find out tonight if that happened.
The polls show that, at least for now, America thinks Barack Obama is the second-best candidate.
It'd be too bad if it thought he was also the second-best Democrat.
He'll be the good, tele-prompted man he has always been. Even if he falls flat on his face, the MSM have already written glowing accounts of his performance with a few blanks in their copy for insertion later tonight which will lead the reader that the writer was there and wowed.
I hope he screws up on live TV while showing off his "feed 85,000 people with two loaves of bread and a couple of fish" trick.
Too bad that one great speech “makes the candidate”.
Too bad that one great speech “makes the candidate”.
It’s funny when we see threads like this. Of course he’ll give a good speech, but it will lack any substance whatsoever (as usual). Afterwards, the MSM will be in tears, and hugging each other over the wonderfulness that is the Obamassiah. Sheesh, gimme a break.
Ping
They should have graffiti “artists” tag the Temple to give it that Chicago urban feel.
This is kind of an irony. Obviously I agree with him. But liberals don't acknowledge the right of conservatives to exist.
Who would do a liberal out of a job? Well, a liberal would love to get you fired. That's the difference between the two ideologies.
This is classic telegraphing. We will hear from a hundred prognosticators about how critically important it is for he-whose-full-name-must-not-be-spoken to do well this evening. And then, those same one hundred prognosticators will tell us for the next 72 hours about how he met and exceeded those expectations. The sycophants who love him will believe and thus he-whose-full-name-must-not-be-spoken can finally make his final ascendence to Supreme Overlord and Great One.
The very idea that one speech can get anyone elected despite the abundance of evidence that would otherwise show them unqualified is beyond absurd.
As far as I know “The One” will enjoy the same bounce every other candidate in history enjoys because of their Convention, possibly up to 10 points. But then Mccain has his and all attention is on him and it all evens out.
We all know the media is 100% in the tank for Hussein and I expect their polling will reflect this right down the line after the speech this evening. It won’t matter what he says or if he falls off the podium, it will be universally hailed as the greatest speech ever given by anyone since speeches have been given.
My guess is the polls have already been taken in this regard and the networks and print media are just waiting to release them over a span of about 7 days beginning 2 days after the “ones” ends his Convention.
GEE! I hope nothing happens to his teleprompter.... Snicker snicker
marking for later
Nope, he's actually falling in the polls.
I’ve been wishing for not only a teleprompter malfunction, but also a “wardrobe malfunction”.... :)
No matter what kind of speech he gives tonight I think most people will see it for what it is, a bunch of soaring nothingness platitudes.
The guy has in his recent background Rezko, Wright, and Ayers. Not to mention his bad judgments on the national security fronts.
The guy has hardly performed as a Senator, he got there by disqualifying his opponents.
I say break since he has this Greek type prop! It screams arrogance-he ain’t no MLK and to try and pretend he is on the anniversary of the I have a Dream speech I think is a huge mistake on O’s part. He is already just a bag of wind and this is going to make him look lke a bigger ass.
EWUEEE! The possible visuala just made me forget ABOUT LUNCH.
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