Rate Obama's Speech: Was The One's Speech a ten or a one?

[Lunar]

I just saw McCain's congratulations ad!

[Torie]

A-. The one flaw is that I think Obama in the first third got too personal in bashing McCain. Other than that the speech was very cleverly designed.  Much of it was total BS,  all gain, no pain, but that is irrelevant.

If I were McCain's consigliari, I would tell him to suck it up, work hard on his speech for three days, and learn how to read a teleprompter, with no "my friends' text in it, point out how Obama has been ducking the debates he has called for, pointing out a couple of the most egregious errors in Obama's speech, suggesting the speech was rife with them. 

I have no illusions that my team is anything but underdogs. The silver lining of Obama gettting elected will be to recycle this speech in four years. Folks government just does not have that much impact, outside going to war.  The die is cast by larger events.

[JSojourner]

I just saw McCain's congratulations ad!

Very classy of McCain.  

[The Duke]

C+

Too negative right off the bat.

He needed to give a speech  about himself, but instead he gave a speech about Republicans.

The first 10 minutes or so was all attack.

The supposed policy rollout spent almost no time talking about what his policies mean for average people.  There was no "My tac cut will give $XX to the average family and my health care plan will cut the average family's premiums by XX%."  Instead, his supposed substance was mostly about attacking John McCain.

I just think the attack speech was the wrong strategic choice.  It should have been a policy heavy State of the Union type speech that lays out an agenda then relates that agenda to average people's lives.

[CultureKing]

I thought it was a speech that  accomplished a great deal for the campaign. Tonight was Obama's night to speak to all Americans and for many it was the first time that they had actually listened all the way through one of his speeches instead of just a sound bite. In his speech Obama was able to do what is not ordinary for him and talk the issues. I really think that speech could help him with the uninformed voters. It catered to a different audience than he is used to and I think he pulled it off quite well (even if I personally like his inpirational speeches much, much more).

I gave it an A.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

It wasn't a soaring inspirational oratory... but we've all seen this before.

Obama basically called McCain and the Republicans for all the attacks so far, and all those that will come.

One of my favourite parts was a Democrat actually talking about their positions on gun control, abortion, gay rights and immigration and not being seen to be apologising for them. We don't always have to agree.... but there is common ground.

The attack speech was needed - he needed to show people he can and will stand his ground. He will swing a punch when he needs to.

Solid A

[Torie]

The trick is to do a Bill Clinton in gutting your political opponents, doing it more in sorrow than in anger. Bill has more perfect pitch on this than Barack.

[Flying Dog]

I know, I thought they picked Biden because we all thought Obama didn't have a pair, but tonight was great in that respect. If he keeps talking like that then I'm not sure we even needed Biden as an attack dog. Oh well, Biden can do the under-the-belt attacks, I guess.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Whenever I hear the words "well, maybe they should have thought about that before..."  I turn off my listening ears.  

[Beet]

One of my favourite parts was a Democrat actually talking about their positions on gun control, abortion, gay rights and immigration and not being seen to be apologising for them. We don't always have to agree.... but there is common ground.

Yeah but there is still the issue. You can find common ground, but the areas of disagreement do not go away simply by being ignored. The ultimate purpose of finding common ground, besides getting something done over nothing, is to start to build a dialogue of trust and respect with the "other side", where you see they are coming from a serious place of what they think is right, and they see the same for you. It's like a NARAL activist talking to a James Dobson disciple. In the current atmosphere this is unimaginable. But if each side stops demonizing the other, they may feel better about reaching a compromise even on the tough issues. I don't know if it would work, but there are at least some people to whom the dynamics of demonization are needlessly polarizing.

[J. J.]

He didn't actually ask for anyone's vote, did he?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Please link me so I can bask in the glory of The Great One's triumph.

[Sam Spade]

I have "read" the speech now.  I have not "seen" the speech, yet.

Overall, I would give it a B.  The two real minus points are this - 1) too harsh in constant attacks on McCain; 2) the laundry list of policy proposals is exceptionally vague (yes, even for a political speech) and most of it sounds regurgitated either from Bush, Clinton or standard Democratic policy planks.  I am a fairly tough grader, so take this for what it is.

On the whole, my gut feels that this is the speech meant for the generic Democrat, which henceforth means it is meant to unify the party, not necessarily to drag in leaners from the other side (an important distinction - not necessarily a bad one by the way in this particular season).

I'll get to the actual giving of the speech when I get around to it - may not be tonight, however.

[WalterMitty]

overall, i liked it.

some parts were great.

some parts were awful and misleading.


overall an 8.5

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

overall, i liked it.

some parts were great.

some parts were awful and misleading.


overall an 8.5

I thought you weren't going to watch it because you'd find it disgusting.

[Meeker]

On the whole, my gut feels that this is the speech meant for the generic Democrat, which henceforth means it is meant to unify the party, not necessarily to drag in leaners from the other side (an important distinction - not necessarily a bad one by the way in this particular season).

^^^

I'm pretty sure that was what the entire week was about.

[Sam Spade]

On the whole, my gut feels that this is the speech meant for the generic Democrat, which henceforth means it is meant to unify the party, not necessarily to drag in leaners from the other side (an important distinction - not necessarily a bad one by the way in this particular season).

^^^

I'm pretty sure that was what the entire week was about.

Of course, but that should tell you something which is, actually, quite obvious.

[YRABNNRM]

B

He's given better, notably his speech four years ago.

[WalterMitty]

overall, i liked it.

some parts were great.

some parts were awful and misleading.


overall an 8.5

I thought you weren't going to watch it because you'd find it disgusting.

i wound up watching a lot more of this convention than i had expected.

[Stranger in a strange land]

A- very good but not his best

[J. J.]

Does anyone remember Obama actually asking anyone to vote for him?  It's not in the transcripts.

[Lunar]

I think Obama may have intentionally removed MLK references out of his speech in order to undercut McCain's 'congratulations' ad!.  The news media hasn't really covered the fact that today is the anniversary of the MLK "I have a dream" speech THAT much, and I just saw the third 'Congrats' ad which vaguely compliments Obama for "this most historic of days."

I do not think swing voters will get that reference.

[CultureKing]

Does anyone remember Obama actually asking anyone to vote for him?  It's not in the transcripts.

I think he asked for America to join him or something like that.

[J. J.]

Does anyone remember Obama actually asking anyone to vote for him?  It's not in the transcripts.

I think he asked for America to join him or something like that.

Ah, the candidate generally asks the American people for their vote.  JFK did, in the "New Frontier" Speech.  "Give me your help, your hand, your voice, your vote."


http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jwb/ap/DBQdocs/JFKfrontier.htm

[Keystone Phil]

Does anyone remember Obama actually asking anyone to vote for him?  It's not in the transcripts.

I think he asked for America to join him or something like that.

Ah, the candidate generally asks the American people for their vote.  JFK did, in the "New Frontier" Speech.  "Give me your help, your hand, your voice, your vote."


http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jwb/ap/DBQdocs/JFKfrontier.htm

If we want to be technical, saying "Give me...your vote" isn't asking for it.