Keller @ Large Blog

AN IDEA-FREE WEEK - Because it is my job to do so, I have been listening to or reading the complete text of most of the major speeches so far from this week’s Democratic convention in Denver. Some, like Joe Biden’s compelling address last night and Hillary Clinton’s speech on Tuesday, have been very well delivered, others, less so. But every speech I’ve heard or read so far has one thing in common – they offer virtual baby talk on the major issues of the day. What is the right thing to do about soaring energy costs, in the short and long term? With the lone exception of Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who alluded to something called coal gasification, I haven’t heard a specific fresh idea yet. What is the right way forward on affordable housing? All I’ve heard are vows to make sure every American can own a home to go with the chicken in their pot, even though we’ve just learned the painful lesson that not every American can afford to finance a home. How do we break the stranglehold of reform-averse unions over failing public schools? Apparently, there isn’t a major Democrat in the building willing to risk angering the union delegates by talking about charter schools and choice. It’s pathetic and sad. All we get are self-aggrandizing personal stories designed to show us what saints these power-seekers are, vague, insulting promises of the land of milk and honey that awaits a partisan victory, cheap trash-talking of the opposition. It’s hard to believe it could get even worse next week when the Republicans gather, but I bet it can. Listen, I’ve been around politics for a long time, I get it, too often, voters are scared away by new ideas and real challenge to the status quo. But the failure of an entire generation of political leaders to risk it is one depressing sight. Go to it, Senator Obama, make me see the light tonight. I’d settle for even a legitimate 50 watt bulb.

 

PERFORMER OR REFORMER? - Speaking of charter schools, did you know there is a prominent Democrat on hand in Denver who is a strong supporter of them, the ire of reform-hating unions notwithstanding? Read this piece, and wonder - will tonight be the night the Democratic nominee makes an impression not by feeding more feel-good boob bait to his legions of liberal Bubbas, but by doing what he promised to do way back when the campaign started: tell people not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear?

 

ROME IN DENVER - A couple of you have e-mailed me noting that Republicans have in the past also used preposterously monumental backdrops for speeches, similar to the Pantheon-like monstrosity the Obama campaign has erected for tonight's big speech. Of course they have. Neither Obama nor the Democrats have a monopoly on tasteless egomania. One would think that to be self-evident, but apparently not.

HILLARY DELIVERS - You had to be a real diehard Clinton-hater or arch-conservative idealogue to be unimpressed by Hillary Clinton’s endorsement of Barack Obama last night. (Watch it here.) Not only was it well-written and every bit as emphatic about the need for her people to back Obama as he could have wanted, it was passionately-delivered, a welcome contrast with some of the stiff who’ve paraded across the podium the first two nights, like former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, who seemed to be auditioning for the role of Lurch in a future remake of the "Addams Family." Yes, Hillary delivered the partisan bacon last night, right off the bat when she said she hadn’t "spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal health care, helping parents balance work and family and fighting for women's rights here at home and around the world...to see another Republican in the White House squander our promise." That was a good line, linking her partisan pitch with issues that matter to people outside the convention hall. Clinton now has plausible deniability – if Obama can’t get it done, she cannot be blamed, and thus shunned by half the party next time around. But the Obama campaign still has its work cut out for it. In her speech, Hillary promised that Obama would "revitalize our economy, defend the working people of America, and meet the global challenges of our time. Democrats know how to do this," she said, referencing, of course, the Clinton years in office. But as we now know, that administration did NOT know how to meet the global terror challenge. And if Obama does know how to revitalize our economy, he has yet to explain it convincingly to a majority of voters. So buckle your seat belt. It’s gonna be a close, grueling race to November 4th.

A NEGATIVE BOUNCE? - Yikes, that's what Gallup reports Obama got from picking Joe Biden as his running mate, a two-point drop in the polling (within the margin of error) that gives McCain the lead. John Kerry got a four-point boost from picking John "Situational Ethics" Edwards in 2004; Al Gore got a five-point jump out of picking Joe Lieberman in 2000. Joe Lieberman, for gosh sakes! Moral of the story: for the Obama campaign, it's all about the man at the top of the ticket and the public's willingness to trust him.

 

 

DENNIS DOES DENVER - In his remarks prepared for delivery this evening, Ohio Congressman and perennial far-left presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich delivers a clinic on how to excoriate the Republicans that his wimpier colleagues might well take notes on. (Read the whole thing here later on this evening.) "Wake up, America," pleads Kucinich. "In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy and have added 4 trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil and twice what we paid for health care. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions.... Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No money to rebuild bridges in America. Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia, while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette. If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four-year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children’s inheritance and hollow out our economy." Agree or not, you've got to admit, that's some scathing indictment.

PROFILES IN COURAGE - A viewer from Shrewsbury writes: "Senator Kerry described Ted Kennedy’s speech as 'brilliant' tonight? Not so much. Was he watching the same speech we were? Senator Kennedy has always been a forceful and effective orator, but risking what may seem to be political heresy, I think he should not have done the speech - certainly not this speech and in this way. The speech itself was disjointed, and Kennedy's telepromptered delivery was less than inspiring. All in all, it was disappointing and a bit sad." I respectfully disagree. Ask yourself: if you were undergoing grueling chemo and radiation for a cancer you knew was likely to be fatal, vulnerable to infection, and most likely utterly exhausted, would you fly across the country into a huge crowd scene to help out a co-worker you've only known for a couple of years? Not me. I may not agree with Ted Kennedy about some things, and I've had my share of criticism of him over the years, but that was an impressive showing of grit and style by a man who's shown those same qualities on more than a few difficult occasions. My hat is off to him. What on earth are we going to do without him?

OBAMA'S IMAGE PROBLEM - It shouldn't be too surprising that Barack Obama is struggling to secure the confidence of swing voters across the country. It's hard for us junkies to remember that for many voters, he is still a relatively unknown commodity, from a party that's been viewed with suspicion on issues like defense and taxes in the past. But here in Massachusetts, the bluest state of all, a place where even the household pets know all about Obama, the latest numbers from Survey USA are somewhat shocking. Lowlights for Obama: a dead heat with McCain on the question of who can do a better job handling the economy; deficits to McCain on handling terrorism (21%) Iraq (11%!) and immigration (2%); and a favorability rating about the same as McCain's. Obama wins big on handling health care, but these are truly troubling votes of little confidence. (By the way, the survey was taken before the selection of Joe Biden to be Obama's running mate.)

 

MORE JACKSON JIVE - This time, it's Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Illinois), telling a panel discussion in Denver covered by the Denver Post that while "Barack Obama has the capacity to hit...he is in the situation where he can't hit back, which Jackie Robinson could not do. He had to be able to run the bases, even though the crowd was jeering the first African American on the field. He has to keep smiling, because no one wants an angry African American in the White House." Ugh, false. Many voters did not care for Rev. Jeremiah Wright's call for God to "damn America," that's true. And of course, there are racists among us. But the notion that Obama can't passionately, even angrily, stand up and fight for what he believes in is nonsense. In fact, Obama's rise has been fueled by his oratorical passion in criticizing our moribund political culture, hammering the judgements that put us in Iraq, excoriating irresponsible social behavior, etc. McCain has hurt Obama with ads that make it seem as if all that passion is self-adulatory, about creating a cult of celebrity rather than a better America. Thursday night is his chance to set the record straight. The notion that he cannot do so emphatically without turning off racist whites is ludicrous.