Democratic Convention Review: ‘Come ON! We’re America!’
Exasperation was the tone of the third night of the Democratic convention on Wednesday — exasperation with Donald Trump for having gotten as far as he has, exasperation with voters who aren’t planning to cast a Democratic ballot. “You know who I don’t trust? Donald Trump!” yelped vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine on this day when Trump was heard to implore Russia to dig deeper into Hillary Clinton’s emails. President Obama said, “People outside of the United States really do not understand what is going on in this election — they really don’t.” But it was Vice President Joe Biden who provided the TV moment of the night when he concluded one of his most Joe Biden-y, patented, get-out-the-vote speeches by saying with immense exasperation, “Come on! We’re America!”
Biden got away with that bit of big-boy petulance on the sheer strength of his delivery: The man knows how to present himself to an audience as one of its members, rather than an aloof figure of power. Tim Kaine tried for something similar; he was earnest but much more uneven in oratory. Kaine’s Trump impression was lousy but so puppy-dog persistent, he got a round of applause from the crowd — or maybe they just clapped to prevent him from saying the Trumpish phrase “Believe me!” again.
“You cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth, not one word,” said Kaine. As CNN’s Jake Tapper put it, Kaine was “settling into the attack-dog position of vice president.” Over on Fox News, Brit Hume summed up a Biden-Kaine comparison best. Sighing one of those great phlegmatic sighs of his, Hume concluded, “After Joe Biden’s classic 1940s-1950s stem-winder — I guess this was the best [Kaine] can do.” (Confession: Anyone who still uses the phrase stem-winder has me on his side.)
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The headliner this night was President Obama, who wore a silver tie to match his second-term hair. Obama turned on the full force of his charm, sometimes using a comic self-deprecation that was undergirded with steeliness, as when he declared, “No one — not me, not Bill — nobody has ever been more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States of America.” Pause; impeccably timed beat, looking out into the audience at Bill Clinton: “I hope you don’t mind, Bill, but I was just tellin’ the truth, man.”
Obama was droppin’ his g’s as a rhetorical signal that he wanted to convey hard-won truths about once campaigning against Hillary. “Eight years ago, let me tell you, it was tough. She was doin’ everything I was doin,’ but just like Ginger Rogers: backwards and in heels.” Not sure how many Bernie-weepers picked up that reference, but it probably went over big among the baby boomers.
This was “vintage Obama,” said Hume on Fox, who felt the “strongest part of the speech” was its attack on Trump, which Hume characterized as “straight-out criticism and ridicule.” Brian Williams on MSNBC was far more maudlin, mourning of Obama, “It is tempting to say … we will not see his kind again.” (Resist the temptation, Brian!) And on CNN, well, I’ve come to feel bad for Jake Tapper, wedged between the useless banalities uttered by Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash, working in a few sharp, concise observations when he can be heard above that duo drone.
I confess I missed the 8 P.M. hour of the convention because I was watching a cable news channel: On Fox, Bill O’Reilly was ignoring the convention and using his Factor hour to lace into those who criticized his remarks about the slaves who worked on building the White House and confiding of fears to his person.
Related: Bill O’Reilly: ‘They Want Me Dead! They Do!’
But as the Democratic convention rolls on into its final night, it’s the closers who matter the most anyway. And this night, Hillary herself came out to link arms with Obama, and they figuratively waltzed offstage to the strains of Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered.” Obama must have heard that song and thought, Yup, I did my part. Hillary may have heard that same song and thought, Memo to staff: Dump that song — not yet signed, sealed, or delivered by a long shot.
