If true, I think that is just what the doctor ordered.  If the middle class watches this speech and hears specifics about how Obama's policies will improve their lives, the Republicans can chortle all they want about how opulent the staging was or whatever.

But Obama's been campaigning on change and hope and postpartisanship unity.  Had he been campaigning as a partisan Democrat on issues this whole time, then the Invesco extravaganza could really put a solid cap on that.

Bill and Hillary didn't just walk on the stage from some sort of tabula rasa vacuum land.  What they said was appealing, but they also both have the chops and history to back it up.

The convention so far has been pretty split between the red meaters and the postpartisans (the keynote being the latter).  This is not a whole party resounding on one solid theme.  Folks may like what they hear but will they believe he'll follow through?

Having paid a lot of attention to the campaign, I won't buy a big switchup, rather, it just reinforces my perception of Obama has having no particular core principles he's following.  Others who've not been paying attention and for whom tonight is their only exposure to him may be more credulous.

McCain's ad team is very good.

During the primaries, the Obama campaign had some clunkers too.  But they seem to have gotten worse.  I haven't seen a good Obama ad yet this summer.

I think I've got it. Bill and Hillary Clinton get some secret perverse satisfaction out of watching people have health care, work at good jobs, and pass along opportunity to their children. They snicker at the idea that the government pay down its debts, and take gleeful pleasure at the thought of respect and admiration for America around the world.

How else to explain their actions these last 16 years? The Family and Medical Leave Act, the balanced budget, the Earned Income Tax Credit, the attempt at universal health care--both in 1994 and in this year's primaries, peace agreements in Northern Ireland and the Balkans, affirmative action, etc. The evidence is as plain as day.

It must be that they've concluded that helping the Democratic Party, for all of its ever-growing flaws and congenital timidness, and for all the private qualms they have about the primary process and the fairness of its outcome, is one way to help achieve these goals. Only this can explain their bizarre behavior.

Obviously others of us aren't quite as sure what we feel is the best way to shape the future of the Democratic Party, but it seems that Bill and Hillary Clinton have settled on their way.

Why do I have this nagging feeling that it is less like a "Greek Temple" and more like the "Temple of Doom?"

Not trying to be pessimistic, just looking for a good reason to support him, even tepidly.

Do tell, why are Obama supporters so angry all the time?

They did better than I expected.  The most I thought I could reasonably hope for was that they convince their supporters to give Obama one last chance.  So, you're exactly right that it's now up to Obama.  He needs to move the needle with Hillary's supporters who, thanks to her and Bill's speeches, are willing to give Obama another shot.

And I'm curious whether you think that the fact that the GOP convention is next week is good or bad for Obama.  

It doesn't mean I'll be letting a lot of things go, but it does mean that I'll have a better idea of where Obama stands on those things.  

It was my biggest issue with his big speech on race.  He wants to distance himself but he doesn't want to challenge his supporters to change their ways.

Somehow he needs to convince people that he really believes what he's saying, in a real, extremely firm sense, and not simply reading a list made up by advisers. You can tell which are a candidate's real priorities. For example, do you think Hillary cares more about universal health care or a gas tax holiday. She talked about both, but one is obviously her real passion.

Luckily the republicans are so disastrously horrendous that I'll be voting against mcinsane, which means I have to vote for Obama...and I suspect there are many like me.

Everything up to now about this speech bothers me. Holding it on the anniversary of "I Have a Dream" just says that Obama feels he's supplanting the legacy of Dr. King, and moving it from Pepsi to Invesco indicates a disdain for the larger Democratic Party--Obama's saying I'm a class apart from those people. You know, the sort of icky rabble who would give the Clintons big standing ovations. And now we have the pretentious ridiculousness of the Obamathenon or the O-cropolis or whatever it is they're calling it.

  Nah.  I'll say it again.  He trashed the Democratic brand in order to win the Democratic nomination.  The media CDS was already out there, the misogyny was a bit of frosting, the successfull painting of the Clintons as racists...
  All of this combined with the real political smarts of focusing on the caucuses and tapping into the Internet gave him quite a ride.

  Once it was safe, he picked a pro-war Washington insider MBNA suck-up as a running mate - not just for the "experience" and "foreign policy" cred, but for the appeal to those blue collar low information types who might not be Archie Bunker, after all.

  I assumed that I'd vote for the Democrat, whoever that turned out to be.  The Democrat party now has a more favorable rating in this country and people of both parties are fed up with Bush/Cheney and what they have  wrought.  I was SO looking forward to voting for a Democrat!

  I think a very big problem with the Obama campaign was that so many of his supporters painted their fellow Democrats with that RightWingNarrative of Hillary Evil.

I know Jeralyn and BTD do not want any negative postings about Obama or the impending downfall of the Democratic Party, so I will keep it to myself.

And no, I won't give money to Obama/Biden and no, I won't support in anyway.  The great thing about America- you have the right to stay home.