Posted this "rave" (in more senses than one) in the open thread but thought I would diarize it since diaries seem to be popping up as "takes" on given speeches.
I was fascinated and entranced by the, shall we say, ambiance of THK's speech. Tone set by the video, with its strange organic effects and haunting music. Then her riveting slow delivery and intense content, amounting to a very trippy vision of a glad technocracy. Ingrid Bergman intellectualism, with a Nancy Reagan red spacejacket.
Beautiful cadences. Very smart, as intellectually coherent and meaningful as Obama's speech, yet covering altogether different terrain. And fundamentally authentic. I think THK is actually going to play well. She is a trap for the Foxites b/c hammering her reveals their anti-intellectualism and xenophobia in a way that just isn't flattering even to their idiot audience.
I do have to add however that I thought the much-touted Chris Heinz was awful. He "flashes" on memories of his mom packing lunch? Her political smarts are "especially impressive because she grew up in a dictatorship"? Huh? A badly written speech, badly delivered. He should take some humility lessons from Obama and actually PRACTICE next time.
Ending on an up note. To my mind the evening was more than the sum of its parts. THK picked up on Reagan glitz and Obama African roots; all three elaborated a theme of TRANSCENDING partisanship that really made me proud to be supporting this party and this candidacy.
As they say in Europe, FANTASTIC.