1:30 am. This evening's proceedings honestly left me deflated.
There was a long procession of governors who spoke, punctuated by the keynote speech by Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia. His speech was, I thought, underwhelming -- heartfelt, interesting, but not very original and just a tad too long.
Our own Deval Patrick's was the best of the lot (as usual), but even he seemed a bit off the mark tonight. His themes weren't new (to me), although admittedly they may have been to most. He didn't seem to pause for applause lines long enough to relish the many good moments. But it still made the Massachusetts delegation go a little nuts when he was introduced and when he was finished. He is incredibly popular with the entire delegation.
Gov. Schweitzer of Montana just seemed goofy to me, although most of my fellow delegates disagreed -- he seemed to serve the role of frothing people up just before Hillary's video was played (prelude to Chelsea Clinton's introduction of her mother).
When Hillary's video was played, the convention erupted around me -- but I was not a part of it. I was on the outside, looking in.
When Hillary began recounting her campaign's war stories, I was at first angered, thinking this shouldn't be about history, it should be about the future. But she hit her strongest points when she turned these stories into reasons to support Barack Obama -- her "Were you in this campaign just for me?" series of questions became vindications of how close the two candidates really are on the issues, and should have robbed her supporters of any lingering reason to withdraw or not support Obama. Her best line in my book was, "No way, no how, no McCain."
Still I have this lingering disbelief. And I am nervous about the denouement.
The after-hours party was actually the highlight for me, when Deval Patrick turned up at the restaurant and I had a chance to greet him and congratulate him on his speech.
Worrisome report: a fellow (Obama supporter) delegate from the Mass. delegation was stopped on her way into the convention hall and asked to sign a pledge to insist on a roll-call vote for Hillary Clinton. She refused.
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3 comments:
tI am loving your inside scoop on all the details of the convention. Keep it coming! I've watched as much of the convention to date as possible and my impressions via C-Span and MSNBC and take on the speeches were very similar to yours. I wondered if Deval's speech was hurried because he had to fly back for a funeral? Speitzer's was over the top but I assumed that was his style and the pundits have been slamming the convention for not enough red meat. Hillary? At first I was nervous, then relieved that she stated her support early in her speech. When she went into her stump speech I felt, here we go again and that it should be about Obama--not HER! The last third of her speech was great and she strongly urged her supporters to unite. ("Was it really just about me?') BUT she did not address the things she said about Obama during the primary in any way. As predicted, those comments are being used by "No way, no how, no McCain" in ads. I hope Bill makes it clear that Obama is ready to lead. Oh, I caught a quick glimpse of you on C-Span last night! It was when a mayor from Alaska was speaking.
I meant Gov. Schweitzer. (Sorry, posting without enough coffee.)
Sharon, thanks for your comments -- glad to hear you're finding the posts useful.
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