MUTH’S TRUTHS

Some observations on Day Last of the Demo-lition Derby in Denver…

* Great show. John Mccain and the Republicans have their work cut out for them. But first a few words about Ozone Al.

* Al Gore strode to the podium this evening to the 60s song “Let the Sun Shine.” Did it strike anyone else as odd that the guy who has made global warming his life’s crusade was introduced by a song about the bright, hot sun?

* According to “Apocolypse Al,” the world will come to an end by the end of the next president’s term unless the next president is Barack Obama. Otherwise, it’s floods, earthquakes, fires, pestilence and, of course, a plague of locusts. Al Gore is such a bummer. He makes Eye-ore look like Crusty the Clown.

* And according to Al Gore, Barack Obama is just like Abraham Lincoln…a humongous stretch even by Al “I Invented the Internet” Gore’s standards.

* Now, before talking about The Speech by The Chosen One, let me complain about the talking heads on television who received an advance copy of the speech and proceeded to quote directly from it before Barack even took the stage. That sucked…and they shouldn’t do it. Giving reporters and commentators an advance copy of the speech is a courtesy. They should return that courtesy in kind by preparing to respond to the speech AFTER the speech, not pre-empting the speech.

* OK, onto The Speech. One word: Impressive.

* Expectations were high. Obama rose to the occasion. And surpassed it. In the process, he raised the bar for John McCain and the Republicans for next week.

* Substance-wise, he really didn’t say much. Pretty standard liberal stump speech. But damn, did he say it well!

* Bill Clinton is an excellent speaker. Barack Obama is an excellent speaker. But when Bill Clinton speaks, it always seems like an act; like he’s delivering lines in a movie – complete with that fake biting of the lip. Obama, on the other hand, seems far more genuine. He conveys the impression that he really believes the things he’s saying. Bill Clinton always gave the impression that he believed whatever the polls told him to believe.

* My late friend and former Reagan adviser, Lyn Nofziger used to say, “The purpose of running for office is to win.” And people tend to vote for people they like. Watching Barack Obama tonight, and especially his family and those two adorable little girls, you can’t help but like the man. I’m a hard-core conservative…but as I watched the speech I couldn’t help but like the guy.

* Obama is wrong on just about every issue and he’s a liberal’s liberal, but I like him. I can’t say that about most of the other leading Democrats. I don’t like Bill Clinton. I REALLY don’t like Hillary Clinton. I don’t like Al Gore. I don’t like Harry Reid. I don’t like Nancy Pelosi. And I loathe Jimmy Carter. But I like Barack Obama. And, hate to say it, I even got some good vibes from Joey Biden over the last 24 hours.

* Of course, just liking the guy isn’t enough to sway MY vote, but it might be more than enough to sway a lot of the non-ideological “dumb-decided” swing voters out there who are just now tuning in to the election this week.

* Even more importantly, tonight’s speech by the nation’s first black presidential nominee didn’t scare white folks. While many whites, even today, will never vote for a black man, at least Obama didn’t scare the crap out of them. Some who may have been on the fence over whether or not they could pull the lever for a black guy who might use the White House to push an all-black agenda – like reparations for slavery - probably felt somewhat reassured by tonight’s speech. Indeed, the only “black” thing about the speech was a short reference to Martin Luther King…and that was close to the end.

* Oh, and cranking up a country song at the end of the speech instead of a rap song was a nice touch.

* In addition to likeability, an undecided voter’s decision is most often determined by name ID and image. Obama surely has universal name ID now, so that’s not a problem. And the image conveyed by his forceful speech before 75,000 people in an open-air stadium was powerful no matter how you slice it.

* The Left and the Right will fight this campaign out over substantive issues, but it’s the non-ideological swing voters who will determine who wins or loses in November. And those swing voters now have a positive image of a likeable guy. John McCain can’t defeat that with nothing more than “My friends” – no matter how many times he says it.

* Obama also hit on some specific issues which will resonate with a lot of voters. Calling for more personal responsibility and saying the government can’t do everything for us and can’t turn off the television set will resonate with many people, especially conservatives.

* Declaring that fathers must take more responsibility for their children will have a lot of people shouting, “Amen!” Not Jesse Jackson of course. But real people.

* By the way, did anyone see Jesse Jackson anywhere near Denver this week? I must have missed him.

* I don’t know if he meant it, but when Obama said he’d find money to pay for his new programs by going through the budget and getting rid of old useless programs, it sounded like something a Republican would say. Not that they would mean it.

* I think Obama’s best line of the evening was on the whole issue of fighting the war on terror; the Achilles heel of the Democrat nominee. Taking John McCain to task for saying he’d go to the gates of hell to catch Osama bin Laden when “he won’t even go to bin Laden’s cave” will resonate with a lot of Americans, including conservatives, who are still pissed off that bin Laden is still drawing a breath.

* And I thought Obama did a great job in handling four hot-button issues of the conservative movement: abortion, guns, gays and illegal immigration. While acknowledging disagreement with many voters on these issues, he did a good job of disarming the opposition by staking out middle-ground positions of common interest. I mean, who among us wants criminals walking around with AK-47’s, right?

* In summary, this speech wasn’t about winning over conservatives and hard-core Republicans who wouldn’t vote for him in a million years anyway. It was about easing fears and uncertainties in the blue-collar white America, uniting his own troops, stirring them to political action and appealing to the non-ideological swing voters by appearing moderate, reasonable and competent. He did all of that…and then some.

* Now if he can just keep Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Jeremiah Wright locked in a closet for the next two months, he might have a shot.

* Final observation: You just can’t beat real fireworks.

* Republicans…you’re up.

Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National