Barack Obama's INVESCO Field Acceptance Speech

Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech, as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, in front of some 84,000 supporters yesterday evening at INVESCO Field, in Denver. Here's Part 1 of the video, and here's Part 2 of the more than 40-minute speech. Here's the [prepared text of the speech] distributed ahead of time by his campaign team. I watched it live with my wife -- just couldn't miss it.


One prominent commentator, David Gergen, described the speech as "a political masterpiece." Another, Rebecca Sinderbrand, described it as "the August equivalent of the Super Bowl -- a massive event that sucked up most of the media oxygen, complete with fireworks, a capacity crowd, and celebrity acts that would have been at home at any halftime show."

Not coincidentally delivered on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's historic "I have a dream" speech, Obama's acceptance speech risked comparisons with the MLK speech, which was clearly of a different genre. The fear that it might not measure up (even though he was not supposed to try too hard), or that he had to be seen to bring his as close to the level of the "dream" as possible (even though his must, of necessity, be "workmanlike"), became a part of the drama and suspense of this eventful and, in the end, awesome week. Opponents and supporters, both, anticipated a delivery that was at once different and the same! Opponents hoped, of course, that somehow (despite past performances) there would be failure this time -- a failure to meet lofty expectations. Many supporters, on the other hand, feared a turn of fortune that they dared not speak -- a "less than satisfactory" verdict by media pundits. But they hoped for the best -- which, it is clear now, is what they got.

I think it was a great speech, a different speech -- a speech for the ages. It was a great moment. We will look back on it for years. And we will continue to wonder how he was able to deliver a nearly flawless, six sigma, speech for that long.

I saw tears in the field, among the delegates. But there had been a tear here and there throughout the convention. People shed tears for different reasons, but it is the same tears they shed.

Obama looked and sounded very presidential -- and as combative as a President ought to publicly be when dealing with forces that cause his followers ire.

I don't see what McCain and the Republicans can do to deny him the Presidency now, with elements of his party having closed ranks with as much finality and finesse as we witnessed -- and as is possible in such symbolic and public rituals of common purpose and comradeship.

On Not Being Afraid To Be An Example That Inspires

In On Becoming The Example, Kimmy Sharing Light wrote:


"When we watch our children start a new journey, or life challenge, they look for role models or inspiration. We usually never think of being an inspiration for them." And she added that "whatever we do, we need to have the aim of becoming an example, an inspiration for others."
I posted a comment on her blog with the following words, which, in their mix, impose upon me a re-varnishing duty which I cannot avoid, even as I repeat them:

You ask elsewhere: "How do people judge you?" And you answer: BY OUR ACTIONS." That's right. Talk can reveal the inner soul, and talk can inspire; but talk, as someone or other keeps saying, is cheap.

To be inspired is to be fired up. The question is: By what? By whom? Yet "whom" is an imperfect word, for what it brings to mind in the first instance is a kind of singularity that is too confined and, as an anchor of sorts, too confining. The only safe "whom" is a plural "whom." But we, as individualities, are a part of that -- or a part of it as well. That's what you had in mind I think. And that's the main story.

As for the question "By what?", the essential answer remains, in your own words: BY OUR ACTIONS. But any layered answer we attempt returns us to the base, to the realization, that the "what" can be many things, and can never be the one size that fits all. It may be a moment that sits up; or an event that rewires the brain by refreshing pictures in the mind. Yet words too -- as JFK's, as MLK's, as Obama's, as Kimmy's -- can inspire. If we live by them.

In a community enriched by social capital, and to anyone over five or six or seven years -- I hit "t" for tears for a moment there, but caught myself (so, no oops) -- there are many points and instances of light besides mother or father or older sibling. As they say, "it takes a village."


But the village is more than the sum of the people, for it has many parts, and fuses nurture and nature in ways we strive to understand, but typically do only in half-measures.


And it sometimes takes, yes, tears -- to come upon the true path to our destiny. And not tears of joy.