DNC12: Day One
I’m sure it was an impossible job living up to the billing as the “Next Obama”. Be that as it may, but I’m still underwhelmed …
Ryan Lizza speaks for me on this matter.
His speech started with a compelling and promising premise. He talked about how he was “of a generation born as the Cold War receded, shaped by the tragedy of 9/11, connected by the digital revolution.” But he never returned to these generational touchstones or explained what they meant to him. Instead, he told a very heart-warming story of his grandmother’s immigrant experience. Despite a tribute to his mother, Rosie, that brought delegates to their feet, he left out the most interesting details of her life: that’s she was a prominent radical Chicana activist who was a leader of La Raza Unida in Texas in the nineteen-seventies. The closest he came to mentioning his mother’s fascinating political background was a reference that she “fought hard for civil rights.”
Much of the rest of the speech consisted of well-written and well-delivered attacks on Mitt Romney and praise for Barack Obama. “Mitt Romney, quite simply, doesn’t get it,” he said of the Republican nominee. “I believe in you. Barack Obama believes in you,” he said about the President.
But there was no new idea about what Obama’s second term might offer and no attempt to explain this moment in American politics in a fresh and compelling way. Instead, Castro ended with a touching story about taking his daughter to kindergarten and sending her off with the same words his grandmother once told him: “Que Dios te bendiga. (May God bless you.)” It was a poignant moment, but one I doubt many will remember years from now.
Tonight, it’s Bubba’s turn.
ADD-ON: Via AtlanticWire’s liveblog from last night:
“Is O’Malley the Democrat Tim Pawlenty?”
Possibly. His speech certainly wasn’t a wake-up call to his Presidential prospects. But he still starts off as my default, non-”Hillary 2016″ candidate. I just wish there was a little something there that suggested “Yeah, this is the guy that’s gonna win!“