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By BRIAN A. HOWEY
INDIANAPOLIS - Barack Obama’s rhetoric soared to the rim of a stadium a mile high Thursday night, but the central message and the impressive set were grounded in the realities of the coming slugfest with John McCain. Obama opted for an acceptance speech with a distinct political nature, mentioning McCain a dozen times. For a candidate who had 
long sold himself as being above traditional partisan politics, Obama was on the attack mode before millions of Americans who tuned in for the first time.
Obama obviously didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of 2004 and John Kerry, who attempted to take the high road and was “Swift-boated” to a narrow defeat despite the increasingly unpopular Iraq War. “The record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time,” Obama said about 10 minutes into the speech. “Sen. McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than 90 percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.”
Obama continued, “The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives — on health care and education and the economy — Sen. McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made ‘great progress’ under this president. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisers — the man who wrote his economic plan — was talking about the anxieties that Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a ‘mental recession,’ and that we’ve become, and I quote, ‘a nation of whiners.’”
Obama talked of a Hoosier. “We’re a better country than one where a man in Indiana has to pack up the equipment he’s worked on for 20 years and watch it shipped off to China, and then chokes up as he explains how he felt like a failure when he went home to tell his family the news.”
Obama challenged McCain to debate him on foreign policy, saying, “If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next commander in chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have. For while Sen. McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats that we face. 
When John McCain said we could just ‘muddle through’ in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. You know, John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell — but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.
While most of the Democratic National Convention had been hued in blue, and shots from above had Obama walking atop a blue carpet in front of Greek Revival columns, the network camera angles had a red hued, earthtone monochromatic backdrop that lent to the heavy payload of the speech. While many expected Bruce Springsteen’s “The Rising” to cap off the night, the campaign opted for modern country music, and then subdued strings as the Obama and Biden families waved to the crowd. This was Barack NASCAR. Clearly, with the Clintons’ emphatic endorsements and the youthful Democratic base united with the party’s traditional special interests now at arm’s length, this was a campaign looking to connect to independent and Republican voters.
Within these earthtones, Obama wanted to rub off the celebrity sheen of the campaign that allowed McCain to shave away his lead in the polls. Picking up the family biography that wife Michelle had articulated on Monday, Obama talked of his absent father, his wandering mother and his staunch grandparents who rolled with Patton’s 3rd Army and built Flying Fortresses, saying, “Now, I don’t know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes. Theirs are the stories that shaped my life. And it is on behalf of them that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as president of the United States.”
Obama made only fleeting references to Dr. Martin Luther King, whose “I Have a Dream” speech took place on Aug. 28, 1963. “And it is that promise that 45 years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a mall in Washington, before Lincoln’s Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream,” Obama said toward the end of his speech.”We cannot walk alone,” the preacher cried. “And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.”
It was here in the penultimate section of the speech that Obama wove the aggressive rhetoric into the setting and called upon King’s legendary address in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
Instead, Obama initialized his speech with recognition of a nation on the wrong track, as many polls have revealed. “We meet at one of those defining moments — a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more,” Obama said. “Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less. More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach. These challenges are not all of government’s making. But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush. America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.”
Many critics have targeted Obama for lack of detail. He responded to them by saying he will forge a tax cut for 95 percent of the people, end the capital gains tax, responsibly end the war in Iraq while issuing a 10-year challenge to break America’s dependency on foreign oil.
“And for the sake of our economy, our security and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East. We will do this,” Obama said while blaming intertia and McCain. “Washington’s been talking about our oil addiction for the last 30 years, and by the way, John McCain’s been there for 26 of them. And in that time, he’s said no to higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars, no to investments in renewable energy, no to renewable fuels. And today, we import triple the amount of oil that we had on the day that Sen. McCain took office.”
Specifically, Obama said, “As president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I’ll help our auto companies retool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America. I’ll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars. And I’ll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy — wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels; an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced.”
In the most fascinating section of the speech, Obama took on guns, God and gays in one paragraph, coming ever closer to touching the cultural rails. “We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country,” Obama said in a section that echoed the stance of former Indiana congressman Tim Roemer, who seeks to eliminate 90 percent of abortions in a decade.
“The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than they are for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland,” Obama said of guns. “but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals. I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination. You know, passions may fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.”
The McCain campaign cried foul on several fronts, particularly when Obama questioned his commitment to tracking down Osama bin Laden. Indiana Republican Party Chairman Murray Clark observed, “We recognize this for what is was: a well-delivered speech on an historic occasion. But Barack Obama didn’t win my vote tonight, and based on the content of his speech, I think it’s unlikely he won the hearts of many Hoosiers. However, for future generations, it is important to recognize that tonight was an important milestone in our nation’s history.”
This speech wasn’t the smooth arc many of us who have heard Obama speak many times expected. On the Indiana campaign trail, he often transcended the blunt opposition of Hillary Clinton and talked beyond the trenches. On Thursday night, Obama entered them. It was by far the most aggressive speech he has given. The delegates in the stadium were transfixed by the towering, sprawling setting, it was easy to see how the true believers and Hillary converts might have gotten swept up in the moment.
For the new viewer, this was a different Obama. He prowled against McCain and President Bush and took his gloves off. It created somewhat of a jarring contrast to his normal fare and it hints of the epic political battle that lies just around the corner and won’t fully play out until Nov. 4.
Tags: Barack Obama, George Bush, John Kerry, John McCain
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This entry was written by and posted on August 29, 2008 at 1:30 pm and filed under HPI Weekly. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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