Among Democrats, the rejection of this president is so total, exists on so many different levels, and is so fused into their understanding of all the major issues facing the country, that it doesn't even need to be explicitly evoked. The headline of Susan Page's piece in USA Today reads: "Speakers offer few barbs, try to stay warm and fuzzy." But the primetime speeches were actually brimming with barbs, and rather jagged ones at that. They were just woven into the fabric of the speeches, fused into rough-sketched discussions of policy, or paeans to Kerry.
Perhaps it's a touchy analogy, but like voters who understood the code-words Republicans once (and often still do) used to flag hot-button racial issues they dared not voice openly, these Democrats could hear the most scathing attacks on President Bush rattling through the speeches they heard tonight.
Particularly true tonight, when Ted Kennedy even used a mocking "Fool me once" gag. It didn't really work, despite some shoehorning to get it to make some sense. Barack Obama was great, and everybody loves him, so why don't you love him, too?
But apart from the individual speakers, the theme of the convention has been clearly and strongly to advocate a communitarian approach to governing. This principle should give the progressive element the warm fuzzies. It sure gets me. The rhetoric is very Democratic, about helping everybody, helping the less fortunate, working together and so on and so forth. It's really a rather progressive convention in that respect.
The dancing chicken, in other words, approves.
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