Obama’s address
The CNN feed cut out so I ended up watching on MSNBC, which had real-time focus group reaction lines for McCain and Obama voters. Both of these stayed firmly in positive territory, often so high up on the graph they could barely be seen–and I was watching on a 46 inch TV. More interesting was that the McCain voter line was often higher. Even more interesting than that–for much of the speech the two lines occupied the same space, almost exactly. Both groups liked what they were hearing and liked it a lot. I hope the White House was watching and remembers next time they consider the need for broad-based bipartisanship.
Personally, I thought the speech was pitch perfect and his delivery was the best I’ve seen from him since the primaries. He’s been on the job 35 days and already he has delivered one of the very few speeches in my lifetime that can be deemed truly presidential. That was FDR-level work. He could have mumbled nonsense and it still would have made the history books–our current national straits assure it. But he rose to the challenge tonight and asked the country to do the same. I know that’s been said before in this nation, but not in a long time.