Not a Big Truck

Brian Schweitzer, the Governor of Montana, delivered this solid speech.  It’s the best I’ve heard from a pol at this convention so far.  Exciting, funny, engaging, and surprisingly substantive on energy questions. I wish the major cable networks would show these speeches as well, rather than just showing pundits speculating about what the Clintons will do and why McCain is so close in the polls.

I hope this guy can deliver Montana.

Via Reuters:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.

The stage, similar to structures used for rock concerts, has been set up at the 50-yard-line, the midpoint of Invesco Field, the stadium where the Denver Broncos’ National Football League team plays.

Some 80,000 supporters will see Obama appear from between plywood columns painted off-white, reminiscent of Washington’s Capitol building or even the White House, to accept the party’s nomination for president.

He will stride out to a raised platform to a podium that can be raised from beneath the floor. …

Once Obama speaks, confetti will rain down on him and fireworks will be fired off from locations around the stadium wall.

I am afraid that the Obama campaign is overdoing the pomp and circumstance again.

The description of the stage and podium reminds me of a blunder made by the Obama team earlier this summer: they designed a special Obama seal, resembling the presidential seal but in all blue and carrying the words “Obama for America” as well as the Latin phrase “Vero Possumus” (”yes we can”), and affixed it to his podium.

The seal practically screamed “arrogant” and “presumptuous” and Obama was quickly and widely slammed for using it.  It disappeared within a few days of its introduction, but not without boosting, however slightly, the image of Obama that the McCain campaign is increasingly pushing: overhyped, egotistical, a slick package with not much inside.

And, of course, there was in late July Obama’s speech in Berlin before a screaming crowd of two hundred thousand Germans.  McCain subsequently used images from that speech in the now-notorious “Celebrity” ad featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.  (”He’s the biggest celebrity in the world.  But is he ready to lead?”)  Whether or not that ad played a direct role in the recent tightening of the presidential race, it was successful in putting Obama’s supposed arrogance and unjustified egoism — exemplified by that speech in Berlin — at the center of our national political conversation for a short time.

To be clear, I don’t think there was anything wrong in a moral sense with Obama giving that speech; being popular with our allies is a good thing, and celebrity status is not bad per se.  But from a political perspective, it seems to have been a questionable decision at best.  What did the Obama team believe was the perceived benefit of giving that speech?  The only explanation I can think of is that they thought it would make him look presidential, but that is a goal that was by all accounts fully accomplished during the other, more diplomat-like segments of his international tour.

On the other hand, the drawbacks of that speech are clear in hindsight and I have to think that they were foreseeable.  As much as I like Obama and believe that he is our best option for president, the reality is that although he may have good judgment, as exemplified by his opposition of the Iraq War, he has virtually zero foreign policy credentials, aside from having majored in international relations in college.  He has served in politics at a level higher than the state legislature for less than four years.  It’s not unreasonable for some folks to be wondering, “Who is this guy?”  And if they are asking that, you don’t want one of their first impressions of him to be something as unusual and as extremely un-humble as speaking in front of 200,000 people in a foreign country that the vast majority of Americans will never be able to visit.  None of our previous presidents ever got crowds that big, much less before they actually became president.  Why is this necessary, and who does this guy think he is?

More than a few commentators have attributed a “messiah complex” to Obama and his campaign.  I suspect this is more true of the people working for Obama than of the man himself, though anyone running for president obviously has an ego of unhealthy proportions.  But it’s a criticism of which Obama needs to be very mindful.  While his success has been predicated in large part on his powerful oratory and ability to galvanize masses of people, the line between extraordinary popularity and cult-figurehood is a dangerously fine one.

In Berlin, the campaign spent thousands of dollars renting cranes to mount cameras high above the crowd to capture majestic panoramic shots of the masses surrounding their idol.  This Thursday in Denver, the $75,000 SkyCam, familiar to NFL fans, will be swooping above the field as the junior senator from Illinois addresses the multitudes before him.  Bill Clinton says he won’t be there, but I’m sure he’ll be able to catch some highlights later in a McCain ad.

I think I like her, but she is struggling with the speech.  Also saw her yesterday on Meet the Press and she similarly struggled.  She must be solid politically, but over the last few days, she has not dealt well with the MSM.  Good message, but delivery is weak.

Probably doesn’t matter, because the story tonight will be Ted Kennedy and Mrs. Obama.