While I’m tempted to participate in the Sarah Palin side-show, since she’s such a big, fat floating target, I suspect that is part of the Republican strategy. I don’t like to let my opponents choose the grounds of battle, so I’m going to ignore this pitiful distraction and focus on what really matters: the future of the country.
That future will be determined in large part by who wins in November. Not just the presidency, but across the federal government and the governments of all the states. And that win will be a Democratic win, very likely of historic proportions.
Where are the Democrats going? What will it mean? The key is to look in depth at Obama’s acceptance speech, which shows both how Democrats will win and what we, the American people, will win as a result. I’m going to take a leisurely look at Obama’s speech and then I’m going to give you a simple test to determine how biased the MSM is about it.
There are many reasons why I want to focus on the speech. One reason is purely political and strategic: we need to change the focus of the debate away from the "small things" (read "Palin") and back to the major issues and themes. Another is that Obama’s speech is a masterpiece, a true heir to Martin Luther King’s speeches, a towering statement that accomplishes enormous work with economy and elegance. Still another is that we need to understand where Obama is leading us so that we can reinforce his attacks and defenses. Beyond that, this speech will be taught in the schools, and we may as well begin the work of putting it there.
What is in this speech? First, Obama takes on the Republican personal attacks against him and shows them all to be false. Second, he draws together the party, pulling in all those who voted against him in the primaries. Third, he indicts the Bush Administration and ties McCain to that administration. Fourth, he addresses traditional values in a way that allows conservatives to vote for him. And fifth, he gives us a clear view of what he stands for. This is an enormous accomplishment in a speech that lasted less than forty-five minutes.
"With Profound Gratitude and Great Humility"
Obama started at the beginning to put the lie to the Republican attack that he’s too full of himself, that he’s arrogant, and that his image outruns his capabilities. He says, "with profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States." He goes on to thank those who helped carry him there. He then tells the story of others, people who are struggling under the burdens created by the Bush Administration, interweaving their stories with his own humble beginnings and drawing in the experience of his mother and grandmother raising him. He’s clear about why he’s there, and it isn’t first of all about him:
But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you.
Then he tells us:
I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped me. And it is on their behalf that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.
He also put the lie to the Republican attack that he isn’t patriotic enough and wouldn’t be strong in defending the country. He delivered his speech in front of a fluttering American flag and talked from the obvious viewpoint of a common American. He eliminated the Republican charge that Democrats aren’t strong on national defense:
We are the party of Roosevelt. We are the party of Kennedy. So don't tell me that Democrats won't defend this country. Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe. ...As Commander-in-Chief, I will never hesitate to defend this nation, but I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home. I will end this war in Iraq responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. I will rebuild our military to meet future conflicts. But I will also renew the tough, direct diplomacy that can prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and curb Russian aggression. I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease. And I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
And, he called Republicans out on their use of patriotism as an attack slogan:
The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America—they have served the United States of America. So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.
Obama’s speech was watched in person by at least 80,000 people and via television by probably 35 million people or more. The full video and text are available here at Huffington Post. One thing I must say about this is that it is a supreme accomplishment to stand up in front of this many people and present this work in such a masterful way. Beyond hope, there was the audacity to plan and pull off this tremendous event. It raises the bar for political shows to a level few could ever dream to match. In a way, it confirms the Republican complaint that Obama is a rock star. Not that that’s bad. Bono is a rock star.
This event highlighted a national campaign that also put the lie to the Republican attack that Obama doesn’t have executive experience. We will now hear him compared (unfavorably) to Sarah Palin, with the implication that her executive experience as governor somehow outweighs his executive experience. Does not being a governor disqualify you from being President? No. By that logic, George Washington did not have enough executive experience to be President, because he was never a governor, just a representative in Congress; John Adams did not have enough executive experience to be President because he was never a governor, just an ambassador; Thomas Jefferson did not have enough executive experience to be President because he was never a governor, just a guy with ideas. There are other talents and accomplishments that qualify you to be President. Pundits don’t determine the qualifications for the presidency; the American people do. Obama’s national campaign organization probably has more paid staff than the government of Alaska and has, by far, a greater number of volunteers. He’s effectively the CEO of an organization that dwarfs her government in size and must deal with policy questions at the national and international level for which she’s never had the need to give any thought.
I would compare Palin’s qualifications (unfavorably) to those of Dennis Kucinich, who is far more qualified to be President. He has shown a grasp of both national and international issues. I would put up his plan on healthcare against Palin’s (what is her plan, by the way?), and I would put up his "Department of Peace" proposal against her membership in the NRA. Who is better qualified to be President? Kucinich, in a landslide.
"Our Destiny Is Inextricably Linked"
His second task was to pull together all those who had been drawn apart in the primaries. He does this while simultaneously putting the lie to the conservative attack on him as a man. Again, conservatives are making a transparent attempt to use sex to divide the electorate. Conservatives, who have resisted equality of opportunity—for blacks, for Hispanics, for women, for anyone in the GLBT community—for all history, are now in the ironic position of trying to appeal to supporters of Hillary Clinton on the basis that Obama is not a woman, so that they can get their Republican candidate elected. Am I writing that right? They don’t find him to be progressive enough because he denied a woman the candidacy? That’s the claim!
Obama reminds us that the American promise is a promise for all, for everyone of every gender, of every color, of every ethnicity, of every background. It is a common promise of justice, and it belongs to us all:
That promise is our greatest inheritance. It's a promise I make to my daughters when I tuck them in at night, and a promise that you make to yours—a promise that has led immigrants to cross oceans and pioneers to travel west; a promise that led workers to picket lines, and women to reach for the ballot. And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln's Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream. The men and women who gathered there could've heard many things. They could've heard words of anger and discord. They could've been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred. But what the people heard instead—people of every creed and color, from every walk of life—is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.
Women are served not by simply getting a woman in the presidency, but by getting a presidency that respects women. The justice of eliminating color barriers to the White House puts a crack in the national glass ceiling for women politicians. We are all in this together, and we won’t be divided.
This is, in fact, a speech of justice. It is the embodiment of the dream. Here, justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Here we have Hillary Clinton’s quoting the exhortation to keep going, though the dogs are barking, to keep going, though the torches are behind you, to keep going, to keep going, because nothing will keep us from that taste of freedom. And here we have Martin Luther King’s exhortation to keep going, "and as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead."
"We cannot walk alone," the preacher cried. "And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back." America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend. America, we cannot turn back. We cannot walk alone. At this moment, in this election, we must pledge once more to march into the future. Let us keep that promise—that American promise—and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.
"Enough!"
This call for justice comes naturally out of the injustices of the Bush Administration. Is there an area in which they have tried to provide relief for anyone suffering from either man-made or nature-made assaults?
Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay, and tuition that's beyond your reach. ...This country is more generous than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he's worked on for twenty years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.
How do we get justice? We must take stock and change directions.
Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land—enough! This moment—this election—is our chance to keep, in the 21st century, the American promise alive. Because next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look like the last eight. On November 4th, we must stand up and say: "Eight is enough."
We can’t do that by continuing with Republican rule.
The record's clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time. Senator McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than ninety percent of the time? I don't know about you, but I'm not ready to take a ten percent chance on change.
And (finally!) we have the attack on John McCain Democrats have been waiting for.
He said that our economy has made "great progress" under this President. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisors—the man who wrote his economic plan—was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a "mental recession," and that we've become, and I quote, "a nation of whiners."
A nation of whiners?
A nation of whiners?
Now, I don't believe that Senator McCain doesn't care what's going on in the lives of Americans. I just think he doesn't know. ...For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy—give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is—you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No health care? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps—even if you don't have boots.
And what that means is "they own you." You aren’t a player, so don’t bother coming to Washington, don’t bother asking for what you deserve, don’t bother asking for justice, because we own you and you don’t have a right to anything. You don’t have a right to equal pay for equal work. You don’t have the right to bargain on fair footing with a union behind you. You don’t have a right to a stable climate and a non-toxic environment. You are a peon, and you’ll only get what the Republicans will allow to trickle down on you. You aren’t going to get a green world; you’re going to get a yellow one. The Ownership Society owns you.
Unless you unite with other Democrats and demand change.
"United in Common Effort"
This is where the subtly of Obama’s speech was totally lost on the mediocre media. All through the speech is a subtext directed at those we might call "the sensible voters". These aren’t conservatives, although the Conservatives count them as such. These aren’t people in the "heartland", because they don’t all live in the heart of America. These aren’t middle-class voters, because their income ranges from the bottom to the top.
These are those voters who look beyond the rhetoric and static to see who the candidate is. They want to know about the candidate’s character. They aren’t judging that character on whether it comes from a man or a woman, from a black or a white or a purple, from a liberal or conservative or libertarian. They are looking to see if that person can see beyond their own ideology to what is right, fair and just. In this, Obama excelled.
We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country. The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America's promise—the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.
In other words, he told them that he isn’t going to get caught up in an ideology that would prevent him from doing what’s right for the country. He told them that he would pursue Democratic policies but at the same time he would make sure that they were sensibly implemented, keeping their hopes and fears in mind. He reassured them. And, in doing so, he took the sting out of right-wing attacks that depend on scaring sensible voters into voting against politicians who seem to be pro-abortion, anti-gun, and generally against the basic American lifestyle. In other words, the American lifestyle, with its need to believe its own rhetoric about justice, would go on. And the Obama Administration would preserve the traditions that traditionalist love while tackling the problems everyone agrees must be addressed.
This is why Patrick Buchanan was able to respond so favorably to the speech. He knows as well as anyone how those shrill attacks have been used to bring down the big game of the Democratic Party in election (Carter) after election (Gore) after election (Kerry). And he saw, in this speech (although I’m sure he was prevented from saying it) that Obama got it just right. He talked about those issues in a way that resonated with his base but without scaring the bejesus out of sensible voters.
Taking away Republican’s ability to attack him on the small issues allowed him to talk with the American people bluntly about where he wanted to go.
"Let Me Spell Out Exactly What That Change Would Mean"
And now, Obama puts the lie to the Republican attack that he isn’t specific enough, that he’s just a celebrity without substance. He does that by presenting, while the American people are open to hearing it and when it’s going to be unfiltered by the talking heads, exactly what he has in mind:
Change means a tax code that doesn't reward the lobbyists who wrote it, but the American workers and small businesses who deserve it. Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America. I will eliminate capital gains taxes for the small businesses and the start-ups that will create the high-wage, high-tech jobs of tomorrow.
I will cut taxes—cut taxes—for 95% of all working families. Because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle-class.
And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as President: in ten years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.
Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last thirty years, and John McCain has been there for twenty-six of them. In that time, he's said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil as the day that Senator McCain took office.
Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close.
As President, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies re-tool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I'll invest 150 billion dollars over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy—wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and five million new jobs that pay well and can't ever be outsourced.
He goes on to talk about education and healthcare. To talk about family leave, reforming bankruptcy and protecting Social Security.
And he pre-empts another Republican attack—by assuring the public that he knows how to fund all his initiatives and that he will cut spending, where appropriate, by going through the budget line by line and eliminating programs that have outlived their usefulness (another dog whistle to conservative—call them sensible—voters).
"America, Now Is Not the Time for Small Plans"
The Republicans will now try to attack Obama in every way they can. In Obama’s words, they will "make a big election about small things." But, they simply don’t have artillery with enough bore to take down a man of this scope and vision. This is a man who sees across the whole country to lift up those in the backwaters and make them a part of his campaign. He knows what America is about, and so he can see our place in the world.
I will restore our moral standing, so that America is once again that last, best hope for all who are called to the cause of freedom, who long for lives of peace, and who yearn for a better future.
Our moral standing in the world is out greatest defense asset. It is what allowed us to endure the cold war and win it. It is what’s missing in our response to the Russian invasion of Georgia. It cannot be restored by an immoral government. So, no continuation of the Bush government will ever have the power to reclaim our moral standing in the world. Only change will work. We will soon have that change as the regime changes in Washington.
Thank you, Barack Obama, for gathering up all the hopes and dreams of Americans and taking them with you to the White House.
In the intro, I said I’d give you a simple way to measure main stream media bias. Here it is. On tomorrow’s political shows, what position does the story about Obama’s speech take? Does it come before or after the story about McCain’s VP choice? Does it show up at all? Objectively, this speech was one of the best political speeches of our times. It deserves to be the top story of the hour on each show. Let’s see how well the big media does.
[A note on copyright. To the degree I have rights in this text, I put those rights in the public domain, so that you may be free to copy any or all of this.]
Update (31 August 2008 13:30 Pacific Time): Three cheers for Chris Matthews, who lead with Obama's speech! At least one show got their priorities straight. OTOH, Blitzer blew it, totally ignoring the story to pump their coverage of the RNC. Even given that Gustav is a huge story, the facts on it (as known) can be covered in five minutes before going on to the important news about the campaign. Shows that the attention span on CNN is about that of a two-year-old. (Not meaning to be insulting to any two-year-olds, of course.) --LT