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American Voices Tee It Up For Obama
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I'll fess up. Those observers who were questioning the change of venue Thursday night to Invesco Field really had me going there for a second. Would those Athenian columns make the whole thing look contrived? Would the outdoor setting ruin the sound? This might have been a "gamble" as Peggy Noonan called it, but the gamble paid off.
Noonan: "Everyone can define what can go wrong, and no one can quite define what 'great move' would look like."
We can define it now.
This speech was masterfully written, transitioning through Obama's biography to specific changes in the tax code to criticism of McCain. The tone was right. There was indignation, but not anger. The crescendo at the end delivered the goods. In fact, the writing was so spot-on that NBC's Brian Williams speculated on the air that Aaron Sorkin may have been involved:
"I'm thinking of Tim Russert, our brother, for obvious reasons. I'm also thinking of Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter, the legendary writer and creator of The West Wing on NBC, but also the screenwriter behind the film The American President. The line from this speech, 'that's a debate I'd like to have,' is a one-off, direct lift from President Andrew Shepherd."
The surprise here would not be that a presidential candidate had hired a Hollywood screenwriter, it would be that it took somebody so long to ask Aaron Sorkin to help write a speech. The guy's pretty good.
Obama's delivery of the speech was nearly flawless and he deserves most of the credit for helping this convention live up to expectations. It must be noted though, that he had some help right before his speech from a group of Americans representing different walks of life and speaking about their hopes, dreams and frustrations.
The American Voices Program, which featured speeches by eight men and women each night of the DNC, is a perfect thematic fit for the inclusive nature of Obama's campaign. Of the eight speakers on Thursday night, three really stood out.
Monica Early from Ohio spoke about receiving one of those notorious "Obama is a Muslim" emails, and how it led her to do some fact-checking on her own. The fact-checking led her on a journey that ended onstage at Invesco.
Pam Cash-Roper from North Carolina was by far the best speaker of the program, she was even better than most of the politicians who took the stage this week. A lifelong Republican who voted for Nixon, Reagan and both Bushes, Pam told an all too common story about her husband losing his job and his health care.
Last up was Barney Smith from Indiana. Much less capable with the teleprompter than Cash-Roper, Smith probably had a lot of viewers wondering why he was chosen to finish up the segment. We soon found out: Smith delivered the best line of the night, maybe the best line of the whole convention: "We need a president who puts Barney Smith before Smith Barney."
