DENVER
Barack Obama‘s chal lenge at Invesco Field last night was daunting: to outdo his own past success in delivering speeches.
Mission accomplished. His race speech may have been more inspiring – but last night, he hit all the themes he needed to.
The goal here was different, and the speech showed a rarely seen side of Obama – one willing to take on John McCainand to put some meat on the bones of his soaring rhetoric.
Obama’s speechwriters focused primarily on three convention acceptance speeches in their preparation: Ronald Reagan’s in 1980, Bill Clinton’s in 1992 and John Kennedy’s in 1960.
The echoes of Reagan and Clinton were most obvious, and it’s easy to see why: Both delivered their speeches to a country in economic turmoil, with Americans as worried about their futures as they are today in 2008.
Obama weaved the theme of American exceptionalism throughout his speech, calling it “America’s Promise.” He stopped short (just barely) of Reagan’s 1980 proclamation that there was no “doubt that only a Divine Providence placed this land . . . as a refuge for all those people in the world who yearn to breathe freely.”
The speech may have seemed boring to some Obamaphiles midway through, when he explained how he’ll offer the “change” we’ve heard so much about. But it was a smart section to have – because the area where voters are most unsure about him involves his policies, not his biography.
In a recent Pew poll, fewer than half (48 percent) of voters say they know a lot or a fair amount about Obama’s foreign-policy positions, while 51 percent say they know just some or very little. More than six in 10 (62 percent) say they know a lot or a fair amount about his background and qualifications.
Pew also found that independents are more familiar with McCain than Obama – both in terms of foreign-policy positions and personal backgrounds.
The Obama camp surely had all that in mind this week, because this is Obama’s best chance yet to address these voters, who’ve heard almost nonstop attacks on his character and ability from the Republicans. Independents represent an area of growth for him; his nods to centrism on guns, gays and abortion were clearly targeted in that direction.
One area where he missed an opportunity was to make an overt “ask.” For a candidate who sometimes rises too high, reaching out to voters humbly would be smart. He never asked Hillary voters to vote for him, as Bill Clinton did to Ross Perot voters in 1992. (“I am well aware that all those millions of people who rallied to Ross Perot’s cause wanted to be in an army of patriots for change. Tonight I say to them, join us, and together we will revitalize America.”)
In fact, Obama never made an explicit “ask” as JFK famously did when, cheered on by the audience, he said, “Give me your help. Give me your hand, your voice and your vote!”
For his part, Reagan told the crowd, “To do this will take many of us, working together. I ask you tonight to volunteer your help in this cause so we can carry our message throughout the land.”
But this lack will be forgiven by voters who were likely moved by Obama’s vision of what America can be and reassured by his understanding of what needs to be done to restore America’s promise.