The last few days have been pretty exciting as summer days wind down and we close the labor day weekend watching hurricane Gustav and a scaled back RNC( Republican National Convention) and the controversies around John McCains’ VP pick.Governor Sarah Palin. The last week though we had the DNC at Denver, Colorado, and I can still feel the excitement everyone had around it. That was truly a historic moment, what with the first African American nominated by a major political party and turning of a new chapter in US political landscape. In the DNC , I watched some of the key speeches, I thought Hillary did well, so did Bill Clinton in doing their part to unite the party and moving on after ending the prolonged bitter fight for Presidential nomination. Ted Kennedy got a lot of people sentimental after showing up despite his ongoing fight with brain cancer. Al Gore did his ritual planet earth thing, the inconvenient truth thing and rallied behind the new democratic nominee , in that way his speech was different and I do hope if Barack Obama is elected president, he delivers on the expectation around protecting the planet, the global warming, the fossil fuels, the renewable energy and so on. What else, yep, the introduction of Biden’s ( the son Beau Biden , the father Joe Biden and the mother Jill Biden) was great and moving! The son Beau did a great job of introducing his dad, I saw many in the audience reaching for their handkerchief wiping tears. Joe Biden’s speech was equally strong..when he says, it is perfectly fine to get knocked down, what is unforgivable is not trying to get back up. He can say that authority because he has gone through many personal crises in his life, particularly when he lost his first wife and an infant daughter in an automobile crash.
I heard Michelle Obama too, but not the whole speech, maybe that is why the speech did not leave a big impression on me, but apparently it did on a lot of people including her husband Barack who characterized it as one of the best speeches of the convention. In Michelle’s speech, more notable was the cameo by his sweet daughters at the and of speech who came on stage and joined their mom and talked to their dad over video conferencing, and Barack’s love for them was so evident! That had a more lasting impression on me, to me it is a testimony to his family values and the human touch which is so needed in a 21st century leader.
Finally how about the speech from Barack himself in front of over 80000 audience in the Invesco stadium and millions watching him on TV? Arguably one of the most important speech of his career and one which has the highest cable rating of any political speeches in recent history. To me it was very much in line with what I had expected, that he will come, he will command the stage and that he will conquer… And I am so proud he delivered on that expectation! The political analysts over on CNN where saying he needs to be specific in his plans for the country otherwise he risks being characterized just being a great orator with no real substance. I am sure Barack was aware of this and so his speech had a lot of specifics as well, which I thought was good but gets me worried that he may promise more than he is able to deliver, given the sorry state of economy and the deficits current government is running. Barack also displayed the other side of him, he was more direct in challenging John MCCain, in clear contrast to his soft image and a promise for a different kind of politics. I guess, the democratic strategists had a balancing act here, if they did not come out strong against John McCain, he (McCain) would have continued his negative campaign against Barack and labeled him once again a celebrity rather than someone fit for being a President. This was a fine line, had Barack gone very negative, his promise of positive campaign, would have been compromised and eroded his brand value, which I am sure is a jealously guarded asset in Obama’s campaign these days. Based on the post speech analysis by the CNN pundits ( the self professed best political team on Television..Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, John King, Campbell Brown, David Gergen) and elsewhere (particularly NBC) sounded like he did what he was supposed to, just the right amount of negativity to take John McCain head on and sounding Presidential and enough restraint to control his negativity thereby preserving his “above the fray” politician image, the change agent, the harbinger of hope and so on.
Yep, I liked his speech, but then again, I am already his supporter and a great fan of him..my judgment could be biased, so take it for what it is wroth

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The last few days have been pretty exciting as summer days wind down and we close the labor day weekend watching hurricane Gustav and a scaled back RNC( Republican National Convention) and the controversies around John McCains’ VP pick.Governor Sarah Palin. The last week though we had the DNC at Denver, Colorado, and I can still feel the excitement everyone had around it. That was truly a historic moment, what with the first African American nominated by a major political party and turning of a new chapter in US political landscape. In the DNC , I watched some of the key speeches, I thought Hillary did well, so did Bill Clinton in doing their part to unite the party and moving on after ending the prolonged bitter fight for Presidential nomination. Ted Kennedy got a lot of people sentimental after showing up despite his ongoing fight with brain cancer. Al Gore did his ritual planet earth thing, the inconvenient truth thing and rallied behind the new democratic nominee , in that way his speech was different and I do hope if Barack Obama is elected president, he delivers on the expectation around protecting the planet, the global warming, the fossil fuels, the renewable energy and so on. What else, yep, the introduction of Biden’s ( the son Beau Biden , the father Joe Biden and the mother Jill Biden) was great and moving! The son Beau did a great job of introducing his dad, I saw many in the audience reaching for their handkerchief wiping tears. Joe Biden’s speech was equally strong..when he says, it is perfectly fine to get knocked down, what is unforgivable is not trying to get back up. He can say that authority because he has gone through many personal crises in his life, particularly when he lost his first wife and an infant daughter in an automobile crash.
I heard Michelle Obama too, but not the whole speech, maybe that is why the speech did not leave a big impression on me, but apparently it did on a lot of people including her husband Barack who characterized it as one of the best speeches of the convention. In Michelle’s speech, more notable was the cameo by his sweet daughters at the and of speech who came on stage and joined their mom and talked to their dad over video conferencing, and Barack’s love for them was so evident! That had a more lasting impression on me, to me it is a testimony to his family values and the human touch which is so needed in a 21st century leader.
Finally how about the speech from Barack himself in front of over 80000 audience in the Invesco stadium and millions watching him on TV? Arguably one of the most important speech of his career and one which has the highest cable rating of any political speeches in recent history. To me it was very much in line with what I had expected, that he will come, he will command the stage and that he will conquer… And I am so proud he delivered on that expectation! The political analysts over on CNN where saying he needs to be specific in his plans for the country otherwise he risks being characterized just being a great orator with no real substance. I am sure Barack was aware of this and so his speech had a lot of specifics as well, which I thought was good but gets me worried that he may promise more than he is able to deliver, given the sorry state of economy and the deficits current government is running. Barack also displayed the other side of him, he was more direct in challenging John MCCain, in clear contrast to his soft image and a promise for a different kind of politics. I guess, the democratic strategists had a balancing act here, if they did not come out strong against John McCain, he (McCain) would have continued his negative campaign against Barack and labeled him once again a celebrity rather than someone fit for being a President. This was a fine line, had Barack gone very negative, his promise of positive campaign, would have been compromised and eroded his brand value, which I am sure is a jealously guarded asset in Obama’s campaign these days. Based on the post speech analysis by the CNN pundits ( the self professed best political team on Television..Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, John King, Campbell Brown, David Gergen) and elsewhere (particularly NBC) sounded like he did what he was supposed to, just the right amount of negativity to take John McCain head on and sounding Presidential and enough restraint to control his negativity thereby preserving his “above the fray” politician image, the change agent, the harbinger of hope and so on.
Yep, I liked his speech, but then again, I am already his supporter and a great fan of him..my judgment could be biased, so take it for what it is wroth

This weekend I watched Hillary Clinton bow out of the presidential race, the person I had rooted for so long has finally clinched the democratic nomination! All due respect to Senator Clinton, she would have made a wonderful president and I particularly liked her farewell remarks- to paraphrase her- the glass ceiling for women presidential candidate did not break but it now has 18 million cracks ( referring to the 18 million or so people who voted for her in the primaries). Here’s a transcript of her speech which she gave in Washington DC on June 7, 2008. coming back to Barack Obama, I read this book called “Audacity of Hope‘ authored by him. Barack Obama is a self described hopemongerer ( I think we need to add this word to the dictionary if it is not already there given the publicity it has gotten!). In this book he gives practical advice on what an individual can do to make a difference. I found the chapter 4 on politics particularly interesting. He openly talks about campaign financing and how expensive it is in the Illinois media market (and by extension rest of the country) and how it is almost impossible to run a campaign unless you have deep pockets. He talks about the cold calls he had to make to raise funds and the disappointments one goes through in the process. As you read this you realize nothing is easy in this world, even great people like Barack Obama had disappointments, doubts, insecurity..not that infallible after all and that is kind of reassuring in the sense that disappointments are a natural process of getting ahead, we are not alone in this. What also struck me was the openness with which he writes about fund-raising, he brings out the contradiction of the current political system pretty clearly. On one hand you have to represent the poor and the middle class to get their votes and on the other hand if you do not accept contributions form the rich people like law firm partners, investment bankers, hedge fund managers, you are not going to go anywhere in the campaign. He says the more senior the senator is, chances are even more that he is deeply connected with rich people to finance their perpetual campaigns. A reality in present day America, so “matter-of-factly” written by Barack! I love this book, but particularly liked chapter 4. Read this book if you want to get some insights into this phenomenon which is called Barack Obama!