Thinking about Obama's speech

Barack Obama will formally accept the nomination of the Democratic Party for President tomorrow here in Denver, Colorado. There is rampant speculation about what he will say. I've heard many people bemoaning the lack of aggression on the part of the Democrats. I've heard lots of people worried that McCain is pulling ahead.

I am not worried, and I don't think the Democrats need to be more aggressive. I'm happy with how Obama is responding to McCain and the Republicans; forcefully, with justified anger, but not out of fear or cynicism.

My problem with Obama going negative on McCain is that he lowers himself to McCain's level, and I think that's not a good approach. McCain may very well win a mudfight.

Obama's trick, then, has to be that he has to be tough, but not nasty. But that's still not enough. He has to force McCain to play on his terms.

Which I think he will do. Democrats aren't used to a leader being able to force Republicans to play on their terms; Clinton, at his best, was still reacting somewhat to Republicans.

I think Obama will pose this question for McCain: what is his plan to restore American greatness? He's part of the team that got us into this mess - we can't trust him to get us out of it.

Obama will reclaim liberal pride in what it means to be an American. He will remind us of the challenges that we have faced as a nation, and how we have overcome them. That's been a theme so far - from Michelle, from Hillary. But the conversation has been distracted by other factors - was Michelle's speech effective, did Hillary do enough to convince her supporters to switch to Obama?

None of this will be new for Obama. He's said it all before - we need to come together as a nation, we need to put aside partisan attacks, and focus on what we as a country need to do to solve our problems. But he'll put some meat on the bones - we need to fix our infrastructure, our schools, our healthcare, etc. Again, nothing new.

But it will feel fresh, coming so long after Obama won the nomination, so long after he was a fresh voice on the scene. It will seem incredibly refreshing after McCain's petty and trivial "celebrity" ads.

Obama does not need to go on the attack. That is the Republican playbook. He needs to prove to the American people that he can solve their damn problems.

Fortunately for all of us, he can.

Sustainable Colorado at The Big Tent

The Big Tent is a blogger hangout/policy house at the Democratic convention. I got a temporary pass today because a guy I started talking to a guy on the street, and he got me a temporary pass. It's great how things like that happen at events like this.

One of the events that I saw was organized by the Alliance for a Sustainable Colorado. It was about the impact that drilling for oil and gas is having on the West. The first speaker that I heard was an older gentleman who has roots in this part of the country. He talked about the importance "home place" for people in the West, the idea that your home grounds you in a special way, gives you a sense of place, defines you, in a sense. That's true, I think, for most people, but for him, it's particularly important out here. It was sort of a homespun, down-to-earth existentialism. This guy (I didn't catch his name) made it clear that all of the drilling for oil and gas is interfering with that sense of place.

But he also said that he and others are not opposed to drilling per se, they just want to balance the interests of the local population, which has a strong interest in keeping the environment pristine and free of toxins and pollution, with the need to drill for oil and gas.

The next speaker (again, I didn't catch his name) mentioned a statistic that I've never heard, but which blew my mind. He talked about how John McCain wants to "Drill here, drill now," as if we are not drilling enough now. So how much drilling for oil and gas is going on in the United States. According to this guy (I don't have time to verify it, but I'll look into finding a link), we are drilling 1,000 new wells in the U.S.

Every week.

50,000 new wells a year. That's incredible. That's a lot of wells. That's a good statistic for Democrats to start throwing out there.

Convention dynamics: the best work is behind the scenes

Before conventions were televised, the interesting politicking - actually voting for the different candidates, the campaigning, the twisting of arms, the caucusing, etc., all went on behind the scenes. Now the actual political work takes place in the months beforehand, during the primary season.

But there is still a lot of interesting work going on behind the scenes. Bloggers have set up a "Big Tent," just for bloggers, with some panel discussions. I'm not there because I didn't want to pay for it, but it's a new innovation for this kind of event. There are all kinds of media here; 15,000 journalists. MSNBC has part of a parking lot as its own little studio. The Daily Show is here.

Then there are the t-shirts. Dozens, if not hundreds, of different t-shirts are on sale all over the place. Some of them are even official, DNC-licensed t-shirts. And, of course, there are buttons and hats and other paraphernalia.

Panel discussions abound, on all kinds of topics. Passionate about infrastructure, Hispanic outreach, women's issues? There's a roundtable for you and several hundred of your closest ideological allies.

So while America watches speeches, some of which are actually interesting, many of which cannot be differentiated from one another, behind the scenes, connections are being formed, money is being made, ideas are being discussed and critiqued. What shows up on TV is the tip of the tip of the iceberg. And just a tiny bit of that tip of the iceberg will matter in the grand scheme of things. But that small fraction of that tip of the iceberg will determine the course of American history.

Michelle's Speech

I just read Michelle's speech. It's really good. I also watched the last part of it. I read it before I watched it, which was a little weird (the text was posted before she gave the speech).

She was great. Just phenomenal. She's really one of the Obama's campaigns best weapons, particularly in contrast to Cindy McCain. The best possible argument against this absurd nonsense that the Obamas are elitist is just the simple truth: they were both born to middle- and lower-middle class families. Both of them worked their way up.

The best moment came at the end, when Obama himself was onscreen. He was in Kansas City, Missouri, with a family there. The Obamas' girls came on stage, and Michelle and the girls waved to Barack and chatted with him for a few minutes. Ridiculously charming. Talk about family values.

One reason I am a Michelle Obama fan is that she worked for Public Allies, as the Executive Director of their Chicago office. I got to know Public Allies when I was in Washington, DC. Public Allies is, hands down, one of the coolest non-profit organizations that I know of.

What's even cooler than the fact that Michelle Obama worked for Public Allies is that she was recommended for the position by Barack, who was on the board at the time.

Blogging the Convention: Unconventional Women

I'm at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. This morning, I attended one of the side events at the Convention: something called Unconventional Women. It was a series of discussions (mostly with two or more women) about women in politics. There wasn't much in the way of policy - it was pretty much, "tell us about your experiences in politics, and how can we get more women in politics." Which was a fine thing to focus on, as far as I am concerned.

The highlight was when Nancy Pelosi arrived. She comes across as a solid professional on TV, but she's very impressive in person. The crowd loved her. I don't think I've ever seen anyone get two standing ovations before they even said a word. And boy can she work a crowd, and yet make it look easy. She has a compelling personal story; she had 5 kids in 6 years. She didn't run for Congress until she was 47. She's very aware of sexism all around her, and she shared some stories about clueless men, but she doesn't let it bother her - she just plows ahead.

One nice thing that she mentioned was that it's crucial for a member of Congress to be an expert on policy. She also said that she makes it clear to new Members that they have three responsibilities: to the Constitution, to the country, and to their constituents, in that order. Hopefully all of those always coincide, but if not, they are responsible for managing the conflict. It was good to be reminded that politics, at the end of the day, is about the work, and the work is passing laws.