The Speech

DENVER, Aug. 29--Barack Obama may have delivered his speech at Mile High Stadium, but, until the end, his rhetoric was far more down to earth.

Perhaps half the address was devoted to policy detail--capital gains taxes, renewable energy, teacher pay, bankruptcy law--in a way that no one could accuse him of offering airy calls for change without specifics. And he weaved throughout the address references to mother and grandmother and daughters in a way that grounded the rhetoric in real concerns.

It wasn't until the final section of the speech that Obama returned to some of the loftier themes of the primaries: casting off "worn-out ideas" and the "politics of the past." He sought common ground on hot-button issues--abortion, gun control, same-sex marriage, immigration--rather than throwing red meat to the Democratic base. And it wasn't until the finale that Obama referred to the 45th anniversary of the "I have a dream" speech, referring to a preacher from Georgia but not mentioning Martin Luther King Jr. by name.

At one point, perhaps worried about sounding like a big-government liberal, Obama promised to scrub the budget and "eliminate programs that no longer work." Right. The man's been campaigning for 18 months. If he's vowed to eliminate a single program, I've missed it.

He took some hard shots at John McCain: Bush's third term, doesn't get it, wrong on Iraq and Afghanistan, even questioning his foreign policy "temperament." I'm sure McCain will respond forcefully in St. Paul.

Obama had so much to accomplish in that football stadium. It's too soon to know how much he achieved. It's beyond question that he knows how to give a speech. In purely oratorical terms, McCain has a tough act to follow.

One interesting bellwether: Several conservative TV pundits gave Obama high marks, as the campaign was quick to note. "Genuinely outstanding," said Pat Buchanan. "Awfully impressive . . . eloquently explained America's promise," said Bill Kristol.

Some MSM analyses, starting with the NYT:

"It is almost a cliché of this election that many Americans, despite a 20-month-old campaign, still lack a strong notion of who Mr. Obama is. In the most personal sense, his speech was not particularly illuminating on this score. He spent far more time talking about struggling Americans whose hopes he related to than wearing his emotions on his sleeve or reaching across history's divide to talk about race.

"But Mr. Obama's purpose, obviously, was to open a direct channel between his candidacy and the personal lives of Americans, rather than open up about himself."

Boston Globe: "Gone was much of the soaring rhetoric of hope that defined his primary campaign; and while he alluded to his biracial, international life story and the historic nature of his candidacy, he mentioned them only obliquely. He let his diverse audience of devoted fans, crowded into a football stadium, make their own point about racial unity and togetherness . . .

"The toughness seemed to signal an awareness that Obama, who maintains only the narrowest of leads in the polls, had to make a stronger case against the Republicans.