Bring It On, Brother

Obama's got our attention. I watched his last night's speech on YouTube and thought it direct and efficient- clearly he is going on the attack after waiting many months. A nice strategy. Obama speaks a bit like a preacher with similar hi and low-tones, emphasizing a point on a down-swing (usually it is the other way around). Also he places short and barely noticeable pauses between words giving them greater strength. Here are some key notes:

“It’s not because John McCain doesn’t care. It’s because John McCain doesn’t get it.”

“America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this.”

“You know, John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won’t even follow him to the cave where he lives”

"Next week, in Minnesota, the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Chaney will ask this country for a third. And we are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight. On Nov. 4, we must stand up and say: ‘Eight is enough.’ ”

“We measure the strength of our economy not by the number of billionaires we have or the profits of the Fortune 500, but by whether someone with a good idea can take a risk and start a business, or whether the waitress who lives on tips can take a day off to look after a sick kid without losing her job — an economy that honors the dignity of work.”

And here is John McCain's response:
“Tonight, Americans witnessed a misleading speech that was so fundamentally at odds with the meager record of Barack Obama."
Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for McCain.