If you haven’t yet seen it, I can highly recommend watching Obama’s victory speech in St Paul, Minnesota (link above, transcript here). Behind his Philadelphia race speech, I think it’s the best of his career. (Clinton’s concession speech yesterday was also pretty good, though Obama’s writing and vocal cadences are unmatchable – if you’ve never watched a full speech, you won’t be able to understand his appeal.)
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I agree. This was an amazing speech. Watching the whole thing helps you understand Obama’s appeal. The sound bites on the news don’t do him justice.
Yep, a great speechmaker. Whether that’s enough to be a great President is yet to be seen.
Its a mixed bag Andrew. Tremendous oratory and – more than that – a cut above the mean-minded in US politics. I think he will be the next US president and, on balance, an advance. All that said there is a lot of cliche and occasionally the feeling of a southern US Baptist church in the flow of verbiage. But choosing between John McCain and Obama ‘aint hard.
He reminds me of the bits of footage I’ve seen of Martin Luther King. It’s good to see one so positive (even toward his opponents) and he’s telling a story of hope that people like to hear. If his government can do anything like what he talks about, it will be worth all the cheering.
It also reminds me of bits of The West Wing that I saw a few years ago. I wonder how much the real campaign has and will followed the story? I haven’t followed either much but I have heard comparisons made.