I watched Clinton, then Obama and finally McCain speak tonight and I noticed something fundamentally different about the way they are presenting themselves as candidates.
Clinton's speech in El Paso was not one of her best. It seemed contrived when she brought that little boy dressed in traditional mexican costume onto the stage to hand her flowers. Then she started to make promises to the audience...it was almost 'a chicken in every pot' kind of message. She is running on 'what can I do for you?' platform.
Obama's speech in Madison was exciting. It was mostly his stump speech which is good anyway but he threw in some new parts to needle McCain. But the overall message was 'we've won some races but we have plenty more work ahead of us to get to November'. His platform includes all of us who support him...it's not about him working hard and winning, it's about us working hard, us winning. He makes the audience feel like they are all running for president with him.
McCain's speech (wherever he was) was just dreary. There were times when I had no idea what he was even talking about. And he needs to stop saying 'my friends' at one end of every sentence because it is really annoying. I think he was trying to imitate Reagan, kind of folksy and grandfatherly.