So, things got off to slightly imperfect start, they missed the cue when Barack Obama strolled out (the beginning to U2's "City of Blinding Lights" my favorite song from their last album).
I loved the fact they used David Strathairn to narrate the video. I love that guy, and his simple, straightforward, sincere delivery carried the piece subtly, without getting in the way as a more famous voice might have (though, really DS should be more famous).
But then Barack Obama got into it, and you realize why he has captured our imaginations the way he has.
He was forceful, grounded (credit cards, student loans), clearly marking out the differences between himself and John McCain.
He took great pains (as did others throughout the week) to point out McCain's heroism and his strength of character, drawing attention to the types of character assassinations McCain is indulging in (when he promised not to), without having to explicitly draw attention to it.
Less rhetoric and more about the economy. Wow, and he still managed to hold a crowd of 75,000 (75,000) transfixed. Dude, it was completely full behind the stage!
He was careful to give a lot of love to Bill and Hillary Clinton, smart man (you wouldn't like the Clintons when they're angry).
"America, now is not the time for small plans..." Nope, now is the time to think big, to think beyond yourselves and the petty political boxes the establishment is very happy to put you in.
"They have not served a Red America, or a Blue America, they have served a United States of America." Nicely done man, nicely done, especially after taking to task the negative politicking the Republicans are so adept at.
"If you don't' have any fresh ideas you use stale tactics to scare voters." Wow, the John Kerry Swift Boating did teach the Democrats some lessons after all.
"This election has never been about me, it's about you." Again, a nice counterpoint to McCain's branding of Barack as a celebrity in love with the sound of his own voice.
"In defining moments like these, change doesn't come from Washington, change comes to Washington." Again, this sense of change coming from an organic, self-sustaining, on-the-ground movement, not being mandated by the powers-that-be.
The speech wasn't quite as exciting and inspiring as his keynote address four long years ago (when my colleague Rich Chen and I discovered him, way back when, before he was cool). How could it be? On that day the whole world discovered this vision of the future together. This time he had to be on point, to get specifics across, to outline his plans, to stand up to the vicious Republican attacks, to tell people what he wanted to do, not what he wished for our futures.
But the fact that he managed do all these mundane little things and inspire all those people in the stadium, to electrify those tens of thousands, to carry his message forward of hope, of a new America, of this defining transformative moment in our lives, that was incredible.
And remember, in Barack Obama's own words:
"America, we cannot turn back."
LINKS
NYT: Obama Takes Aim at Bush and McCain With a Forceful Call to Change America
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