Kerry

Well, I think this is going pretty well. He’s still not a great orator, but he can be good, and I’d say he’s close to the top of his game. While I can’t help but think they’ve been laying on the Vietnam service a bit thick, but the Cleland introduction was powerful and really a very good idea.

So far (this is L G and M’s first experiment with “liveblogging”), Kerry has sounded good. He’s fired as many direct broadsides against the Bush administration as anyone all week, which I like. I think they’ve done very well.

The stuff about “I’ll have a VP who won’t conduct secret meetings with polluters, aSecdef who ignores in intel, an AG who protects the constitution, etc.” Pure gold.

“I won’t send troops to war without a plan to win the peace”
I love this. One of the safest and most effective avenues of attack on Iraq. This line should be in ads.

Now he’s on the family values/valuing families schtick. Good stuff, takes a wedge issue and turns it around nicely, and he leads that nicely into the equality of opportunity theme of Obama and Edwards..

Health care stuff. He’s giving specifics here. It’s good, although I preferred Napolitano’s HC speech, which was more about transforming the discourse about health care. Strongly says HC is a right for all Americans, which I like.

(He’s still strong on delivery, but he seems to be rushing now, talking over applause. I wonder if he’s trying to finish by 11:00)

I think I like his religion bit. I don’t want to insist that God is on my side, I want to pray humbly that I am on God’s side. On the one hand, it seems defensive, a response to a GOP smear that doesn’t deserve a response about Democrats being too secular to relate to voters. On the other hand, this is a really good way to respond to it. Christianity is a powerful theme, and it’s meanings are diverse and contested. The emphasis on humility (while Kerry will never come across as Humble) provides an outstanding contrast to Bush’s take on religion and politics.

The end is a little anticlimactic, but this was a really good speech for Kerry. He certainly exceeded my expectations.

Now for the unpleasant business of seeing what Chris Matthews and the  jackasses at Fox News say. Off to do my duty.