For Obama, The Challenge Of A Lifetime

Washington Post: Before A Huge Crowd, On A Historic Date, Obama Will Accept The Nomination In A Highly Anticipated Address

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Eli Saslow.

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Sen. Barack Obama will step onto a stage bordered by Greek columns and walk down a runway that dead-ends at a lectern on an island. There, alone at the center of Colorado's biggest stadium, he will stare out at 2,000 lawn chairs pressed toward the stage, 80,000 people crammed into three levels of seats and 450 stadium spotlights pointed directly at him.

Even for Obama, a veteran speechmaker, the setup at Invesco Field makes for the most intimidating venue of his career. On the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Obama will become the first African American to accept a major party's nomination for president when he addresses the crowd Thursday night.

His campaign has gambled on the historic moment by creating a stage that will magnify his performance. Succeed here, in front of the largest Democratic National Convention crowd in nearly 50 years, and Obama's speech will be remembered as one of the most powerful moments in modern politics, a perfect launch into the final stage of the general election. Fail, and Obama risks fueling Republicans' criticism that he is an aloof celebrity, fond of speaking to big crowds but incapable of forming genuine connections.

Obama wrote the speech last week in his customary manner, crafting a first draft by hand on yellow legal paper. He studied past convention speeches and found inspiration in remarks by Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy, advisers said. Then he sequestered himself in a Chicago hotel room, preferring it to the chaos of his house or campaign headquarters.

His speechwriters have traveled with him, helping trim and edit -- a process that continued Wednesday afternoon as Obama flew into Denver. The longtime aides have learned to leave the essential elements of Obama's speeches intact, those close to the candidate said. Advisers often say Obama is his own best speechwriter. It surprised nobody in his campaign when he seized control of writing Thursday's address and shaping its message.

"I think I have to do two things," Obama said this week. "I want to make the choice between myself and John McCain as clear as possible. I don't want people to be confused. And I also hope that the convention conveys who I am. You know, during the course of a 19-month campaign, I think that you, you're on the television screen, you're in big auditoriums, but sometimes who you are may get lost. And I want people to come away saying, 'Whether I'm voting for or against the guy, I know what he stands for.'"

Obama said he expects his acceptance speech to be "workmanlike," which would mark a major departure from the formula he has relied on during key public moments in his life. In his 1990 speech as incoming president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama told a story of his mixed-race biography that drew the venue's cooks from the kitchen and caused waiters to stop serving, friends who were there recalled. Early this year, he wrote a major speech about race at a moment when his past association with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. threatened to derail his campaign, and delivered it in Philadelphia against the instincts of his closest advisers.

At the last Democratic convention, in Boston in 2004, Obama cemented his reputation as a talented public speaker by delivering a 17-minute keynote address that focused thematically on the country's divisiveness. His speech contained few new ideas, but it transformed him overnight from a little-known Illinois state senator into a national figure.

Thursday's speech, Obama said, will have few similarities to his 2004 address. He has become sensitive to the criticism that his speeches are lacking in content, friends said, and he is expected to outline the ways he will try to address the nation's problems.

But changing his style carries some risks. "You can talk all you want about policies and programs, but that's not what people respond to," said Martin Medhurst, a professor of rhetoric at Baylor University. "People respond when they are touched emotionally, and that's what he's so good at. It's going to be very important in his speech tomorrow night that people get excited emotionally. That's what they want from him."

Obama will step to the lectern under the burden of tremendous expectation. Not since Kennedy spoke to 80,000 people in Los Angeles at the 1960 Democratic convention has a nomination-acceptance speech generated so much anticipation. Public tickets, given away online, disappeared in just more than a day. Some scalpers now sell single tickets for more than $1,000.

At 5 p.m. Thursday, convention officials will close down the Pepsi Center, and the assembled delegates and journalists will migrate one mile west to the football stadium. Traffic officials will close Denver's main highway. A major musical act -- maybe Bon Jovi -- will play a brief set. Confetti and fireworks will shoot into the sky at the end of Obama's speech.

On Wednesday, dozens of workers hurried around Invesco Field to finish the stage. One woman scrubbed dirt off the hollow Greek columns. Another cleaned the wooden lectern. Obama's image will be beamed onto the stadium scoreboard and two other screens behind him, officials said, but vendors also plan to make binoculars available for rent to those in the upper deck.

Obama turned up Wednesday night to familiarize himself with the stage, also using the opportunity to regard the stadium from different vantage points.

The last time Obama delivered a major speech -- to 200,000 people in Berlin -- images from the event ended up in the background of a John McCain ad, which referred to Obama as "the biggest celebrity in the world." On Wednesday, the McCain campaign e-mailed reporters descriptions of the Greek columns as more proof of its portrayal of Obama as egotistical and out of touch.

Friends said Obama rarely gets nervous before appearing in public anymore, but few speeches have mattered as much as this one. As he walks down the 20-yard runway toward the lectern, he will have plenty to contemplate. Can he deliver a speech rich in both policy and passion? Can he stand out and yet not stand apart?

"Here's the thing about Barack," said Marty Nesbitt, Obama's closest friend in Chicago. "I keep thinking that maybe he's getting in over his head, and this is too hard and it's going to get to him. But he surprises me and delivers every time."

Staff writer Anne E. Kornblut contributed to this report.

[johnpotus1]

muslims attack christian schools

McCain...90% George W. Bush, 10% Maverick. Let me think... who should I vote for? Bush hasn''t done a *** thing for me, so why should I vote for someone who has made my life more and more difficult?

Go Obama!!!

[misha128-2009]

Failed US attempt to influence Palestinian election -- Hamas was elected.

U.S. Funds Enter Fray In Palestinian Elections
Bush Administration Uses USAID as Invisible Conduit

By Scott Wilson and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, January 22, 2006; Page A01

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- The Bush administration is spending foreign aid money to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority on the eve of crucial elections in which the governing party faces a serious challenge from the radical Islamic group Hamas.

The approximately $2 million program is being led by a division of the U.S. Agency for International Development. But no U.S. government logos appear with the projects or events being undertaken as part of the campaign, which bears no evidence of U.S. involvement and does not fall within the definitions of traditional development work.

[likeitis5050]

Well if Spike Lee is behind him then how can we go wrong? Spike Lee is as American as apple pie...so long as you agree with everything he says. Poor Obama....the people he has to rub elbows with...poor guy.

[shazam116]

Mccain is a liar and an oil thug like his beloved chimpanzee bushy and yellow belly coward hog cheney.....

[johnpotus1]

John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama were walking down a Washington DC street when they came upon a homeless man.

John McCain gave the man his business card and told him to come to his office for a job. He then took $20 out of his pocket and gave it to the man.

Hillary was very impressed, so when they came upon another homeless person, she decided to help. She walked to him and gave him directions to the welfare office. She then reached into McCain%u2019s pocket and got out $20. She kept the $15 for her administrative fees and gave the homeless man $5.

When they came upon yet another homeless person, Barak told him to %u201Chave hope%u2026 change is coming%u2026%u201D and gave him nothing.

Now do you understand the difference?


Obama is full of hot air. During his brief, very brief, political career, he has talked plenty but accomplished nothing.

[shazam116]

The young are always naive and foolish and make stupid choices. People get smarter as they grow older.

Senior citizens support John McCain.


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Posted by johnpotus1 at 09:45 PM : Aug 28, 2008
+ report abuse


How come no change in you octopus...you still dumber than the beduin goat.....

[johnpotus1]

John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama were walking down a Washington DC street when they came upon a homeless man.

John McCain gave the man his business card and told him to come to his office for a job. He then took $20 out of his pocket and gave it to the man.

Hillary was very impressed, so when they came upon another homeless person, she decided to help. She walked to him and gave him directions to the welfare office. She then reached into McCain%u2019s pocket and got out $20. She kept the $15 for her administrative fees and gave the homeless man $5.

When they came upon yet another homeless person, Barak told him to %u201Chave hope%u2026 change is coming%u2026%u201D and gave him nothing.

Now do you understand the difference?


Obama is full of hot air. During his brief, very brief, political career, he has talked plenty but accomplished nothing.

[johnpotus1]

Turner made critical remarks about religion in the past but now says his thinking has developed as he has become older.

ABC news, April 1 2008

The young are always naive and foolish and make stupid choices. People get smarter as they grow older.

Senior citizens support John McCain.

[rudy654-2009]

Bush and Condi pushed for elections in the Palestinian Territories where Hamas was elected to run the country.


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Posted by misha128 at 09:42 PM

This should impress Johnny the slanderer. BUSH and CONDI supporting Islamist. OH NO!

[misha128-2009]

Hamas endorses Obama. What does this tell you?

Posted by johnpotus1 at 09:38 PM

Bush and Condi pushed for elections in the Palestinian Territories where Hamas was elected to run the country.

[shazam116]

Exactly rudy....people like octopusjohn are disgrace to the faith of christianity .....Ted turnner was right when he said christianity has become a faith of the loser''s.....

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by johnpotus1 at 09:39 PM

And you are not a Christian. Islamic yes, Christian no.

[misha128-2009]

Posted by johnpotus1 at 09:27 PM
Posted by rudy654 at 09:35 PM

An appellate court (three REPUBLICAN appointees) told the DOJ this in a ruling where the DOJ lost a Gitmo Habeas Corpus hearing. I believe it applies as much to individuals as to the government.

Lewis Carroll notwithstanding, the fact that the government has %u201Csaid it thrice%u201D does not make an allegation true. See LEWIS CARROLL, THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK 3 (1876) (%u201CI have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.%u201D).

[johnpotus1]

Notice how these "Christians" have no problem with slander? Yet, slander is considered a grave sin.

Posted by rudy654 at 09:36 PM : Aug 28, 2008

The truth is not slander.

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by johnpotus1 at 09:38 PM

Look, you love Islam so much, go to a country that only practices Islam and leave the rest of us alone.

[johnpotus1]

In 2000, Ali Abunimah recalled, Professor Rashid Khalidi, a leading Palestinian American advocate for a two-state solution and harsh critic of Israel, held a fundraiser in his home for Obama, embarked then on an ultimately unsuccessful bid for the House of Representatives. "He came with his wife," Abunimah said. "That''s where I had a chance to really talk to him. It was an intimate setting. He convinced me he was very aware of the issues [and] critical of U.S. bias toward Israel and lack of sensitivity to Arabs. ... He was very supportive of U.S. pressure on Israel."

Hamas endorses Obama. What does this tell you?

[rudy654-2009]

Posted by shazam116 at 09:30 PM

Notice how these "Christians" have no problem with slander? Yet, slander is considered a grave sin.

[kansas1946]

I have no doubt that Americans will reject a man who chooses to hide his muslim faith and is not truthful.


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Posted by johnpotus1 at 09:27 PM : Aug 28, 2008
+ report abuse
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LMAO. Pitiful.

[rudy654-2009]

have no doubt that Americans will reject a man who chooses to hide his muslim faith and is not truthful.


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Posted by johnpotus1 at 09:27 PM

Nobody is voting for you, so continue to hide the truth about your Muslim faith.