As the president reared the stage, the U2 hit, City of Blinding Lights swelled in the arena. I couldn’t help but remember the first words of that song, “The more you see the less you know, the less you find out as you go–I knew much more then, then I do now”.The beauty of those words is their penance, the admission that a wiser man could also be a more confused man, but nevertheless, hopeful under the right support. This segment of the convention soundtrack perfectly framed the speech the president was about to deliver.
The first lady welcomed her husband onstage with all the subdued sincerity of a weeknight embrace any couple across America might share upon returning home from work. Obama then faced the audience alone, scanning each wave in an unlikely ocean of American flags. With a strong thank you and a grateful grin, he professes his love for his wife, quiets his youngest, Sasha, with the promise of school the next day, and thanks Biden for his faith and loyalty.
With a humble smile that slowly grew to one of blatant joy, Barack stated his acceptance of the nomination. With the crowd finally quiet, you can hear a confident woman shout, “I love you Barack!”, as he begins to speak about his vision for the country. Obama stated that when he spoke here before, he “spoke about hope”, about the “dogged faith in the future”, not “blind optimism”. Now we are in a “gridlock” that’s “left us wondering if its still even possible”, where “the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising”. He kids, “If you’re sick of hearing me, ‘APPROVE THIS MESSAGE’, believe me, so am I”. The audience sparkles with camera flashes as Obama describes a country where “everyone follows the same rules, from Main St., to Wall St., to Washington D.C.”
Obama wasn’t afraid to take a few stabs at the Republicans: saying that in Tampa, they were “more than happy to talk about everything wrong with America, but they didn’t have much to say about how they’d make it right”, and that their go-to solution, be it an economic crisis, or the common cold, was to take a tax cut. He vows not to follow into this sort of procedure, that “we are not going back, we are moving forward”. Some of the best points in the speech were those where Obama got down on his rhetorical knee and really spoke to us: “You elected me to tell you the truth, and the truth is it will take more than a few years to fix what has built up over decades”.
He then begins praising the fact that we “reinvented a dying auto industry”, and are again stamping things with “Made in America”. The audience erupts in a chant of “USA!”, and Michelle is seen exercising a self-deprecating giggle for chiming in herself. Barack smiles and almost pants with excitement as he talks about the shift toward independent energy and education. He talks about suppressing Al Qaeda and terminating the the threat of Bin Laden, and I begin to wonder why “are we better off?” is even an argument the opponent would even consider.
Not only humorous but also a little frightening are the things he brings to light about Romney’s aspirations for foreign policy; the fact that he considers Russia our number enemy, or his “insulting our closest ally” at the London Olympics ( I found myself laughing along with this one–not only continuously annoyed by the praise for Romney in Salt Lake City but also my disgust for his reproach at London this summer). And for all the foreign policy “backbone” Romney is foaming at the mouth with, Obama offers a different idea, “It’s time to do some nation-building right here at home”.
Obama lowers to his knee again with colloquial sincerity, saying “I wanna get this done, and we can get it done”, but assures us of a his own moral “backbone” by pledging not to do it through tax breaks for the wealthy. His speaking gesticulations start to look more and more like he is snapping at the mention of each solution, so fired up that he might break out in song and dance. He contrasts his ideals with the biting sarcasm, “If you can’t afford insurance…don’t get sick”, that pollution, well, “that’s the price of progress”, “Can’t afford college? Take my opponent’s advice and borrow money from your parents!”, and then effectively leads into an appeal for citizenship. He talks with such momentum that he hits the mike, but it doesn’t seem to distract his train of thought.
“If you turn away now, if you buy into the cynicism, change will not happen”, was one of my favorite quotes of the nights. Obama defends the “selfless soldiers” who “won’t be kicked out because of who they are or who they love”, and stands firm in the belief that “women should make healthcare choices for themselves”. To this, one middle aged member of the audience stomps her foot and screams, “Yes! Yes! YES!”. “Times have changed, and so have I…I’m no longer just a candidate, I’m the president”, he says, slightly frowning at the wild applause like this defense of a “backbone” feels uncomfortable to him, humility more his natural state than something he must fight for.
As he directs the closing of his speech to the power of the people (“The election four years ago wasn’t about me, it was about you…my fellow citizens, you were the change”) , and passion seems to well up in the back of his throat, I started to think about diversity. The audience looks so dramatically different from last week’s Stepford spectacular. Only this week could you watch the lipsticked boy, the sequined grandma, and the effervescent soccer mom all cheering under the same roof.
The confetti floats down as the commentators mention that “unfortunately” there was no time to order balloons with the change of venue. David Brooks of the NY Times commented that although he had a great presence, the President’s promises were to “incremental” to be nation-altering. But I wonder, with all the talk last week of American pride, how there could be a prouder moment than tonight. Isn’t diversity what we “pride” ourselves on? The “melting pot” of America? Would Romney oversee an elementary school class where Thanksgiving was focused on the beauty of compromise between the Pilgrims and Native Americans, or are his Pilgrim’s too blinded by their shoe buckles? Maybe the president’s vision is incremental, but maybe thats what we need. It is the increments of the population, the confetti instead of the balloons, that, ultimately, make the difference.
Caroline L. S. 