I just wanted to note the incongruity of McCain giving an education speech on a day when Obama was delivering a major speech on national security.
This is coming after a day in which the press was focused on the Afghanistan / Iraq back-and-forth, and on a day when that focus is unlikely to change.
I think McCain largely ceded Obama the narrative for the day, in which Obama made a powerful speech about the need to reorient our national security strategy toward defending against nuclear, biological, and information infrastructure threats to our society.
The more Obama gets to make big speeches with merely tart press releases in response from the McCain side, the more he will begin to close the gap on the Commander-in-Chief question.
McCain's campaign seemed a bit flat-footed yesterday with respect to the Afghanistan debate, with McCain himself taking multiple positions in the space of a few hours, and delivering his response on national security in front of a banner about the economy. It will be interesting to see how they respond today.
I wonder if part of the timing for the national security week was to do it at a time when McCain's preexisting commitments, such as speaking at the NAACP, limited the topics that McCain could focus on to domestic issues.
As people have noted in above diaries, after a few weeks of seeming weak, notably on FISA, Senator Obama appears to have gotten back on track giving impressive speeches that drive home his change message and help reorient the national conversation on important issues.
I also wanted to note that he and his speech-writers are very smooth. In the speech he refers to our "young century" and "It’s time to look ahead — at the dangers of today and tomorrow rather than those of yesterday. America cannot afford another president who doesn’t understand the threats that confront us now and in the future."
Change change change. Keep it coming.