I think Kerry's speech was a home run. The one thought that kept running through my mind was "I could see this man as president." That, in my view, was the number one thing Kerry needed to accomplish tonight - convincing America that he is presidential - and he did that, well. He also showed us that he's a human being, not just a machine still in search of a heart (insert Cheney joke here). I was gladdened to see him take several jabs at Bush and Cheney - the restoring truth to the White House thing was fabulous, and I'm sure intentionally reminiscent of Bush's campaign promise in 2000 to return integrity, or whatever it was, to the White House. Loved the line about John Aschroft as well.
My big worry: Will Kerry stand by all his big words tomorrow? Meaning, when asked directly "are you saying the president intentionally misled the country?", Kerry needs to answer "yes." And not give one of those half-weasley answers that Republicans are trying to make his trademark. He gave a strong speech, he needs to stand behind it in the days to come.
My only other concern is that the speech intentionally didn't get into the issues the base is concerned about - gay rights, black issues, abortion, etc. I think that's a smart move politically as it has great appeal to the middle, and doesn't give the Republicans anything to complain about. BUT, I hope this doesn't mean we're seeing the making of a big liberal closet in which all the base issues of concern to the party are thrown into and locked behind an impenetrable door where we'll never see or hear from them again, that would be bad.
More tomorrow as I think about this more. But overall, he did everything he needed to do. Prepare for the Republican attack dogs to let loose.
