I watched the complete session until the end of the President’s speech and when Clinton came out on C-Span. At that point I quickly turned to MS-NBC because I wanted to see how some of the talking heads reacted, especially Steve Schmidt. But their observations are not part of this post.
There were moments earlier I found interest, most moving perhaps being the daughter of the principal from Sandy Hook and the mother of someone killed at Pulse in Orlando (accompanied by two survivors of that shooting).
From my standpoint, there were 6 main speeches. There were introductions of some of the speakers, and some videos as well. The videos for Biden, Kaine and the President were all I felt effective, but anyone not watching either on C-Span or online probably did not see them.
I felt Leon Panetta’s speech what flat. It was a combination of not being that exciting a speaker plus the heckling/ chanting. The speech by the retired admiral who had been Navy JAG was somewhat more effective — a little bit of (somewhat off-topic) chanting. He got off a few good lines.
Joe Biden’s speech was better than any speech at the Republican convention. It did a more effective job of connecting with the orindary working person. And Joe was just Joe, straightfoward. He was masterful in his delivery, in his ability to connect the personal with the policy/political points he was making.
Michael Bloomberg is not a dynamic speaker. I knew before he gave his speech that he was not going to address guns, which I suppose was good given that he is viewed somewhat negatively by some of those for his speech was intended. He did get off a few good zingers at Trump.
Contrary to an earlier post here, I thought the speech by Tim Kaine was quite effective. He provided a little of the personal background you would have heard in his remarks in Miami, partly because not everyone even in the convention and probably most of those watching on TV had not heard those remarks, and they provided some context for what he was saying. Some people had worried that he was too “soft” to fulfil the normal VP role of being an attack dog. I had said that I felt he could really skewer an opponent while keeping a smile on his face. He got a wonderful call-and-response going. When he was working on reestablishing trust for Hillary Clinton, he very effectively said that he trusted his now deployed Marine son’s life to her. His speech was far superior to what Pence offered last week. He engaged his audience, and the response in the hall was much more full. In part, even if some think Kaine boring (and I do not), he always comes with energy, which can engage the crowd in a way Pence did not.
As for the President? Well, first as an aside I want to compliment him in following my thinking. That’s a joke. But when he got to applying the words of T Roosevelt to Hillary, I could not help but smile, considering I posted this piece on June 10 (and several people listening to / watching the speech tweeted or messaged me to remind me of my previous post).
Beyond that aside, what can one say? The speech was masterful. It reestablished the grounds that are why this President has a higher average after 7.5 years than any President in last 40 years except Bill Clinton. It laid out some real arguments against Trump — rather forcefully. It made clear how strongly he supports HRC, particularly when he said that no man or woman has been as prepared as she is, not him, not Bill Clinton.
He validated her to the crowd, not by pretending she is perfect,but rather emphasizing her essential humanity as well as her commitment to service and her being indefatigable and tireless when working on behalf of others.
If you listened to commentary, you would realize how unusual it was for HRC to come out and for them to embrace. In my lifetime, this is what has happened with outgoing Presidents and their party’s nominee to succeed them:
Eisenhower said if you gave him a week he might think of something significant Nixon had done for the administration.
LBJ was toxic, and thus of no direct assistance from Humphrey, who even tried to distance himself.
Reagan did not appear at the Convention for GHW Bush as far as I remember.
Gore tried to separate himself from Clinton — “I am my own man” — and while Clinton appeared at the convention Gore did not appear there with him.
GWBush was toxic, and thus while McCain had an appearance on the latter’s birthday I believe, it was a photo op during Katrina, was it not?
This full-throated embrace of successor is unusual to say the least. Having Hillary come out means rather than pictures of Biden, or Kaine, or the President, in all likelihood the picture on the front of most papers will be Obama and Clinton together. While Trump might try attack — see, it is a continuation of Obama’s presidency — Clinton will revel in that.
Other than the mild disturbance during Panetta’s speech, the evening was superbly well organized, albeit a bit long. Now I look forward to tonight
And now I am going to sleep.
Peace.