Obama speech — B-plus on politics but C-minus on progressivism

Obama had a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.

Looking at it in terms of political strategy and accomplishments, I'd give him a solid B+, I think. No higher than that, though, due to delivery and lack of charisma more than content issues, but some on that.

I terms of true progressivism, he gets a C-minus. (See Durbin post immediately below, in part.)

1. Some good lines about change, and some specifics of what he would do, though a lot of it is a generic grab bag.

2. “Eight is enough” not bad

3. He does a decent job in saluting women’s rights issues more than once.

4. Even at his most charismatic, I’ve never thought of him as that charismatic. And tonight, he wasn’t. David Brooks (I was watching PBS) is right that he wasn’t very emotional, and that may have been due in part to the outdoor facility. It was also a bit long, yes.

5. Economic issues? If he wanted to make this election about the economy, he got a “B” there but no better. (Dinged as a political speech as much as on progressive grounds.)

6. Georgia, the nation? Damn, do Democrats have to be so stupid, and so hypocritical, as to out-Cold Warrior McCain while at the same time accuse him of being a diehard Cold Warrior?

7. Al Qaeda? Yesterday’s news on this year’s political radar screen. (Dinged as a political speech more than on progressive grounds.)

8. Good comments on McCain and patriotism, but weak in any attack. He could have said, “Great military qualifications don’t necessarily make for great presidential qualifications.”

9. Obama hypocrisy on gay marriage — he claims there are differences between him and McCain when, in the last month, at the Saddleback Forum Obama said he defined marriage as between a man and a woman. How is that different from McCain?

Greenwald generally agrees with my assessment, beyond just Obama:

(T)he Democrats, as a result of omissions, are largely guilty of doing what they typically do: appearing listless and amorphous by standing for nothing other than safe and uncontroversial platitudes.

Shorter Glenn: Obama’s drive for post-partisan politics includes ignoring why the Iraq War was a clusterfuck and how Bush became stubborn about it, and how it mutilated our civil liberties (Kerry’s one comment aside, Dems ignored Gitmo). But, Glenn says Obama’s speech, even more than Biden’s, was the best attack speech of the convention.