Kucinich's speech was essentially a daming indictment against the current administration and its numerous failed policies. Some excellent points that he made were the fact that Congress and the President somehow found money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, but could not even take care of the bridges and infrastructure at home (clearly referring to the I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis last year). Kucinich pointed out that the Republicans and the Neo-Cons skillfully played on Americans' post-9/11 fears, leading us to Iraq and beginning to beat the war drum for Iran. I wish Kucinich's speech was closer to prime time, as I am sure a lot of people missed it.
As for the prime time speech, it was pretty much what I expected. What I did not expect and was very surprised to see was William Jefferson Clinton shedding a tear or two as his wife hit the stage. It reminded me of another Democratic politician who teared up over his wife while I was trying to figure out, are those tears on Clinton's face or is it snowing inside the DNC? As Clinton's speech began I could tell that it would be a run-of-the-mill deal. The only part that I thought was sincere was when she said that she was a proud supporter of Barack Obama in the first two minutes (and that's only because she perked up a bit). Beyond that, though, it seemed like Hillary phoned this one in. She went on about herself - 35 years in "the trenches" (probably not a good idea to compare oneself to a soldier during wartime), which made me wonder if she was setting the groundwork for 2012 (but that's probably my own cynicism and skepticism of 21st century Clintonian politics).
In my opinion, I would have liked to see Kucinich's speech and Hillary's speech switch timeslots. Kucinich did not stand up on the podium and talk about his time "in the trenches" and all of that. He laid out the past 8 years quite nicely and succinctly, and did it with passion and energy. Hillary stood at the podium and delivered a speech that, if you cut out the 4-5 references to Obama, could have been any one of her campaign speeches. We'll see how Bubba and Biden do tonight. Peace.
Photos - Dennis Kucinich pumping up the crowd at the DNC (Wise Politics), Hillary Clinton at the DNC (PBS), The stage at the DNC (NECN)
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