I’m sitting in Invesco Stadium. Just heard Al Gore’s speech. It was actually less impactful being in this stadium than being indoors. There’s something about the vastness of the stadium that makes it much less intimate. The jumbotrons are father away, the sounds bit more muffled….
Gore’s best line: “The same policies all over again? Hey, I believe in recycling, but that’s ridiculous.”
Ok – I have to admit when I first heard the announcer introduce a few generals, I thought, oh here we go again. Kerry did the same thing. But the sheer number of generals and admirals actually was pretty impressive. If memory serves, Kerry tried the same thing but had to settle for some lower ranked officers to fill out the stage….
Having regular people speak is risky. It’s one of those ideas that sounds good – you know, illustrate real problems with real people – but it usually doesn’t work because, well, speaking to a stadium is hard. But, hat’s off to the Obama scouts. Each one of these people seem like characters – feisty and authentic. These people are better speakers than most of the politicians we’ve seen this week
The only one who didn’t seem as good was this fellow Barney Smith, from Indiana. But then we heard why he was selected: “America needs a president who will put Barney Smith ahead of Smith Barney….”
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posted August 29, 2008 at 1:35 am
I was really impressed with this string of speakers. I kept waiting for disaster to strike, because I could tell each one was nervous, but their nervousness just brought out the authenticity in each of their stories, and when Barney Smith hit us with his (now famous) line, it brought the house down for me.
I am trying to maintain a prophetic distance from both candidates, but tonight did a great deal to sway me. No, we will see what Minneapolis brings.
posted August 29, 2008 at 2:18 am
Barney Smith earrrrrrrrned it!
posted August 29, 2008 at 6:48 am
Where in the heck did they find those speakers? It seemed to me they were building to a climax with them as each story became more and more moving – until they got to Barney Smith. When he started talking I had 2 thoughts: “Why this hick?” & “There goes the momentum”. But when he hit us with the “Barney Smith b4 Smith Barney” line, I was screaming “BAR-NEY! BAR-NEY! BAR-NEY!”
…I gotta find a Barney Smith T-Shirt
posted August 29, 2008 at 8:51 am
I couldn’t even watch Obama. When Barney Smith got up with his sob story about how much the government should be doing for him I couldn’t take it. Whining about jobs going oversees etc, etc, etc…..I wonder if he’s ever bought anything from WalMart? We have an insatiable appetite for cheap material things in this country (ie. televisions cheap enough to have one in every room) and we now blame our government when the ramifications are such that we can’t have our cake and eat it too. I’m sorry Barney, your ‘sad story’ didn’t do it for me.
posted August 29, 2008 at 9:45 am
Barney was on point !!!
posted August 29, 2008 at 1:52 pm
I can tell you for sure that Barney Smith was chosen because he is a common man with an increasingly common story and NOT because they wanted to use his name in that line. How do I know? Barney is my uncle and he put the line in there himself AFTER he was in Denver.
posted August 29, 2008 at 2:31 pm
thanks Dan R – a VP at Walmart
posted August 29, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I hope that Barney makes it on Oprah. Barney, barney, barney……
posted August 30, 2008 at 10:40 am
Barney seems to have an IQ slightly above retarded. He had 20 years to keep improving himself but he settled for par. That’s why the b*tch took 13 months to find a job.
posted August 30, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I just watched the video. Whiny no, how do you present your story without the facts?
He is an amateur speaker, yes, but whiny, no. I think he did very well, sounded very truthful, and tells the every-man story of the US. Hero no, spokesperson for everyone, go Barney for doing it!
I LOVED the Cuyahoga Falls woman, Monica. I grew up in Cuyahoga Falls and now live in NYC. I get those emails too…. GO MONICA! GO CFO! on the day in 2004 when George Bush came to CFO to campaign, my elderly parents stayed home and stuffed protest letters they had been writing all winter, into envelopes to mail to all the Senators, Representatives and other folks who serve them.
GO AMERICA!
posted August 31, 2008 at 8:51 am
“Barney seems to have an IQ slightly above retarded.”
Maybe he was busy raising a family and all that entails. But I’ll indulge your infantile curiosity. Are you saying that those of us who are slightly slower mentally than the norm don’t deserve basic human dignity?