Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Democrats Day 1

I'm writing about the Michelle Obama speech, mainly, for PP (will add link when it goes up).  I think I'll handle some of the rest notes-style:

1. By tomorrow, I expect the Fox News/conservative talk radio version of this day to be that it was wall-to-wall bitter attacks on Mitt Romney's wealth and his patriotism. In fact, quite a few speakers used his overseas bank accounts as punch lines, and two speakers did in fact explicitly mention patriotism -- I think they both said "economic" patriotism -- so in those cases, they have a point. Of course, Republicans last week said that Obama was against the American dream, but regardless: the clips from tonight are going into the loop that reminds Republicans how hate-filled Democrats always are. Oh -- they're already giving that treatment to the Ted Kennedy memorial video, which detoured for a while into clips from the Kennedy/Romney Senate campaign. Apparently for some reason that's not kosher.

2. Wow, did they ever commit solidly on marriage! Presumably, the thinking is that it's an issue that's unusually good at motivating a very large chunk of very iffy voters to show up at the polls. Still, it seems to me that they would worry about scaring off the muddled middle who consider marriage a third-tier issue and wonders why that, and not jobs, is the focus.

3. I'm sure everyone is saying this (they did on twitter at least), but both the enthusiasm in the hall and the overall level of the speakers were clearly superior for the Democrats. You know what I'm going to say: be careful about giving too much weight to that. Remember first of all that most of it is invisible to most viewers (who only watch at best some of the broadcast network hour, and most likely see sound bites and interviews later), and also that most of us hear everything through a partisan haze -- so you need a lot less of a push if you're already leaning that way.

4. If conventions were about constructing a careful argument...my sense is that the Democratic "real people" did that more effectively than the Republican "real people" from last week. What the Republican real people were selling, over and over again, was that they had made it on their own and that they were insulted by a (mis) quote from Barack Obama. Leaving aside the dishonesty of it, the problem was that it didn't really give people a reason other then pique for supporting Romney; they didn't, generally, explain how specific Obama policies were harming them. Obama's real people all named specific Obama programs that had helped them, thus leading to a conclusion that you should vote for him.

5. Tonight's program was extremely Obama-centric. I mean, the parts that weren't bashing Romney. It was far more about Obama than about the Democratic Party. My sense is that the Republican convention was far less about Romney than the Democrats so far were about Obama.

6. None of the Democrats who tried call-and-response were very good at it. The champ? Ted Kennedy. But I suspect that if he tries it tomorrow, Bill Clinton will teach a master class.

10 comments:

  1. O'Malley's call and response fell flat. And he kept doing it.

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  2. here's my plain blogger-trained attempt at predicting media/public reaction to the Michelle speech (I haven't read the Master Plain Blogger's reaction yet). the only response to it that the right-wing media is going to feel comfortable with ignoring it (although they're going to be in a tight spot if one of their many hot heads says something stupid about MO tomorrow). since the right-wing audience is only going to get the MSM response to MO (unless they're completely insulated against it), they're going to come away with a good impression of her. Of course, the Angry White Males won't vote Obama no matter what and will probably vote Romney enthusiastically. Their wives, mothers, sisters and daughters on the other hand are probably having serious doubts...

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  3. What the Romney people and the right wing bloggers say doesn't matter. They weren't the audience for this night, nor are the people who listen to them and care what they say. This night was for Latinos (who love Obamacare more than other groups), women and the other demographic groups that Obama needs to come out in large numbers. It was for the grandchildren of immigrants who might finally see a connection to the dreams of newer immigrants. It's not identity politics. It's the new middle class. And Michelle's speech was for the entire middle and upper middle class--not to look back in anger but to remember how they really got to where they are, and what it will take to make a better future.

    This is not the politics of back and forth. This is the politics of nation-building at home, and the politics of getting votes.

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  4. One more thing--O'Malley's call and response may have seemed lame but the TV optics as prime time started told the story effectively, I thought--the signs flashing "Forward" in blue and "Not Back" in red. O'Malley fleshed out the theme--in that context I thought it went pretty well.

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    1. That just made me think of Bill Clinton-Kang from the Simpsons:

      "Forward! Not backward! Upward! Not forward! And always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom."

      I'm sure I wasn't the only one to think this.

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    2. You were not; in fact, I said it out loud, and then had to remind my wife where it came from.

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  5. Castro did something BETTER than call and response. He turned the call-and-response around on the audience on healthcare. That was hilarious.

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    1. Agreed. It was funny and devastating at the same time. For partisans like me, Romney was a joke, a figure to be derided. Not sure if that had the same effect on undecideds (hope so!), but all of the speeches pumped me up. Looking to phonebank later today. Haven't volunteered since '08.

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  6. From the vehemence of the right-wing trolls out this morning, devoid of anything but 'not,' I'd say last night was a rousing success.

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  7. Wow, I'd never have believed that the Left would actually center up on Teddy the Swimmer at this convention. I'm taking that as a sign of weakness, that they think their base isn't consolidated, and that they have work to do there. Not good, because Gallup's showing Independents are falling away from Obama, and they ain't exactly Teddy fans. It may mean Obama's in the hurt locker at both ends.

    Teddy was fun with that call and response thing though, as creepy as that all is. In 1988, he read off a long list of GHW Bush's sins, with the crowd chanting "Where was George?" after each. So the R's followed up at their convention with Charlton Heston answering the question with: "Where was George? He was home, dry, sober and in bed with his wife." I think that pretty much effectively ended the Swimmer's appearances at these shindigs. ;-)

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