I thought Obama gave one of his best speeches of the primary season yesterday. Obama more clearly defined the case for his campaign, and made the powerful case that his campaign reflects cherished American values more than the Republican platform does.
To longtime Obama followers the themes in the speech were nothing new - he has covered them in his books, in the 2004 convention speech, and in this campaign. But I do see evidence in the speech that his message will become more focused and powerful, and will specifically rebut anticipated Republican lines of attack against him.
(analysis after the fold)
First, Obama began with not just a call for unity, but a call for Democrats to begin standing on principle and not let Republicans frame every debate (emphasis mine):
This primary season may not be over, but when it is, we will have to remember who we are as Democrats – that we are the party of Jefferson and Jackson; of Roosevelt and Kennedy; and that we are at our best when we lead with principle; when we lead with conviction; when we summon an entire nation around a common purpose – a higher purpose. This fall, we intend to march forward as one Democratic Party, united by a common vision for this country. Because we all agree that at this defining moment in history – a moment when we’re facing two wars, an economy in turmoil, a planet in peril – we can’t afford to give John McCain the chance to serve out George Bush’s third term. We need change in America.
Here Obama is rejecting the Clinton politics of triangulation, and reminding Democrats that in decades past it was Democrats that were considered in the mainstream and able to rally the nation around a common purpose (e.g. FDR and Kennedy).
Then Obama makes the case that is the Democratic party that stands for traditional American values of opportunity and belief in the American Dream:
The people I’ve met in small towns and big cities across this country understand that government can’t solve all our problems – and we don’t expect it to. We believe in hard work. We believe in personal responsibility and self-reliance.
But we also believe that we have a larger responsibility to one another as Americans – that America is a place – that America is the place – where you can make it if you try. That no matter how much money you start with or where you come from or who your parents are, opportunity is yours if you’re willing to reach for it and work for it. It’s the idea that while there are few guarantees in life, you should be able to count on a job that pays the bills; health care for when you need it; a pension for when you retire; an education for your children that will allow them to fulfill their God-given potential. That’s the America we believe in. That’s the America I know.
Here Obama is framing the Republicans as the elites who would use the power of government to further increase the advantages that the wealthy already have. It is the Democratic party that will stand up to the powerful to ensure that every American has equality of opportunity, whereas it is the Republicans that would gladly allow the new aristocracy to create structural barriers that would make it harder for the non-wealthy to get ahead. Obama is countering the Republicans' "ownership society" by declaring that more importantly America must be an "opportunity society".
Obama then continues with personal examples that directly link government policies with the creation of this "opportunity society" that many Americans grew up with but which is now slipping away:
This is the country that gave my grandfather a chance to go to college on the GI Bill when he came home from World War II; a country that gave him and my grandmother the chance to buy their first home with a loan from the government.
This is the country that made it possible for my mother – a single parent who had to go on food stamps at one point – to send my sister and me to the best schools in the country on scholarships.
Here Obama makes the case that goverment policies can make a difference in helping American workers achieve opportunities (college, home ownership) for themselves and their children that the wealthier would take for granted.
And in my favorite passage of the speech, he harkens back to the "American work ethic" that this country was founded on - and argues that is these middle-class values that form the bedrock of American values. And he further argues that it is the Republicans that are out of touch with these values.
This is the country that allowed my father-in-law – a city worker at a South Side water filtration plant – to provide for his wife and two children on a single salary. This is a man who was diagnosed at age thirty with multiple sclerosis – who relied on a walker to get himself to work. And yet, every day he went, and he labored, and he sent my wife and her brother to one of the best colleges in the nation. It was a job that didn’t just give him a paycheck, but a sense of dignity and self-worth. It was an America that didn’t just reward wealth, but the work and the workers who created it.
Somewhere along the way, between all the bickering and the influence-peddling and the game-playing of the last few decades, Washington and Wall Street have lost touch with these values. And while I honor John McCain’s service to his country, his ideas for America are out of touch with these values. His plans for the future are nothing more than the failed policies of the past.
Obama is making the case clearly here that the Republicans are for the failed trickle-down economics that favor the wealthy. And it is the Democrats that stand with the middle class and its values.
Obama closes his "opportunity society" with the following:
I trust the American people to realize that while we don’t need big government, we do need a government that stands up for families who are being tricked out of their homes by Wall Street predators; a government that stands up for the middle-class by giving them a tax break; a government that ensures that no American will ever lose their life savings just because their child gets sick. Security and opportunity; compassion and prosperity aren’t liberal values or conservative values – they’re American values.
Finally, Obama addresses the tactics of the race, arguing that he can pursue his "opportunity society" by making the case directly to the American people and winning their clear mandate, rather than the Clinton/Rove tactics of "win at all costs/end justifies the means" which seeks to win elections based on divisive non-issues that leave the country polarized:
The question, then, is not what kind of campaign they’ll run, it’s what kind of campaign we will run. It’s what we will do to make this year different. I didn’t get into race thinking that I could avoid this kind of politics, but I am running for President because this is the time to end it.
We will end it this time not because I’m perfect – I think by now this campaign has reminded all of us of that. We will end it not by duplicating the same tactics and the same strategies as the other side, because that will just lead us down the same path of polarization and gridlock.
We will end it by telling the truth – forcefully, repeatedly, confidently – and by trusting that the American people will embrace the need for change.
Because that’s how we’ve always changed this country – not from the top-down, but from the bottom-up; when you – the American people – decide that the stakes are too high and the challenges are too great.
In conclusion, I think in last night's speech we can see the outline of the broadly populist themes that Obama will use to rally Democrats, independents, and fed-up Republicans to win a clear mandate in the general election. We also see how he will use more examples from his personal life, as well as patriotic language and imagery, to smack down the notion that he is out of touch with middle class values or not patriotic.
I think this is now the new template for his stump speech. All he has to do now is put some meat on the bones of this stump speech so he can talk detailed policy in the appropriate forums (e.g. town hall meetings, TV interviews, debates).