convention impressions, second day
 
The night of transition, from elders to the future of the party, from Ted Kennedy (speaking) and Jesse Jackson (watching) to Barak Obama, Janet Napalitano and  maybe even Ron Reagan---before settling down to the party of the present with Teresa Heinz Kerry, and continuing for the rest of the convention.   

After probably the first Star Spangled Banner ever to be sung at a national convention in an American Indian language, historian and best selling author Robert Caro introduced Ted Kennedy in an unusual but fitting and long overdue way: by calling him historically a great U.S. Senator, on a par with the 19th century icons.  Edward Kennedy has been in the Senate continuously since 1962, when he was a young man even his brothers John and Robert thought might not be ready for prime time.  Through thick and mostly thin, and triumph usually wrung from tragedy or at least misfortune, he has been as skilled and internally popular a Senator as the last half of the twentieth century produced.  Though Republicans vilify him on the stump---and he cleary relishes giving them the needle as stylishly as possible---behind the scenes, Republican Senators generally enjoy working with him, and find him a skilled legislator, ready to find or create common ground.  But he deserves most praise for what Caro praised him: for steadfastly championing issues he believes in, whether they are fashionable or not any longer.  They are generally the issues his brothers championed, but he has been willing to both stand up to countertrends and to adapt his proposals to new information and better ways of doing things.  For example, he has been a longstanding advocate for health care reform with the goal of coverage for all Americans, and health care as a right.  He's done this when others supported it, and adapted his ideas when bills might actually pass, but he has also done this when it was not a fashionable issue.  It's about time Ted Kennedy was recognized for his years of service and achievement.  In any case, it's getting harder for Republicans to get much of a rise out of people by holding him up as an example of devilish liberalism.  He's just too much a fixture of American political life.
 
Kennedy's speech to the convention wasn't his best.  His voice broke, and he committed one great howler, when he referred to the "shirt heard round the world."  But his theme of similiarities between Boston during the American Revolution and American political choices today was reasonably effective, and yielded one of the better jokes of the evening: "But today our struggle is not with some monarch named George who inherited the throne, though sometimes it seems that way."  He also smoothly linked "the excesses of Enron" to the "abuses of Halliburton."
 
Kennedy set the theme of Kerry representing hope, against the Bush politics of fear.  Barak Obama picked it up in the keynote address.  Billed as the rising star of the party, this 40 year old multiracial candidate for the Senate from Illinois, met high expectations with the clear language, apt comparisons and economical but memorable rhetorical flourishes, and especially a superior delivery and presence. 
 
Obama referred to the "politics of hope," a specifically Kennedyesque phrase (adapted by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. in a JFK era book of the same title) and varied it to the phrase most quickly picked up by the pundits, the "audacity of hope."  He also echoed and expanded a theme of Bill Clinton last night, who pointed out that because Democrats are inclusive and Republicans depend on narrow constituencies of the rich and the far right, that Democrats don't need division, but Republicans do.  Obama scored big with the audience in the hall, and if anyone was watching, probably on TV, by challenging the idea of a divided nation: we worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't want government snooping at what library books we read in the red states; we coach Little League in the blue states, and we have gay friends in the red states.  But most importantly he addressed the Republican stereotype of the Democrats as the party of special interests, that is, of identity politics, by saying directly: we are not black America, Latino America, etc.  We are the United States of America.  
 
He scored in smaller ways, too, as in his description of an idealistic young Marine named Shamus who (paraphrasing) believed in his country and its leaders, and who was on his way to Iraq.  I wondered, Obama said, "are we serving Shamus as well as he is serving us?"  In addition to questioning the Iraq debacle, he recited a quick litany of all that Americans owe the troops and their families that shamefully they are not getting from the Bushies.  We think this is particularly important because we believe that there are going to be groups of voters who will tell pollsters they are voting for Bush, but in the privacy of voting will cast their ballot for Kerry---and highest on that list will be military families.  These days that means reservists and National Guard families as well, and maybe in particular.   
 
Obama also scored with a line that we imagine goes over well on his campaign stops, when he referred to America as the land of opportunity, even for "a skinny kid with a funny name" like him.  
 
Other highlights of the night: Ron Reagan's clear and compelling (and very well received) case for stem cell research, and the winningly cute presentation of the 12 year old representative of Kids for Kerry, who suggested that vp Cheney should be given a very long time out for his bad language, and "To summarize: Kerry---American hero, next President."
 
Howard Dean received a rousing reception in the hall, but we missed most of his speech, and Dick Gephardt's.
 
The finale was Teresa Heinz Kerry, introduced by one of her sons and a pretty good but too careful short film (Candy Crowley's bio on CNN, which seemed to use outtakes from this one, was better: it portrayed Teresa as depressed after the sudden death of her husband, Senator John Heinz, who was brought to life again by her relationship with John Kerry. )
 
But while this shed some light on John Kerry and their relationship, the idea of the film was to stress Teresa as her own person.  She does have a compelling biography: brought up under a dictatorship in Mosambique, demonstrating against apartheid in South Africa in the late 1950s, a UN translator who began her speech with greetings in five languages, and an award-winning philanthopist. 
 
It will be interesting to gauge press and public reaction in the next few days, but we could certainly see why many observers say she is a tremendous asset on the campaign trail.  She is especially effective making direct contact in small groups, but she showed here that she can handle speaking to a huge crowd and the television camera with confidence, personality and style.   We imagine most viewers were at least reassured, and possibly charmed or at least had their curiosity piqued.  Various racial constituencies and women, both on domestic and international levels, should be especially impressed.  Her appearance and her speech might let the world know that at last America might be growing up enough to actually elect a man who doesn't have to hide his wife's intelligence and views.
 
The lines likely to be quoted will be those about her outspokenness, but a line that jumped out at us was: we "reject thoughtless and greedy choices in favor of thoughtful and generous actions."