Yeah, Senator Barack Obama delivered a great acceptance speech-- as everyone assumed that he would. The superbly crafted biographical film that introduced his performance helped humanize him, and avoided the Olympian and pretentious descent from the clouds Republicans had gleefully predicted. Even the Grecian pillars in the set (designed by Britney Spears' set designer) worked better than expected and successfully suggested the White House, or a Presidential monument. The waving flag behind the speaker also helped.
The real triumph of the speech involved Obama's supremely skillful impersonation of a moderate, mainstream, reasonable guy. Because so many of the other convention speakers sounded shrill, extreme, hyper-partisan (particularly Harry Reid with his accusations of oil company conspiracies controlling the White House), Barack sounded refreshingly sane by comparison. He allowed that government couldn't be blamed for all the nation's problems. He acknowledged John McCain's sincerity, and love of country. He showed respect for conservative viewpoints on key social issues (abortion, gay marriage, the Second Amendment).
His calls for a "new politics" surely touched a nerve, but seemed oddly out of place at the conclusion of a convention that tirelessly recycled ancient Democratic class-warfare tropes. All week,we've heard about how America was always a golden land of opportunity and compassion, where strivers and dreamers (like the Obamas and the Bidens, particularly) could achieve their goals--- but then, suddenly, Bush and Cheney came to town and ruined everything and cruelly shattered the American dream. No speaker once acknowledged that Bush deserved credit for keeping us safe for seven years since 9/11, or spoke a single gracious word about the President of the United States.
Obama also avoided any kind comment about President Bush, but he did address the yearning of so many people (yes, even including battle-scarred talk show hosts) for less bitterness and hysteria in our politics. What makes his promises even vaguely credible (and more credible than Bush's announced intention to serve as a "uniter, not a divider") is the knowledge on the part of savvy observers that most of toxicity in current discourse comes from the left, not the right. Only a tiny fringe of conservative kooks ever believed that Bill Clinton was a pawn of the Chi-coms, but many leaders of the American left (and even of the Democratic Party) allege that President Bush went to war and sacrificed American lives solely to enrich himself and his corporate cronies.
After eight years (the paranoia really began with the wails about the "crime of Florida" and the "stolen election") reasonable people must feel so weary of these soul-numbing diatribes that it sounds almost reassuring to talk of Obama in the White House: at least that way the Left would shut up about all the dark plots to oppress the people, and as a bonus we'd probably hear much less about our burden of guilt for slavery and segregation.
That's the essence of Obama's appeal: the suggestion that if we elect this manifestly bright and thoughtful former professor, we'll see the embittered Left suddenly chanting the mantra of hope and endure less of the desperate and depressing complaints about suffering and injustice and gathering darkness and the end of American Empire.
Actually, the sense of disappointment and betrayal might be even worse, more poisonous for our national mood, when a President Obama fails to deliver on his wildly irresponsible promises of free health care for all, and free college for all, and free pre-school for all, and thousands of dollars of refundable tax credits for all (aka, welfare checks), and so forth, and so on, to the tune of literally trillions of dollars of new spending. The preposterous guarantee of "ending our dependence on foreign oil within ten years" won't get exposure as the fraud it is until two years after an Obama administration comes to an end (even assuming election to a second term).
Those who believe that a President Obama deserves a chance because of the prospect of a new "Era of Good Feelings" ought to consider the certainty that Wonder Boy, for all the robust oratory, will surely fail to deliver on his bright, shining lies, and would usher in instead an epoch of disruption and division, high anxiety and high taxes, recession and rancor.
The trick for John McCain (and the rest of us) in St. Paul next week, and in the campaign that follows, will be to make that point without seeming to spoil or soil the golden, pleasant fantasies of Obama's lovely speech. We need to be gentle, yet firm, in making clear to the electorate that Santa Claus doesn't really exist (in the form of Uncle Sam rewarding all the good little citizens with taxpayer funded toys). Our job is to convince the people that they can enjoy the festive spirit of the season without believing in childish myths, and to persuade a weary electorate that we can celebrate most meaningfully when we face the world as grown-ups.
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