In the interest of full disclosure: I am a registered Democract from Oregon who comes from a family of Democrats and volunteered for John Kerry. So although that may skew my impressions of the Dem convention but I think being here in Taiwan away from the media blitz does give me somewhat of an outsider's view.
So far I have been very impressed with the speeches. Hilary was in a tough position where no matter what she did someone was going to feel left out, but she managed a great speech. On a side note, the angry Clinton supporters are being overhyped and will turn out to be white elephants. As good as Hilary did, I thought her husband did even better. Bill was amazing. Although he was overshadowed, I also thought Joe Biden did a great job and looks to be a bit of an attack dog, the tradition VP role. Then again, that was my first time seeing Biden talk so my impression was colored by not knowing what to expect from him. He will be a great VP, by the way.
I was rather surprised by John Kerry. He started off slow and recieved a cool welcome but with some good lines and a good speach he was really able to finish strong. One place where I disagree with the media reports is Mark Warner's speech. He was described as boring and uninspiring but I was impressed because (not only have I met him) he was the only candidate to really talk about globalization and its impact on the US. Since I believe globalization is the most serious issue facing the US--and most other issues are derivitives of this--I was impressed.
Putting on another hat for myself now, I would attack McCain on three areas if I was a Democratic strategist. Warner had the best, even though it was subtle, attack. He said we need a candidate for the future and not the past. This has now been used by Obama and plays to him perfectly. It lets Dems subtly question McCain's age and grasp of things like the Internet revoltion and paints Obama as foward looking and hopeful. Second, McCain previously stated he did not particularly grasp economic matters. This is like Kerry's gaf last election. For Dems this is the gift that needs to keep giving, make sure every American can quote McCain on this and you sow uncertainity about his ability to address economic matters, which is wherre the election will be won or lost. Third, Kerry was right to attack McCain over the shifts in his voting record over the last 8 years (from very moderate to increasingly conservative in the last four years). If Dems can make people doubt McCain on the economy and paint him as a pandering by changing his positions then the election is theirs to lose.
So far the Dems have been very eager to attack McCain by linking linking him to Bush. This runs the risk of being more of an attack on Bush and less on McCain. I believe this would work better if, like three above, they stressed McCain has altered his positions to conform to Bush.
To be like FOX and pretend to be fair, these are some things McCain can attack and do to defend himself from attacks. First, to deflect criticism of his economics he needs to convene meetings of economic experts and give lots of speeches about this to change the news coverage in his favor and turn this back on Obama. It wouldn't hurt to talk about how you create jobs or propose job retraining for those who have lost jobs. The hardest thing for him is that Bush has abandoned many of the policies McCain backed (talks with Iran, pullout of Iraq, etc.) and he cannot change back. This makes it even more imparative to change the focus to economics. He also has to attack hard to promote his experience over Obama and hammer on a lack of foreign policy experience.
Edit: After watching and reading Obama's speach he too was fantastic. He continually harped on the future and made the election about the essential question "who will best be able to change the US for the better." I had shivers at several points during the speach. However, the momentum will likely shift slightly to McCain this coming week as he announces a VP and has the Repub. convention.
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