Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Thursday, August 28, 2008 8:13:24 PM
An interesting question posed by Gerard Baker's latest column from the Times Online. On one hand we have Barack Obama's greatest strength; giving perfectly choreographed speeches amid spectacle. On the other hand we have absolutely nothing.
There's a fundamental paradox confronting Barack Obama as he prepares to deliver his acceptance speech to the Democratic Convention before a stadium crowd of up to 80,000 tonight.
Speech-making is what Senator Obama does best. It is arguably the main reason that he finds himself on the threshold of the White House. He is one of the finest exponents of English oratory our American cousins have produced; right up there with Martin Luther King, William Jennings Bryan and Abraham Lincoln.
And so, barring some unimaginable collapse by either his speechwriters or the candidate himself tonight, he will give a barn-burning performance that will send his anxious Democrats away energised and girded for the battle that unfolds in the next two months. But here's the paradox. Senator Obama's biggest challenge from now until election day is to prove that he is more than just a great orator. His very ability to move audiences with words and dramatic set-piece performances is now part of the principal critique of him by his opponents: that he is a profoundly inexperienced young man who has done no more in his short public life than give great speeches. The more he inspires and moves his followers with great speeches the more glaring the gap between his speaking talent and his callowness appears.
There are growing indications, in fact, that it is the now familiar Grand Obama Occasion of the sort we will see tonight that is starting to turn voters off him. It may bring the people in the stadium to tears but its impact on the wider American audience watching on television is much less certain.
Continue reading by following the link above. Gerard Baker makes a great case for why Obama's poll numbers have been dropping even as the Democrat Convention in Denver is in full swing. Barack talks the talk; and that's it. No specific policy, no plan for the politically import First 100 Days, constant generalizing to the point of emptiness based firmly on shallow reasoning.
I have been about as impressed by Barack Obama as I have with Mike Huckabee. Both are classic examples of modern liberalism. The only difference is that one of the two is a pro-life Democrat with actual experience running an entire state into the ground. Maybe Barack should have picked Huckabee as his running mate!
Before I digress any further, I'll end this post by promising those who watch the deification of Obama tonight a freakshow stuffed with lunatics, hysterics, and idiots congregated in one place the likes of which the country has not seen before. It only gets worse from here folks. Enjoy!