The scene at FitzGerald's was worth the crush of crowd. Obama fans (plus Republican Tony Peraica, who gets credit for nerve) packed the music club on Roosevelt Road to watch the big speech from Denver's Mile-High Stadium on Bill FitzGerald's hi-def projection system. Hopes-and energy level-were a mile high as well.
It would be tough to meet, much less exceed, such wildly heightened expectations, but after 30 years of wandering the political desert (the Clinton presidency notwithstanding), progressives and liberals can't be blamed for getting their hopes up.
The excitement and expectations seemed higher still in Denver. Stevie Wonder and Michael McDonald entertained the crowd. Al Gore spoke with considerable confidence and authority about the opportunity we missed in 2000 and the one we must seize this time. Gore's stature now is undoubtedly much higher than it would have been if his election hadn't been stolen out from under him by the loser (literally and figuratively) who turned out to be such a miserable failure as president.
At the least, Gore must feel vindicated. But he didn't sound vindictive. He sounded prophetic.
Obama, meanwhile, sounded like a champion, warrior, and leader. He took the battle directly to his opponents and nailed John McCain and the Bush administration to the wall. The Republicans aren't used to taking what they've been dishing out for 30 years. They're no doubt in full hysteria mode this week in Minneapolis. But everything Obama said was right (so to speak) on target. He addressed every one of the criticisms, most of them phony, raised against him, and he leveled every one.
Is he ready to be president? Is he tough enough? Is he American enough? Does he love his country enough? Is he willing and able to defend this country if necessary? Can he get beyond soaring rhetoric to specifics on what he plans to do as president? Can he tell us how he's going to pay for those specifics? Will he raise the average American's taxes? Is he too liberal? Can he end the Iraq war honorably? Is he an elitist? Is he just a shallow Paris Hilton-like celebrity? What do we really know about him?
Well, we know he's smart-smart enough to pre-empt every attack the Republicans were planning to throw at him this week. As a result, their typical low-road negativity should sound even more shrill and outdated than usual.
Did Obama's speech do enough to sway the undecided (or the previously decided?). Who knows? This is one hard-headed, change-averse country. We proved in the last two elections that Americans are quite capable of voting against their best interests. Could they do it a third time? Hard to believe, but we'll find out in November.
In his speech, Obama managed to exceed even my lofty expectations. He's given a remarkable number of memorable speeches already in his career, but none quite like this. Last Thursday night, I think, he came into his own. As the Sioux used to say about Sitting Bull, he owns himself. That was a man we saw onstage in Denver last Thursday night-a man to be reckoned with.
Are Americans smart enough to choose him as president? Let's hope so. It may be our last best chance to turn this country around and reconnect with what's best in us. But Americans lately have a shoddy citizenship record. When you have a failed presidency-especially a two-term failed presidency-it also represents a failure of citizenship.
The American people need to own that failure, like the Republican Party needs to own its failure, before we can move forward. Voters took a step toward redemption in November 2006. Are we ready for the next step?
Whether Obama convinced enough Americans to let go of the status quo and embrace change remains to be seen, but he did as much as he could Thursday night to make that happen. I couldn't ask for anything more.
The convention coincided with some remarkable anniversaries. Hillary Clinton gave a terrific speech on Aug. 26, the anniversary of women getting the vote in 1920. Aug. 28, the night of Obama's acceptance speech, was the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech.
Obama's speech didn't match that one in poetry, but on Aug. 27, which from now on will be known as the anniversary of the first black man to be nominated for president by a major political party, Obama and the Democratic Party gave the American people the opportunity to make King's dream come true at last: "I have a dream," King said, "that my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Thursday night, Barack Obama, if nothing else, showed character. If the American people judge him by that, he'll be our next president.
