Senator Barack Obama closed the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night. He should have kept talking all night.
Obama's speech had more than 40 million viewers. Eighty thousand filled a football stadium to hear him. He officially took charge of the Democratic Party. He laid out what his agenda would be as president. He made pointed attacks against his opponent. So what? If you ask the many online news outlets covering the Democratic National Convention, the story was old by the next morning.
There were some who lingered on Obama for few hours longer. Chris Weigant of the Huffington Post analyzed the details of Obama's speech. There was some commentary in the New York Times about what Obama accomplished with his speech. And Carrie Budoff Brown of Politico.com summed it up, "Just 12 hours after delivering a historic speech, Barrack Obama was no longer the story".
The new story, John McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, is a big story. I'd feel a bit manipulated, if I were a political reporter. McCain successfully took the attention off the Democrats at the earliest possible moment. Why not look a bit further into what the candidate said about, say, oil dependency or tax reform?
The Huffington Post's homepage on Friday morning expressed it best. At the top was a collage of covers of print dailies, all with banners about Obama's speech. The Huffington Post then went right to the story about McCain's VP choice. As if to say, "that speech is obviously yesterday's news. Just look at today's newspaper".
It's hard to argue that the Democratic National Convention was anything more than a pep rally. There was little news to be found. Most energy was spent reading the Applause-O-Meter after each of the big speeches.
Some of the most interesting news from the convention had nothing to do with the Democrats. The attention given the on-air drama at MSNBC and what it may or may not say about the health of that cable news network was amusing.
Also, a photographer from ABC News was arrested while taking photographs of Democratic senators and donors as they left a private meeting at Denver's Brown Palace Hotel.
And then there were slavery and kidnapping allegations against Kellogg, Brown & Root.
If Obama is as smart as everybody says he is, he'll make his next speech last from tomorrow until the day of the election.
By John Adams
September 1, 2008 11:22 PM
Great article! The other thing that annoyed me with the coverage was the advanced copy to the media before the speech! It almost became "old news" before he even gave the speech. I was already being told how I should react to the speech that hadn't been given yet ... annoying.
You did an excellent job! I can't wait for the article about how to skin a chicken.