Document Actions
Iowa: the After-Party Circuit
posted at 2008-01-03 23:45 | Last modified 2008-01-04 00:36
Reactions:
Second-place finisher John Edwards stayed on message like glue on a stamp. There was no concession in his "concession” speech. Hoarse, tired, and bleary-eyed as he was, if you’d just tuned in, you’d have sworn it was he, not Obama, who’d just swept the state. It was a tour-de-force of dogged persistence.
But it still doesn’t seem to be resonating with the folks with whom he seeks to identify. NBC says he came in third among Dem union workers and Dems who live in low-income housing.
Third-place finisher Hillary Clinton’s voice was ragged, but she looked confident, relaxed, even serene in her concession, and her thanks to her supporters were believably sincere. (Bill, on the other hand, looked a bit a shell-shocked when the camera wasn’t focused directly on him.)
Like Edwards, she was all about staying on message, but unlike Edwards, she managed to mention (gracefully) that she hadn’t won. And although short on sleep and dressed in black, she still looked fresh and ready to go. Say what you want about her, she’s a pro.
Huckabee’s speechwriters rock. In what has to be one of the least egotistical acceptance speeches in recent Iowa history, he thanked those who didn’t vote for him but "still treated me with respect…and allowed me to come often, not just into their communities, but into their homes.” Looked more tired than Hillary, if more invigorated. He also clearly got the “change” memo: “Tonight we prove that American politics is still in the hands of folks like you …tonight, I hope we will forever change the way Americans look at their political system and how we elect presidents and elected officials.” (Good luck with that, Mike.)
Seriously, though – watching this guy, I have to say he’s the best communicator in the race. It’s not that he’s saying much that everyone else isn’t. But he sure knows how to say it, and he consistently does so better than anyone else, though Obama comes close. Maybe it’s Huckabee’s experience as a preacher that helps him sense how best to reach his audience. Maybe not. But when’s the last time you heard a Republican use the verb “love” in a political speech?
Obama has some drop-dead speechwriters, too – and he did a great job delivering their work: “On this historic night, you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do.” Like Huckabee, he talked about change, about bipartisanship, about moving past party lines to “choose hope over fear, unity over division.”
Obama looked fresh and invigorated, if a bit rumpled. His speech finessed a fine line, managing to be assertive and statesmanlike without coming across as slick or egotistical. “Hope is that thing inside us that persists despite all the evidence to the contrary.” It was the kind of speech you couldn’t tear yourself away from. Amazing stuff.
Romney scheduled his appearance at the same time as Huckabee’s (and no, that probably wasn’t an accident), so most of us missed it - but in the clip I did see, he was comparing his performance tonight to that of an Olympic athlete who ranks second going into the finals, but manages to pull out a gold medal in the end. I don’t know what else Romney said, but I sure hope that wasn’t his best line.
Chris Dodd has dropped out. So has Biden. Neither Biden nor Richardson ever officially threw their support to anyone, but CNN and MSNBC both say their supporters largely backed Obama as a second choice.
Comments? Drop me a line.
