The Democratic Convention receives an A+ for content, and an A+ for tone. Everybody that played an integral role in the electing of Obama-Biden to the white house did exactly what was asked of them and as graciously and classy as could have possibly been done. The starting 5 for the convention Michelle, Hilary, Bill, Joe, and Barack executed as well as the Redeem Team did in the Olympics this summer…which may be a fitting de scri ption as this country looks to ascend back to its preeminent example of democracy.
Michelle began the convention beautifully, and her tone was perfect for what Americans were looking for. There seems to be this theory that a first lady needs to be a feeble woman who will fall to the background once the election is over, after being flaunted during political posturing for months. Hillary Clinton shattered that perception as President Clinton’s first lady.
However, black women by nature are strong. And when you consider having a woman from a working class family who went to Ivy League institutions and came back to her community to serve, such considerable strength is unimaginable to the average white woman’s travails. The speech presented Michelle as both vulnerable and human, while showing that she worked hard to get where she is and didn’t get there by way of cronyism or family connections. She, like Barack, is what America embodies. She did an amazing job of endearing herself to American women who are mothers, like herself, while still showing the strength of a woman that compliments her husband and is not just a trophy for him. She really established similarities to Hillary Clinton.
Hilary gave one of the most defining questions that could be asked of America, “were you in this campaign just for me?” This to me was a great question to pose, as a lot of her supporters have been hesitant to support Barack. There is a problem with the way we vote in America. This goes for both Democrats and Republicans. Independents have it right, you vote for the candidate that best speaks to your own needs. You don’t vote based on the candidate looking like you, whether it means the candidate is African American, or a woman.
You don’t vote based on the party, if you think all African Americans should vote democrat because of history you are actually ignorant to that history. It was the precursor to the Republican Party that ultimately granted blacks the emancipation proclamation. And I have to be honest, if I was a billionaire that had significant fiscal interest in any of the top companies in the United States, I would be voting for Mccain-Palin as well. What Hilary was saying in that simple yet powerful statement is, if you were really in support of me because of the policies that I want to create and the prospects that I can offer you, then how can you not support Barack as he offers the same. She offered examples of all the policies her and Barack had similar initiatives on.
Again if you are an avid supporter of Hilary Clinton, you can only not support Barack due to a personal angst. The last thing she did was do a great job of directly comparing McCain to Bush ultimately using the metaphoric irony that the Republican National Convention will be held in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.
Bill Clinton is one of the great orators of the last half century. His ability to captivate a crowd is unmatched (at least until I saw Barack command almost 80 thousand people so smoothly). I was a little disappointed that they tried to give Bill a time limit of 10 minutes. I knew he wasn’t going to stick to it but he seemed intent to try and honor the party’s wishes by continuously asking the crowd to please sit down and allow him to begin speaking throughout their almost 6 minute standing ovation for him. I believe the best thing he could have done was leave no doubt that he does not question Barack’s ability and allow people to understand that he was campaigning for his wife and naturally when campaigning for someone you have to campaign against another person. He spoke of his experience as a leader in foreign diplomacy and credited Barack for having the tools to gradually move America away from this isolation mentality, and strategy. The best thing he could have possibly done was continue to compare the similarities between not only Barack and himself, but also their personalities, and opponent’s slights. After all the documented progress made by the democrats when Bill Clinton was in office, how can you not support a person who seems to be a political reincarnation of him.
Joe Biden did a great job of appealing to the questions that most Americans are dealing with. Rising gas prices, and declining wages. The ability to take care of family financially and the wonder of if you will personally be able to retire. I like the fact that he praised Barack Obama for his service and made it known that Obama had the opportunity to entire a fast paced work environment that would have made him a lot of money, but he declined with the intent to work in the community to right things he found wrong. He called McCain out on the 200 billion dollar tax break he wants to give big business and his lack of compassion to the 100 million families who need the break far more than the businesses. The only problem I had with Biden’s speech is he didn’t really tell what he brings to the table. Although his record and experience speaks for itself if you want to do the actual research he spent too much time praising Barack and not enough time letting the country know exactly who he is. I think Biden is a great complementary candidate who will work extremely well with Barack and he is the perfect counter to McCain’s running mate.
I have heard recordings of Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech. I have heard recordings of Malcolm X speech’s and a lot of other persons who are considered to be some of the best deliverers of prose in the United States history. But, in my lifetime I doubt that I will ever hear 40 minutes of the perfect speech, from the perfect person to deliver it, at the perfect time, with the perfect content and perfect tone. Can you tell how much I really liked Barack Obama’s speech? He addressed every concern that anybody might have had with him. If you like him but just don’t know exactly what he is going to do, he gave you a list of his initiatives going forward. You still don’t know exactly who he is, he gave you his biography, one that he wrote and the first steps of progress for his life weren’t due to his pedigree or last name. You think McCain is different from Bush; he gave the issues McCain has supported Bush on. He used great rhetoric asking how McCain can claim to follow Bin-Laden to the gates of hell but won’t even go to the cave he lives in. He showed how out of touch McCain is with his acknowledgment that he believes our economy is fine and stable, and that American middle class is a household income of about 5 million dollars.
Lastly he called John McCain out on all of his weaknesses. He told America that he will not engage in debate for the sake of just debate. He offered him topics that he would debate him on which are his temperament and judgment. Those two topics are ones McCain does not want to debate. He also called McCain out on the notion that he McCain is more patriotic than the next man because he was a POW (my honest opinion do you want a leader that has been captured). He accused McCain of making a big election about small things. In the most eloquent speech I have ever heard Barack Obama made his case for why he is the only viable option for the presidency this year.
Final Thoughts
I think the Democrats did an excellent job of portraying Barack Obama and Joe Biden as the American dream. The duo that knows exactly how many houses they have, and a duo that knows what the burdens of a middle class family are. Not born into privilege, but ascended to their positions with the intent to provide opportunities and policies that will allow their story to be a common one.
I think Barack will really reach out to the Clinton’s in the coming days and he needs to make them a large part of his campaigning efforts. He needs to create an idea, whether true or not; that Hilary will be an important person in his administration should he be elected. Biden needs to completely embarrass Sarah Palin, who is posturing as a valid vice-presidential candidate with John McCain. They need to expose her for what she truly is. A person who was selected not because of any qualifications she brings to the table but for appeal to what the republicans believe is a large population of women still hurt over Hilary not being on this ticket.
Well, American women are not idiots and do not vote completely based off emotion which is something the Republican Party probably believes with its sexist policies and beliefs. Biden can ultimately win this election for the democrats by simply exposing Sarah Palin. She is put in a very tough position. She must defend and support a man that does not even believe in fair pay for women.
Lastly, please go read the tran scri pt of John Kerry, Al Gore, and Gov. Brian Schweitzer speeches. The feeds that were being used for all the channels showing the democratic convention were property of Fox news. If you don’t know fox is extremely conservative and I’m not going to claim they were trying to sabotage anything but they didn’t cover Gov. Schweitzer, whose speech was suppose to be a very important one because of its emphasis on the plans to use wind and alternative sources of energy.
I am actually looking forward to the Republican National Convention. Where Bush will go for his third term in office. I apologize I mean McCain, you can’t tell those two apart these days. The democratic national convention took classy shots at McCain; I don’t know if the republicans even know how to respond to the new way of political posturing that Barack Obama is forcing upon them.
-- Brian Albritton Jr.
Brian Albritton Jr. is a contributing author of the EMQ blog, "Mental Penetration: No Protection Necessary" . A stimulating blog on current issues in relationships, politics, and spirituality through the eyes of young men. For more information visit http://emqtv.com/blog/mentalp/ .
