Obama Soars With Feet Firmly On The Ground

CBSNews.com Analysis: Democratic Nominee Succeeds By Coming Down To Earth, Writes Vaughn Ververs

(CBS)  This analysis was written by CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs.

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On an historic night in the Mile High City, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination with a speech that proved he still has at least one foot planted firmly on the ground.

Expectations in recent days for a theatrical production staged in a football arena with 84,000 people in attendance reached heights that not even the Colorado altitude could match. Conscious of the spectacle - and of the seemingly effective Republican attacks portraying Obama as nothing more than a celebrity - the presidential candidate brought the night back down to ground level in a direct attempt to connect with the concerns of everyday Americans.

A candidate known -- fairly or not - for his soaring rhetoric delivered a speech heavy on specific policy points, themes of broad values, and empathy for the daily challenges faced by many.

“Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less,” Obama said near the top of his remarks. “More of you have lost your homes and even more are watching your home values plummet. More of you have cars you can’t afford to drive, credit card bills you can’t afford to pay, and tuition that’s beyond your reach.”

The Democratic convention was designed to introduce voters to a candidate many remain unsure of; to create a stark contrast with John McCain; to heal divisions within his own party; and to convince a bulk of undecided or wavering voters that his concerns are no different from theirs. With his speech tonight, Obama succeeded in wrapping all those goals up in a neat and effective package.

It wasn’t an easy task, coming from a man speaking on a raised platform among a sea of adoring delegates. Such atmospherics are something that many political analysts and even some Democrats have pointed to as a reason for Obama’s inability to open up a bigger lead in a race that should be his to lose. Too many large rallies, too much vague talk about transcendent appeal and not enough attention paid to the real issues impacting real lives left him open to those GOP charges.

Despite marking the 45th anniversary of the march on Washington and Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech, and despite standing on a stage flanked with Roman columns, Obama brought down his candidacy down to ground level.

Mixing criticism of McCain with his own specific proposals, the speech was much more like something you would hear at most any campaign stop and less like what you would encounter in a history book.

"I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care what’s going on in the lives of Americans,” Obama said of his opponent. "I just think he doesn’t know. … John McCain doesn’t get it."

Obama used personal stories collected on the campaign trail and during his work as a community organizer to connect and to come down from the mountaintop that Republicans, and sometimes the candidate himself, have put him on.

This, after all, is the candidate who announced his candidacy on the steps of the Old State House in Springfield, Illinois, site of Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech. Obama’s is the campaign which has systematically sought to tie itself to images and echoes of history, from John F. Kennedy to Ronald Reagan.

Unlike any candidate in modern history, Obama has created his own mythos, wrapped up in the greatest and most shining examples from the nation’s past. He can hardly wonder why he has been called arrogant and equated with celebrities when his campaign orchestrated a Berlin speech in front of 200,000, in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate.

Obama sought to dispel the notion, however, saying, "I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don’t understand is that this election has never been about me. It’s been about you."

And tonight, Obama shed those ethereal connections for policy and down to earth political pronouncements. Talking about health care, education, taxes, energy and parental responsibility, among other topics, the candidate hit on the topics voters say they are most concerned about. And when it came time to respond to the charge that he’s not prepared to be commander in chief, Obama issued a familiar, if yet unfulfilled, challenge.

"If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament, and judgment, to serve as the next Commander-in-Chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have," he said.

There was plenty in the speech for Republicans to pick apart at their convention in St. Paul next week, like how he will pay for the litany of proposals he laid out tonight. But they will be hard-pressed to match the intensity, the specificity and the effectiveness of Obama in Denver.

[kansas1946]

Obama will change America to a land of free handouts to all who ask and massive increases in illegals and American useless Government. He will break the spirit of the American people in less than a year and even make the idiot Jimmy boy Carter seem like a genius!!!!! You will walk, ride the bus or bicycle as gas will ballon to $8.00 per gallon and all the while he will have you call each other comrade.


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Posted by linymo at 12:18 AM : Aug 29, 2008
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Really. I guess we will see. Anything will be better than GWB and McCain is just more of the same.

[wogerwabbit]

linymo, your argument is lame as we will see $8 per gallon gas no matter who''s in office. You speak of useless government... where have you been the last 7 years?

[jlcohen--2008]

Obama will (followed by usual repug blather)

Posted by linymo at 12:18 AM : Aug 29, 2008
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C''mon loser, tell us what clueless McCain will do for us. Swiftboating Obama just don''t cut it anymore.

[broadwayphi]

An absolutely 100% solid smash hit.

This man is going to be our president.

[broadwayphi]

Posted by miamistax

No, they don''t have any answers. Short on ideas. Long on lies. That is G. O. Pee 2008.

But that needn''t bother us now. Obama is going to be the next president of the United States.

For the first time in EIGHT LONG YEARS, there is hope.

[jlcohen--2008]

Amen to that, broadwayphi.

[johnpotus1]

The Germans wanted change and they got Hitler. A naive and inexperienced black senator with an Arab muslim hertiage and strongly anti-semitic is not the change this country needs.

Let us unite and vote for John McCain.

[johnpotus1]

Obama is a fraud. During his brief, very brief, career in politics he has said plenty but delivered nothing.

Just a man by his action and not the the hot air coming out from his mouth.

Vote for a patriotic American hero. Vote for John McCain.

Obama is 95 per cent American and 5 per cent American.

[johnpotus1]

STEPHANOPOULOS: You were asked, %u201CIs he ready?%u201D

You said, %u201CI think he can be ready, but right now I don%u2019t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the- job-training.%u201D

BIDEN: I think that %u2014 I stand by the statement.


Biden is just repeating what the majority of voters already know.

Obama is not ready to lead this nation.

[paris1969]

Far too many predictable talking points in this speech. He had moments where he was truly inspiring ... but, he has nothing to back up his words ... no experience, nothing that gives evidence that he can do any of what he talked about.
Let''s rally around John McCain this time and let Obama do the "work" that he is telling all of us that we must do in order to succeed.
McCain ''08
Hillary 2012!!!

[christianun]

"He can hardly wonder why he has been called arrogant and equated with celebrities when his campaign orchestrated a Paris speech in front of 200,000, in the shadow of the Brandenburg Gate."

Paris? I saw him in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin...

[paris1969]

Some of what Obama accused McCain of was truly false, some half-truth and some true ... but mostly his VP Biden has voted for many of the same things that McCain has. Also, Biden was instrumental in allowing the banking industry to change the bankruptcy laws that also have fostered foreclosures on homes!

[bpai99]

The Republicans won''t try to match to Obama, that was never their hope or intent. They''ll just try to tear him to pieces. What did you expect, them to play his game?

[jlcohen--2008]

Obama is 95 per cent American and 5 per cent American.
Posted by johnpotus1 at 01:44 AM : Aug 29, 2008

Let''s see... that adds up to 100% American! The man was born in Hawaii. Yup. 100% American.

[jlcohen--2008]

Hey johnpotus1. Enough with the Obama this and Obama that swiftboating. Tell us what clueless McCain is going to do. Tax breaks for ExxonMobil?

[jvsp]

Listening to Churchill deliver his speeches, reading the Gettysburg Address, or even watching the Nuremberg rallies shows, contrary to the gushing media, how truly banal Obama is. Absolute twaddle, and I am a Dem. Pathetic.

[ohdeartoo]

Brilliant article! A full-throated endorsement of the speech by CBS. But, credibility aside, the Brandenberg gate is where, again?

[irliberal]

A fantastic and historic speech by Obama, and sure to put a twist in the panties of the poor poor bitter neocons spammers here. Great stuff!!!

Go Obama / Biden 2008!! WOOHOOO!

[grammawhamma]

An empty suit full of empty promises.

[jefflz-2009]

Obama gave a brilliant speech tonight. Those who deny it are running scared and/or are in denial. This country is crying out for new leadership after eight years of the Bush/Cheney nightmare that has weakened this country in every conceivable way. Obama proved tonight that he has the guts and the brains to provide this desperately needed leadership. You may not like him for what ever personal reason you may have - but no honest person can deny that Obama has the right stuff

[bigchange4]

Hillary almost said ''No way, No how, Nobama'' Good thing she caught herself. Imagine what it would have done to the poor guy who is stretched so thin he needs to fly with his feet on the ground.

[bigchange4]

Best thing for Hillary is to help McCain win, then she will be able to run again in 4 years. Not possible to run again if silly man Nobama slithers into office.

Obama gets it. The Olympics was only the latest evidence that America is not as strong as she used to be. A communist country effectively used their rising middle-class to put on the greatest show ever AND win the most gold medals. There were just too few Moms%u2019s and Dad%u2019s like Michael Phelp%u2019s or Shawn Johnson%u2019s who%u2019s sacrifice was enough to propel their kids to the top. The rest were too distracted by mortgage failures, medical expenses, gas prices and educational budget-cuts, all problems that grew during two-plus decades of rising corporate tax-cuts and profits. McCain wants to double down on corporate tax cuts and further deregulate housing, big oil, healthcare, education.

This election is possibly the last chance to save the working middle-class and everything it does for this country. In four years, today''s highschool kids will be looking for work and unprepared to deal with the triple costs of gas/housing/healthcare.

[johnpotus1]

Hey johnpotus1. Enough with the Obama this and Obama that swiftboating. Tell us what clueless McCain is going to do. Tax breaks for ExxonMobil?

Posted by miamistax at 02:17 AM : Aug 29, 2008

You just don''t discuss issues with a fraud. You expose him.

[johnpotus1]

Let''s face it. It was the Bill and Hill show.

[irliberal]

The only real question is, what will all the third shift bitter, bitter neocon spammers going to do after November 6? heheh

Great job Obama - electrifying, historic speech, you''ve got my vote, and the vote of every real American.

[yeswecan09]

Obama is 95 per cent American and 5 per cent American.

So you are saying Obama is 100% American?

Thanks!

Obama for POTUS!

[rudy654-2009]

The media and the brainwashed Obama supporters act like Obama is a dog in heat the way you chase around his every move. Once he goes out of heat you''''ll forget all about him.


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Posted by GrammaWhamma at 04:30 AM

Wow. you must really think everyone is stupid and you are like really, really smart.

[longtree-2009]

Read the text of the Obama speech and it is nice rhetoric. His speech is anti-Bush, anti-McCain which is to be expected. Obama makes several statements about what he will do but missing is the how and by when. He touched on tax cuts but no specifics as to how much and how soon. Will be examining the McCain speech closely as well. So, far all Obama seems to be tabling is good rhetoric.

[onceagirl]

Reading all these negative blogs makes me realize what a terrible state our country is in....when a good man like Senator Obama promises to strive to improve our daily lives and not the powers who brought us to our current conditions, it befuddles me that the simplicity of ignorance grows stronger with each passing day. Good Grief!

[gorsey-2009]

calling barack Obama ...some americans achoing his muslim arab middle name still hussein.
I am muslim and i remmember how we use to love respect admire americans see american leaders unique all is change when we realize they hate us they look us down even they feel dirt for everything we believe our names our cloth our faith if that is the case why you insisting to lead the world let other nation lead who have the leadership skills its time americans to drow the line other wise i know how the world feel about americans you will be only history trust me barack bill clinton is good for you is good for the world

[skyk-2009]

I have heard a LOT of speeches in my day, THIS has to rank right up there with the BEST. There is NO doubt in my mind now who should lead our nation into the future... Obama is that man!!

[skyk-2009]

Read the text of the Obama speech and it is nice rhetoric. His speech is anti-Bush, anti-McCain which is to be expected. Obama makes several statements about what he will do but missing is the how and by when. He touched on tax cuts but no specifics as to how much and how soon. Will be examining the McCain speech closely as well. So, far all Obama seems to be tabling is good rhetoric.

Posted by longtree at 05:39 AM : Aug 29, 2008

The thing I and MILLIONS of American''s should be concerned about is HOW he will pay for those cuts. Any politician can promise tax cuts but Obama was VERY specific as to how he would pay for them. We can NOT continue to just borrow money so politician''s can "Cut Taxes". Simply saying we''re going to "cut spending" isn''t going to hack it either... they NEVER do! No, Obama told us where the money for his cuts would come, lets see if McBush can do the same.

[skyk-2009]

Posted by trrrorislam6 at 06:01 AM : Aug 29, 2008

Why is it you in the Klan must always resort to this bigotry and hate? Your day is gone, LONG gone and there is NO ROOM for you in the debate anymore. Please go burn your cross, or whatever it is you losers do these days, someplace else.

[jackdems]

Why doesnt Obama talk about his achievments during the Woods Foundation and the Annenberg Foundation. Since Obama resume is weak, dont you think he would be proud of those things. The problem is that the terrorist Ayers worked with Obama on these for many years. Also take note that Factcheck.org is part of Annenberg. So any negative you hear about Obama, Factcheck will try to scrub discretely.

[whatithink-2009]

trrrorislam6,

1970 - NIXON sucks DIXIERATS arses and DIXIERATS invade THE REPUBLICAN PARTY.

[whatithink-2009]

From Republican Strategist in 1970:

"From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don''t need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That''s where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.""

[jackdems]

Why doesnt Obama talk about his accomplishments in Chicago.

Obama and Ayers both served in the 1990s on a school reform board in Chicago. The University of Illinois at Chicago released documents Tuesday about Obama''''s work for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an effort that Ayers was instrumental in starting. Obama served as chairman during the 1990s and both attended some board meetings with Ayers in 1995, but the papers offered few details of their work together.

Obama and Ayers also served on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Obama left the board in December 2002.

The minutes of the Annenberg Challenge meetings show that during a June 1995 meeting, Ayers was credited with having "worked diligently" to support the effort. More than a year later, Obama pushed the group to be bolder in its reforms.

"At the end of five years, will we have broken the mold? Not much seems to be bubbling up that is inspiring or substantive," October 1996 minutes say, paraphrasing Obama.

[whatithink-2009]

"Bob Herbert, a New York Times columnist, reported a 1981 interview with Lee Atwater, published in Southern Politics in the 1990s by Prof. Alexander P. Lamis, in which Lee Atwater discussed politics in the South:

You start out in 1954 by saying, "***, ***, ***." By 1968 you can''t say "***"%u2014that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states'' rights and all that stuff. You''re getting so abstract now [that] you''re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you''re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.
And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I''m not saying that. But I''m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me%u2014because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "***, ***"."

[babooph]

How does the world see the US now-after a n Obama win?-after a McCain win?-does it matter?

[peterp111]

The primary problem facing the Obama campaign over the next two-plus months is control of the setting and narrative. Maintaining the illusion of an idealistic over-achiever, a moderate man of the center and embodiment of our collective future, means that the critics must be ignored. He must stick to settings that reflect his strengths as an impresario.


Two contrary forces are at work.

As the Bard wrote, "Truth will Out."


The archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge will be yielding much more detail about the projects funded and not funded by the board Barack Obama chaired and to which William Ayers brought his projects for approval. Even if major media outlets boycott the subject, the McCain campaign, 527 groups, and the internet will not be deterred.


But then again, the electorate may expand as young people rise and vote. After all, P.T. Barnum is widely believed to have said:


"There''s a sucker born every minute."

[ikez78]

What a shock. A liberal writer, at a liberal network liked a liberal speech and is presenting this as some kind of fair evaluation instead of just partisan fawning and hackery.

You people are such a joke.

[credibility2]

Some of his remarks seemed to have been lifted and modified from the movie "The American President". I was also struck with the total lack of detail on how he plans to exactly effect the change. There''s not much time left for him to do this. Perhaps he is counting on this as part of his scheme to promise them anything and they''ll fall for it. It was also ironic that although he eluded to MLK and his speech, he rarely uttered his name. This was a very costly splash of an event and I wonder how much money it''s going to cost the taxpayer and comparatively, how much it would''ve saved the taxpayer money had the event been kept indoors and less grandiose. Obama merely rehashed that which most intelligent people are already aware of. I doubt he swayed many voters into his grand court. Again, Obama delivered another well executed, artfully read speech from the teleprompter. I''m waiting for the debates to see how unstable Obama in fact is when not scripted or rehearsed. That proof is in the telling. Too bad Obama chickened out of the townhall invites by McCain. Obama knows he''s a total failure at these types of venues. His crutch is his scripted speeches and teleprompter and no undisclosed questions. Perhaps he should have pursued an acting career.

[whatithink-2009]

ikez78,

It must pain you to see a politician who can pronounce N-U-C-L-E-A-R.

We know you prefer politicians who don''t make you feel stupid.

[whatithink-2009]

Credibility2,

As unstable as this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW9L2ArX9-8

[a8151947]

If he would just SOAR out of the USA. We would be alot better off. He must not win. If he does, remenber everyone becomes "YOU KNOW".

[sleepyric]

the scariest thing in this campaign is the voters who post on here...! Some of the retarded comments should disqualify some people!

[jackdems]

Folks ,

Ask yourself this question.

Why doesnt Obama talk about or even mention his work he did on the Annenberg Foundation or the Woods Foundation. If Bill Ayers in no longer the terrorist that Obama knew. Why doesnt Obama want to bragg about his accomplishments in Chicago? With such a thin Resume, dont you think Obama would want to share this with America.

[bikerb54]

You know, I''m so tired of hearing Obama doesn''t have the experience to lead. Don''t you people out there ever remember anything in our history? Did Kennedy have experience when he took office? How about Reagan? He was an actor and was only governor of California for about one term. How about Clinton? Who out there has the true experience to be president? Not one of the candidates has been president before. That''s called work experience.
Not because you got shot down over Nam, not because you acted like alot of Washington politicians and picked a trophy wife out of groupies-ignoring the fact you are already married and have children (that we never hear about) from that first marriage, that you are old enough to remember the first car. Age doesn''t mean experience, life in reality means experience. OBAMA all the way. McCain must be experiencing the edges of OldTimers. He''s acting like he''s back in Jr. High with some of his tactics.

I will support Obama all the way. WE NEED A CHANGE OF THE "OLD" GUARD

[yeswecan09]

****Let''''s face it. It was the Bill and Hill show. ****

Thats right, 80,000+ people showed up to see Bill and Hillary speak last night.

Obama for POTUS!