History

Tonight I arrived at Cal Western's student lounge around 2pm. My intention was to study the whole night through, breaking only to watch Barack Obama's speech. But once the buzz began there was no point resisting. I was captivated. What would he say? Would he be aggressive and yet respectful? Would he clearly lay out, once and for all, the specifics of his policy proposals in a distilled enough fashion such that they could still be digested by the electorate at large?

My initial response is... WOW! This is a unique man in history. But it is important to define unique here. Unique does NOT mean special, nor does it mean rare. It has inherent within it a sense of singularity. That there is no one person who is like Obama. Now before someone pulls the Messiah card, it is important to distinguish between the holy and the unique. I do not intend to say that Obama is divine - rather that he is the only person right now who inspires and engages such a disparate and ostensibly mutually exclusive cast of characters towards such collective aspirations.

Many have spoken accolades of Obama's speech tonight but the comments I find most expressive of my thoughts come from Joshua Marshall of TPM...

I thought this was a very strong speech. About exactly what was needed. It was a strong speech. He made the case for himself; he laid out clear policy goals; and he aggressively set forth the stakes of the campaign. He made the case against John McCain while not attacking his character -- which makes a clear contrast with McCain's aggressively personal, denigrating campaign strategy.

I've heard a few people say that he seemed to hold back from giving the soaring speech he might have given. But I suspect that was intentional and I think a good decision. Meta-themes and tonality form the deeper structure of political communication. And the aim of this speech was not eloquence but strength.

I've said myself that Obama's campaign needs to be more aggressive. They need to hold the initiative, and attack, attack, attack. But attacking doesn't mean bludgeoning -- at least not necessarily. It means making the case and defining the argument. Not running a campaign by reacting -- well or not -- to your opponent's attacks. As Paul Begala said in our interview with him a couple days ago, it's not about rapid response but rapid attack. Personally I might prefer an even more aggressive tack from Obama's surrogates. But I think here Obama himself had the balance just right.

Contrary to what might seem as my unwavering support of Obama, there are times when I question whether his actions are are really what this country needs. Tonight I am a proud supporter of Barack Obama.

For further exploration of the accomplishments of Obama's speech tonight PLEASE see Ezra Klein.