I don't think rMoney has the temperment for debating President Obama. And Biden will give that youngin' a spanking!

I bet Ryan would love a spanking from Joe.

But you're probably right.

that Obama didn't seems to exude the same upbeat "punch" as Michelle and Clinton. But you know, now that I've slept on it, there comes a time when the Conventions needs to step away from the feeling of a Rah Rah Amway revival, and bring in some gravitas. As a nation there are still struggles, there are millions of people still hurting and fighting to survive. For them life stopped being a party and has been drudgery ever since Bush crashed the whole fucking deal.

He spoke to those, acknowledging that this is serious shit. It's not all balloons and confetti. It's about chosing (a word he used over and over) a President who understands, has seen and will work hard for those that need the help, not work hard for those that don't need the help.

I walked away from this speech realizing this is serious shit, because frankly the nations isn't up yet, and even the President didn't pretend otherwise.

Good post.

and very, very close to my own reaction. ALso how I feel about about the president. Lots of respect and admiration and empathy for the heavy burden on his shoulders. I remember 4 years ago, the night of the election, how struck I was by the way he looked when he stepped on the stage in Chicago. Remember? To me it looked like all of a sudden he felt all the weight of the world... not sure how to put into words, but it was very different from how he looked only a few short days earlier. Maybe it was the very recent death of his grandmother, I don't know, but it was different. And yesterday, the quote from Lincoln... it was heartbreaking...

not the most impressive speech that he's given but I'm not sure that it needed to be. It was a positive and optimistic speech that made feel better by the time it was over- and made me feel more secure about the future of the country (and me personally). I loved his line about tax cuts, his promise to defend Medicare and Social Security, and especially the line about needing to do some "nation building" HERE in the USA. It was a reassuring speech and told me what I felt like I needed to know. Nothing more, nothing less.

No matter what, the prospect of Romney/Ryan of being in the WH freaks me the f**k out!!!

That was my favorite speech of all time.

We are in a different climate now. He sounded pained by the stupid obstructionist politics and insincere reporting by the press.

I'd bet a boat load of his money that did he watch, as did Romney handlers.

Romney's eyes sparkle at the thought of fame and added fortune that would come with a Presidency. Can you even imagine how his companies will do after he retires from POTUS, with his name on the contractual signature lines?

I think Obama supplied the DNC with a level of gravitas that we all needed to remember that there is still a lot of pain during the healing process from Bush's hacking techniques. Romney will have heard the hurt, the pain, the difficulties that a President ha to deal with, and hopefully realizes it isn't all candy and photo ops. If there was anything that would give this non empathetic asswipe a pause to think that his life may not be so easy in the Whitehouse, it just may have been this speech from Obama.

He spoke like someone who has been on the job for almost four years, and has made the tough choices, has the gravitas necessary to meet any challenge.

He is NOT an unknown, whose speech was written to excite and thrill the audiences, a speech in 2008 written by the people that wrote West Wing. He was an unknown PRODUCT then, he was a product launch. Now he has moved past that, and is talking to us about things that matter. He's not selling the dream anymore, he's selling his record, and the hard work we have ahead of us.

And frankly, people here who have been saying 'oh, I like Clintons speech' or 'I like the energy of so and so' Well, the President is NOT the cheerleader in chief. The role of the other speakers was to excite the crowds, and speak in pithy soundbites, and set the state for the President. It was up to the President to lay out the plans. You know, we can't have it both ways. The media and other other campaign would have pounced all over his shit had he gone with the theme-speech, like he did in 2008. When you're the new guy, you can't speak about what you DID, or even specifically about what you plan to do, you SELL yourself and build excitement. As the Incumbent, you talk about what you've done, what you've learned, and NOW with that info, what you plan to do.

Romney's speech would have been more to the liking of some folks here. He didn't say jack shit. It was a bunch of empty lines meant to move people emotionally, and he got panned for it. I'm not looking for a rockstar, I'm looking for a President. And he told it like it was. He's not going to go out there and scream like Jennifer Granholm, tho her speech was a lot of fun, he's talking to us like grown ups. And the undecideds are looking for specifics.. not fluff.

meant for adults. The demoralizing question is how many adults are out there... sorry, not in the best o fmoods today.

the debates should keep the ball in the air.

better than any other player, but average for him ...

I feel it too

...and I KNOW there's more to be done, because in my OWN life, the struggle isn;t over....and I got that HE GETS THAT too!
I was sobered by the speech last night, and while my own sense of HOPE has grown and matured over the past 4 yrs...I still have plenty more for the future...
I also get the gravity of the future generation thing as a parent, as does he.... I know he knows how much worse things ARE, and I pray he can turn it around before we, as a planet, hit our own proverbial iceberg

these past four years.

What we hear is terrible enough - just imagine what goes on that we are unaware of, but he is.

didn't get one. By the end of his speech I had tears and was cheering.

It is grounded in reality. I am just astounded by what I hear from the right wing. I cannot wrap my head around their mindset.

I remember VP Gore's book "An Assault on Reason" and it revealed what was happening and is still happening. People I once respected for their reasoning (my Dad being the main one) now spout this crap that is not grounded in reality at all. It is sad and scary.

But President Obama does calm me and reminds me that all is not lost. There are people who can add 2 + 2 and still come up with 4 and not 3 or 5.

I just finished watching the entire speech and I've got goose bumps. THAT is a leader!

I agree with your assessment. I came away from it with a very positive but sort of vague feeling. Nothing like the specific jolt of energy that I got in 2004 or the inspiration I felt after the race relation speech. He suffers from having set his own bar very high. Above average for Obama still means in the 99% for all speeches.

I would look at it another way. I see response to a speech like this as sort of a tuning fork. On the scale of conservative to liberal, we each fall somewhere on that scale.

I think we respond the most to the speeches that are targeted to our slice of the spectrum. Some of the early convention speeches are meant to fire up the base and have more of an emotional effect on liberals.

Obama's speech was targeted at the whole Country rather than the base. It was honest and sober yet hopeful. So while it may not have rung my bell, I suspect it had a very strong impact on moderates.

If you fall into it, if you let cynicism deter you, change will not happen. He had to look at this himself, because of what you say about the battle he has faced with the assholes fighting him every step of the way.

The pile of shit he was handed and then the obstruction he faced? It is utterly unbelievable what our fucking Congress has been doing. Waking up to the nightmare that part of our government is made up of the enemy had to be a blow to an idealist like Obama.

Obama is a President like no other.