It's all over. Barack Obama has been nominated for the Presidency of the United States, Joe Biden as VP, and Mile High Stadium has seen at least one team that is predicted to win more than it loses. What initially seemed like the lamest outdoor music festival in history was actually a political rally in disguise. Sheryl Crow and will.i.am used to blunt anger over the fact that people had to sit around for five hours listening to Pat Leahy before Barack Obama showed up.
Al Gore gave one of his famous "If I acted like this in 2000 I could have squeezed a few hundred more votes out of Florida" speeches, confounding a bewildered Sean. Tim Kaine tried to lead a call and response chant, looking and sounding like every school principal at a pep rally, trying to get the kids into it for the big game against Rival School High.
Then Obama strode to the stage. He delivered a pretty damn fine speech if I don't say so myself. Listed about thirty policy proposals, his theories on how government should act, his life story, and what was in many ways the harshest attacks on McCain and Bush during the convention. Well, except for John Conyers leading an F-U-C-K-B-U-S-H chant and Claire McCaskill angrily sticking a large hunting knife into a pumpkin with Dick Cheney's face on it. He topped it with some MLK references, fireworks shot off, he hugged one of his daughters but not the other, then walked around arm in arm with Joe Biden grinning like an idiot, before planting one right on the lips of Jill Biden. Oh, Barack was feeling it. Barack threw down the gauntlet, challenged McCain, and defended liberalism and the Democratic party in places where people don't usually do it: the podium of the Democratic convention and on TV.
The media seemed to love it, the speech and staging working well, and Republican response seemed oddly unnerved. Like they just had their pants pulled down and their genitals critiqued for an audience of millions. They'll try to start blunting the speech today with McCain's VP selection, which if early word is accurate happens to be Sarah Palin from Alaska. Good luck trying to look and sound that good John, you'll need it.
Photo from troeth used under creative commons license.
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