Kerry’s speech
I was surprised. Given the general view of Kerry as glum and too serious, well, he was relaxed, smiling, and confident. No, he’s not much different on the war. But on domestic issues like jobs, health care, and schools, there are genuine and huge differences. There was touchie-feelie feel-good stuff, but also seriously bared fangs. Kerry can go the distance and can punch as hard as Bush, maybe much harder, I’ve no doubt of that now. And Edwards will destroy Cheney in the debates.
Tough message aims at those outside arena
John Kerry accepted the nomination of his party Thursday night with a speech more muscular than any Democratic presidential nominee has given at a convention in four decades.
Some quotes
I want an America that relies on its own ingenuity and innovation — not the Saudi royal family.”
—
I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war. I will have a Vice President who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a Secretary of Defense who will listen to the best advice of our military leaders. And I will appoint an Attorney General who actually upholds the Constitution of the United States.
—
And it is time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families.
You don’t value families by kicking kids out of after school programs and taking cops off our streets, so that Enron can get another tax break.
We believe in the family value of caring for our children and protecting the neighborhoods where they walk and play.
And that is the choice in this election.
See what he did there, took several of Bush’s key issues and turned them against Bush, summing up each in one sentence. Nice.
No, I’ve not gone soft in the head for Kerry. But unlike Dukakis or Gore, Kerry will be going for the jugular. And that, fellow progressives, is good news for us all.
Plus, he, unlike Bush, appears to have actual ideas, he gets the “vision thing”, he rallied the troops. Actually, “rallied” is an understatement, the audience was ecstatic, they were going fucking nuts, and it wasn’t staged.
From Blogging of the President
Pat Buchanan thought Kerry knocked it out of the ballpark. So did the Frank Luntz focus group. The health care proposals, and keeping jobs in America sent both the Democrat/Independent and the Republican lines way way up, quite literally off the charts. And in my household, always a tough room to play, tonight Kerry turned us into true believers.
It was a quite amazing speech, it really was…