On Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech

Obama has had some difficulty adjusting to the role of nominee after defining himself as an upstart. His keynote address at the 2004 DNC remains his most impressive moment, but there were flashes tonight of the powerhouse he could become. It took him about half of the speech to get going, but once he did it was powerful stuff. Forget the inevitable mythologizing of the American spirit and the recitation of his policy points - where Obama really succeeded was in framing himself within a continuum of historical progress and by extension painting his opposition as stalwarts of a bygone era.

Invoking everything from labor movements and suffragettes, to Roosevelt, Kennedy and Clinton, and finally Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Obama evinced an iconic confidence that even a cynic like myself can appreciate. His critique of McCain and Bush were by far his most forceful yet, but they didn't come off as mean-spirited or gratuitous. He was able to attach the gravity of our current situation to the need for bold change, and do so convincingly, which is rather nice after the aw-shucks, stay-the-course mentality of the last eight years.

Now I'm only commenting on his speech as a speech, I have no idea if he'll be able to pull it off. But it was truly exciting to watch him hit his stride, to hear his cadence establish a natural rise and fall, and his aping of Dr. King's flow at speech's end, with the repetitions of "America, we cannot turn back," rose well above homage, and could well become a touchstone moment in Democratic politics.

On the pragmatic side, the stage managing of the event could have been better. I sometimes wonder if it would be better to take these things as you would a Hollywood film, and judge them according to the same criteria. The DNC would be a bit like Spiderman, assuredly over-the-top but still entertaining and ultimately affecting. It was, however a poor choice to show video clips of Obama making stump speeches, as some of the same stock phrases showed up in his acceptance speech just minutes later. I got the impression that Obama himself wasn't thrilled at repeating those phrases. It seemed like he hurried through them, to get them over with.

I also feel that he may come across as arrogant to some, or possibly aloof, though that's more an issue of people's warped perceptions than anything he should concern himself with. To me McCain comes off as a fool when trying to mimic the gee-whiz folksiness of Bush, but maybe some people gravitate to that, I don't know.

In the end Obama did an admirable job and left no doubt that he understands his moment and has completely embraced it. It's not at all sure that he will succeed. Something in me worries that America may still be slow in accepting such radical change. But it is clear that Barack Obama is not pandering or pulling any punches, and that is something to be proud of.