The main festivities kicked off last night in Charlotte as the Democratic National Convention hit primetime television, with it’s first group of speakers addressing the country and pushing for the re-election of President Barack Obama.
Among those speakers where former Obama Chief of Staff and current Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emannuel, “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” actor Kal Penn, and Maryland Governor Bob O’Malley. Florida Congresswoman and DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz dropped the gavel to start an evening that would ultimately end with First Lady Michelle Obama rallying the capacity crowd to deliver another four years for her husband.
She succeeded. The others? Not so sure.
FLOTUS Delivers: Seriously, did anyone believe that Michelle Obama would take the podium in front of thousands of her supporters and not get the job done? It was a recurring theme last night, thousands on the web complimenting her manner, her personality and her appearance, but taking a step back when examining at her husband’s first term. Yeah, she brought up warm personal memories of the President when he was younger, but those were things we had all heard before.
The First Lady did well. She usually does. But, unlike Ann Romney who had the advantage of introducing that human element to the country for the first time, Michelle Obama has the President’s record to carry on her back this time, and probably didn’t win over many undecided voters.
Castro is no Rubio: Julian Castro, the young gun Mayor from San Antonio came in with the hype machine running full speed behind him. There were comparisons of Obama from 2004 and he showcased a lot of his political tools last night. He told his inspiring story of being raised from nothing to go to Harvard and, along with his twin brother had his family to thank. He got the crowd involved with a multi-issue attack on Mitt Romney that played on all of the passionate Democratic issues. He also closed strong and flexed that speaking ability that energizes and motivates but..
He’s no Marco Rubio.
Sorry, my Democratic friends but it’s way too soon to make those comparison and the speech was far from perfect. The crowd took a while to get going because, outside of Texas, no one really new who this guy was. He got stuck in the moment a few times, overwhelmed by an energy that he didn’t know what to do with. He didn’t talk policy with the national audience. Can he talk solutions?
Rubio can do all of those things and more. Castro is young (37) and still someone to watch but, he needs to get to Washington and it’s his twin Joaquin who is on that career track, not Julian.
No Bench, Cause to Worry for “D’s”: There were some other good speakers last night, but those were advocates from issue based campaigns and organizations. Where are the young lawmakers that are going to lead this party for the next 20 years? Man.. I don’t know.
Tonight, Democrats in Charlotte will turn to one of the lawmakers that they’ve trusted for the last 20+ years, former President Bill Clinton and he’ll need to be in top form because, it won’t just be Democrats watching tonight, it will be Independents.
Castro has got skills but still has work to do to be compared to Rubio
