Magic of 2008 Eludes Obama After Flat Convention

The consensus on Barack Obama’s acceptance speech Thursday night, and in effect on the Democratic National Convention as a whole, is that it was a bust.

One reason may be optics. Obama was scheduled to deliver the speech in a stadium seating 64,000 people. But on Wednesday, after Charlotte, N.C., had been pummeled by periodic rainstorms all week, organizers moved the event to the convention hall.

The last two stadium acceptance speeches, in 2008 and 1960, were delivered in Denver and Los Angeles, where it seldom rains in the summer. That’s not true of Charlotte — or of Tampa, Fla., where Republicans took a risk by scheduling their convention at the start of hurricane season.

So Obama spoke at the same podium as Bill Clinton had the night before. The comparison was not flattering to the 44th president.

Clinton was animated, loose, constantly ad libbing, varying his gestures and expression. Obama seemed more mechanical, less fluent. The contrast with the videos shown earlier of his campaigning in 2008 was not helpful.

And, perhaps unexpectedly, John Kerry and Joe Biden delivered more interesting speeches before Obama spoke.

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