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Obama's Speech in Virginia

By pharrell

Obama's speech Tuesday night at the Virginia Democratic Party's JJ dinner was an entirely typical political speech, and, coming from Barack Obama, that made it interesting.

I heard Obama deliver his stump speech when I was campaigning in New Hampshire. He is, as is widely remarked, inspirational, and his speeches play to that strength: tales of hope and promises of change, a liberal dose of calls to action, and a plea to change the tone of our politics.

But last night was different. Obama began and ended his speech in typical form, though he was clearly exhausted and didn't sound himself. But the middle of the speech--as it was delivered even more than the prepared version of the remarks--was classic political laundry list of facts, figures and proposals. There was a $4,000 education credit, contingent on public service. There was a repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the top 2% of Americans. There was a $2,5000 dollar reduction in annual health insurance premiums. There was indexing the minimum wage to inflation. There was the 80% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050. The list went on.

None of these are new ideas for Obama; for months now his website has contained these and many other policy proposals. But hasn't regularly mentioned them in speeches, at least not speeches to national audiences (I've heard that he more frequently speaks about policy in front of smaller crowds), a fact that has fueled the punditocracy's view that he's short on specifics. I took his decision to read the laundry list last night as a signal that he is beginning to address this (false) criticism head on, probably as part of a strategy to reach out to the practically-minded voters--particularly middle-aged women--who form the core of Hillary Clinton's support. It'll almost certainly be a while before specifics get through (the media, for all their complaints, hate covering actual policy), but then, the drawn-out primary calendar gives him ample time to take his message directly to the voters.

Full post as published by Harrell Blog on February 10, 2008 (boomark / email).