Morning

¶ Grace: Watchinig Barack Obama deliver (most of) his acceptance speech last night, I was struck by the man’s physical aptitude for leadership, and I conclude that it is his command of the pulpit that allows him to preach bedrock values without sounding old-hat.

Joe has a link to a video of the speech, and there’s a crisp, concise Editorial in the Times. But all I could think of, strangely, was Roy Jenkins’s biography of Gladstone, the most memorable political biography that I have ever read.

A very satisfying experience, that speech was, to kick off the Labor Day weekend. Enjoy it!

Oremus…

Morning, cont’d

§ Grace. An acute observation from the Times editorial:

Part, we suspect, was stage management. There was little display in the convention hall, and even less in prime-time broadcasts, of the placards of the teachers’ and service workers’ unions, of the National Abortion Rights Action League and the Sierra Club.

That reflected the Obama campaign’s sound analysis that American voters mistrust interest groups — except their own — and its brash conviction that Mr. Obama’s drawing power is so strong that they can win without giving these groups prominence.

A sublime move on the stage managers’ part. For too long, special interest groups have been waving their insignia at political events as if they were brandishing arms. They’ve been scaring ordinary American voters more than they’ve frightened one another.

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