Less Eloquence, More Personality, Ultimate Power

As the Democratic National Convention rises to a crescendo that culminates at Mile High Stadium (aka Invesco Field) tomorrow night, the speeches today were perhaps less soaring and eloquent but at the same time more hard-hitting and personal than those that went before.

Former President Bill Clinton, who will only be kept out of the history books' list of the top five American presidents of all time by his terrible personal behavior, gave as solid an endorsement of Barack Obama as anyone could have asked. He did not try to out-perform Hillary from last night (and that was a wise decision on his part) but he was powerful, he was the patriarch of his party, and he was convincing in his personal admiration for Obama.

Vice-Presidential nominee Joe Biden -- who, as Chris Matthews of MSNBC properly said, is the first regular guy from the neighborhood to run for national office in many decades -- was engaging, human, and warm when he needed to be and piercingly and convincingly critical of the Republicans and John McCain when he wanted to be.

Clinton's characterization of McCain as a man who is to be respected as a war hero and valued for his service to his country but who has embraced an "extremist philosophy" was particularly on-target. It's about time the Democrats called that particular spade a spade. The extremists are and have been in charge of the GOP.

Biden's new refrain -- "America doesn't need a good soldier, America needs a wise leader" -- will, I predict, become a powerful slogan of this campaign.

All in all, the build-up continued tonight but perhaps not as powerfully as might have been with different players. Biden, in particular, is not eloquent, but he is a fine speaker-from-the-heart and is probably easier for many American to identify with as a speaker than either of the Clintons or the Obamas.

This is going to be a heckuva election.