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This is How Dems Do It
Harold Meyerson
September 7, 2012
Obama defines the election as a choice between social Darwinism and citizenship.
(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
President Barack Obama and his family and Vice President Joe Biden and his family celebrate their nominations as the confetti falls at the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The third and final night of this weeks Democratic Convention may have lacked the fireworks we saw on the first two. Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton were eloquent in different ways, and werent matched by Barack Obama or Joe Biden on the conventions closing night. Thats not to say that the closing night wasnt effective, however. By focusing above all on two of Obamas decisionsto save General Motors and Chrysler and to send in the Seals to take out Osama bin LadenObama and Biden emphasized the two most politically potent contrasts, especially on the latter point, they could draw with Mitt Romney and used those contrasts to make their most telling attacks on Romney yet.
They also did more than that: They set up the election as a choice between a nation run on market principles and a nation subject to the dictates of fairness and inclusivity. Combine Obama and Bidens speeches with Clintons the night before, and the party almost arrived at a governing credo: fairness and inclusiveness are not only right in themselves, they produce a more prosperous nation than a nation run on the narrow calculus that has shaped Bain Capitalsand much of corporate Americaspriorities.
Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive is a pretty good campaign slogan, not just because it touts Obamas most obvious successes but also because it enables Democrats to talk about the cramped, market-driven worldview of Mitt Romney, the Republican Party and (though Democrats pursue this delicately) American business. Heres Biden contrasting Romneys response to Detroits crisis to Obamas:
When things hung in the balance, the president understood this was about a lot more than the automobile industry. This was about restoring Americas pride. He understood in his gut what it would mean to leave a million people without hope or work if he didnt act.
Bidens was precisely the kind of contrast that convention speakers returned to repeatedly. They did it most obviously when laid-off workers from businesses Bain had taken over told their stories on Wednesday night. They did it subtly when Michelle Obama evoked the image of her husband poring over letters from ordinary Americans every night, something that I think many Americans have trouble envisioning Romney doing even as they know he methodically pores over the numbers behind his decisions to keep a plant open or close it down.
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http://prospect.org/article/how-dems-do-it
Tarheel_Dem
(31,211 posts)great white snark
(2,646 posts)TY babylonsister.
Cha
(295,926 posts)haven't heard VP Biden's or Pres Obama's speeches yet. This is an Awesome Preview!
Respectful but right to mitt's freaking jugular.. metaphorically speaking!