About a year ago, I had a good hard look at the primary candidates. Kerry has an excellent resume, but seemed a sad shadow of his former self, lost in nuance and surrounded by political hacks. I told my Kerry-supporting friends that I just couldn't back the guy because he had every possible political asset and absolutely no fire. I wanted the Democrats to stand up and act like an opposition party.
Tonight, John Kerry kept me spellbound for 45 minutes. He's on fire. He's pounding the administration left and right, sounding presidential the entire time. And he's hitting excellent notes--a humble faith in God, the old ideals of volunteer military service, a bright hope for the future.
Even Kerry's left-wing soundbites seemed courageous--he did an excellent job of appealing to the base and the center simultaneously. That's no easy feat in speechwriting.
And I'm proud of the party, too--we had a hard primary struggle, but everybody was on the same page for the convention. The left wasn't sulking, and the self-proclaimed centrists weren't spewing venom at everybody else.
Kerry, like all of us, is imperfect. But tonight he looked like a promising president. I'm impressed. It's time to buckle down to work.