EXACTLY 45 years after Martin Luther King’s visionary “I Have a Dream” speech, a feverish crowd of 80,000 packed itself like sardines into the feisty atmosphere of Invesco Stadium in Denver, waiting to hear nothing less than its sequel. So the stage was set for yet another energetic, transformative and inspirational speech by Barack Obama as he accepted the Democratic nomination.
But alas, Obama sounded more like a normal politician than a prophet on a night where people were expecting divine revelation. It lacked the sort of thrill that usually races up Chris Matthews’s leg. Fanatical youths waved “change we can believe in” signs even as the speech had abandoned the dreamy mantra in favor of the more corporeal “the change that we need.” Transcendental sermons about race and reinvigorating the innovative American spirit were shelved in favor of a programmatic list of problems and solutions that invited textual comparisons by political pundits to a wooden Al Gore address. And the colorful theme of uniting Red and Blue America from his defining 2004 Boston convention speech was relegated to a mere paragraph or two about unity on abortion, gun control, same sex marriage and immigration.
The address itself as a whole was less a stirring call to arms than it was a well-delivered checklist of doubts he needed to squelch about his candidacy. Are my airy goals too vague for you? Let me “spell out exactly what that change would mean” on everything from Social Security and healthcare to outsourcing and the economy for most of my speech. Concerned I don’t attack McCain enough? Here’s my most direct attack on how he’s Bush’s third term. Think I’m a celebrity like Paris Hilton? Let me tell you my American story. And are you anxious about my inexperience on foreign policy issues? Well, I’ve been right before and “I look forward to debating them with John McCain.”
In that “American Promise” speech, Obama underwent what Max Weber famously labeled the “routinization of charisma” and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson calls “the Obama transformation”. He went from a man embodying a different brand of politics to a parrot of trite democratic bread and butter arguments like demonizing big corporations and decrying outsourcing. He morphed from a flag-bearer of post-partisanship to another tiresome critic of the Bush policies. In short, he flipped from a unique candidate pledging to transform politics to yet another naïve youth who was transformed by politics.
Idealistic youths flocking to see a sellout rock-star concert were understandably disappointed when they heard the same old broken record of policy proposals they had read on his campaign Web site. But anyone looking beyond the normal but well-delivered speech understands that this was a shift that Obama had to make. August witnessed the stirrings of what The Economist rightly labeled “Obama fatigue”. Pew Research Center polls in August revealed that Americans had heard too much about Barack Obama but knew too little about his policy positions. The McCain campaign painted him as a self-absorbed Paris Hilton, far too elitist to address America’s problems beyond saying “yes we can.” His wavering on the Russian incursion into Georgia raised eyebrows about his ‘judgment,’ while rumblings that Clinton voters would either sit the election out or defect raised doubts about party unity. Before the Democratic Convention began last week, polls either showed Obama’s lead over McCain withering or McCain surging to the lead.
Under those conditions, it is understandable, even commendable, that Obama chose to change his speech from an airy to concrete one. He needed to talk less about himself and his feel-good proposals and more about the American people and their long list of grievances. He had to ramble on like a traditional Democrat instead of agitating like a post-partisan politician. And he was required to use his legendary charisma and prolific oratorical skills to specifically lay out his political vision rather than to just deliver another reverberating speech. The sentences did not have to stick. They just needed to reassure.
Critics may claim that his acceptance speech raises doubts about whether he really will deliver on the transformative politics that he promises and inspires. A boring speech also risks thinning the swarming crowd of feisty rank and file campaign volunteers and new voters that are so crucial to the success of his campaign. But voters already know the inspirational and transformative Barack Obama of “yes we can.” So it can’t hurt that the half-black, first term senator with a funny name has finally chosen to inject some constancy into a campaign that has promised far too much change. After all, everyone knows that Obama has a dream. They just want to hear enough about it to know if they can sleep soundly at night when he is president.
Prashanth Parameswaran’s column appears Wednesdays in The Cavailer Daily. He can be reached at p.parameswaran@cavalierdaily.com.
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