The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

A wonderful retrospective from Mark Schmitt

Those speeches of last winter and spring make up probably the most sustained, successful, and memorable verbal performance in American politics since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Fireside Chats or perhaps since Abraham Lincoln. Having worked as a speechwriter, it was astonishing to see one man, in the midst of intense, competitive campaign activity, deliver so many superb and deeply personal speeches, something few politicians manage to do more than once or twice a year. Barack Obama is president because of those speeches, something that cannot be said of any president before him in the television age, and few before that. For months it seemed the strongest case against Obama was that his politics consisted of “just words.”

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And yet, the president has moved on. Through the course of the campaign, his words slowly came down to earth, from inspiring and cocky to the mundane and practical. As the “gathering clouds” of the economic crisis became too dark to ignore, he accelerated his move from inspiration to work. His words no longer serve the purpose of pulling us up but of naming and giving order to the work to be done: roads, the electric grid, ending torture, restoring America’s place in the world.

The speeches are over. We’ll miss them. What a joy it was to live through that period, and we can only hope that its light shines on the presidency it gave birth to.

Mark gives voice to a nagging sense that has been tugging on me; fully answering why I found Obama’s Inaugural speech pitch perfect, while so many found it flat. The days of Obama’s soaring speeches are over – and the national stage may not give him any further opportunities to soar as he had. We now must attune our ears to the stirring sound of a call to service, to hard work, to sacrifice. We have a miry sludge to march through – and at every step we will march one plodding step at a time. This isn’t pretty, and the words to push us through will likewise will seldom be so.

It was a wonderful time, and I hope to own a dvd of those amazing speeches that got us this far. But I think for the next four years, we will have to adjust to a much more down to earth Presidential tone.

I am not going to be very articulate – I’ve been browsing all the favorite sites to see what people thought, after having my own celebration of this historic event in my own quiet way.  I thought the speech itself was amazing – practical, down to earth, but with a hint of that soaring inspiration that everyone showed up to get.  Yes – I’ll say it.  80,000 people didn’t show up to hear a policy speech – they showed up to hear why they should have hope – and while it is true that Obama needed to be more practical, more nose-to-the-grind and feet-on-the-ground for this speech – he would have disappointed all those who showed up if he didn’t share a little bit of the inspiration his campaign has come to be known for.  People need a chance to believe in America again – this is a part of our collective self-esteem.

Chris Matthews, on MSNBC said,

I’ve been criticized for saying he inspires me. To hell with my critics.

Amen.  I have been loving Chris Matthews for his sloppy enthusiasm for some time now (that, and I think he’s way smarter than people give him credit for), and this is part of why.  Heck yeah.  Even journalists have a right to feel proud of their country – of their moment in history.  There will be plenty of time for journalists to do the journalistic duty of careful scrutiny, but that has nothing to do with one’s personal feelings.

On a Hillary supporter’s site – I saw yet another example of the perennially unhappy – looking for slights and problems everywhere.  Fortunately – the perennially unhappy were in the minority, while most others expressed, perhaps in more subdued terms than me, their satisfaction with the event.  I especially appreciated their critique – their genuine concern that this speech demonstrate “smartness” – what they saw in Hillary they need to see some of in Barack in order to have confidence that he won’t blow it and cost the democrats the White House again.

I watched the speech on BET – this was BET’s first convention coverage, and in celebration of all that this moment means to black America, I had to share it with them.  I still also taped it on C-SPAN, which has been my channel of choice during the convention.

I watched the speech with my son, who’s attention was often diverted – he’s a tween, and the significance of the moment isn’t lost on him, but it isn’t more exciting than his video games.

One person I didn’t watch the speech with, was my dad. My dad died yesterday morning. Perhaps fittingly, at 3 am I got the call from the hospital.  My father was a community activist, as had been Obama, and while he never sought political office (didn’t care for politics), my dad had a deep abiding interest in the welfare of black people in this country. He lived in one of the most challenging neighborhoods in Brooklyn, and was loved in the community, even in the end, when he had become so isolated from everyone due to some personal life choices and hard life circumstances. This would have been a day he would have loved to see, but I’m at least glad that he saw its advent.