Obama Delivers New Kind of Speech: Calls McCain on "Temperament" to be President

Barack Obama delivered a new kind of acceptance speech at the Democratic Convention - one which I bet the Republicans will have a hard time responding to. Part soaring rhetoric, part specific details about how Obama would reduce taxes, develop and reward an intelligent energy policy, end the war - but also filled with specific punches at John McCain that we have not heard before in this campaign.

Some were directed at McCain's swaggering foreign policy - if McCain will pursue bin Laden to the gates of hell, how come he can't even get him these days in his cave? Others at McCain's years of service in the broken Washington government.

But my favorite - and the one which I think will serve Obama best in the next months - was a challenge to debate McCain on who had the better judgment and temperament. Challenging an opponent's judgment we've heard before. Calling an opponent on temperament - whether an opponent is fit to be President on the basis of emotional disposition and control - is something new. And it is something which should pay off well in comparisons with McCain, who has a notoriously thin skin. He's lost his cool more than a few times on television over the years - is this something Americans really want in their next President?

McCain will announce his running mate tomorrow, and the Republican convention will take place next week. Pundits have been saying that Republicans have the advantage in going second. But I'm thinking that the Democratic convention in general, and Obama's extraordinary speech in particular, have thrown so much truth at the Republicans that they may not have the time to catch up.

We'll see. And I'll be back here next week with more.



See also: Al Gore: The Two Lines of History Converge

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