Now's the Time to Have Some Big Ideas; Now's the Time to Make Some Firm Decisions

I think Obama did, once again, as he always seems to when it really counts, a tremendous job. It wasn't the rhetorical brilliance of 2004, but that wasn't what he was after. What he was after was a policy speech--a rousing, stirring policy speech, but still--a policy speech. A speech to put an end once and for all to the ignorant carping about all form and no substance, all rhetoric and no detail.

Once he was standing there in front of the set, all of that brain-dead Republican crap about the 'Greek temple' was exposed as the nonsense we always knew it was. The hand-wringing about the move to Invesco Field didn't make a lot of sense either, when it came down to the speech; Obama is one of a very few politicians who can fill a space like that--not fill as in put a butt in every seat, although that's something McCain can't seem to do, but fill as in have a presence such that the space doesn't diminish him.

And yet he didn't leave himself open to the brain-dead 'celebrity' attack, either. He addressed it head-on, but even without that it was clear: this is a guy who inspires a tremendous amount of adulation, but he's not just a 'celebrity'. This is someone who thinks long and hard about what the right thing to do is, who is motivated not by a mere desire to run things but by a desire to govern--to govern well, wisely, and justly, as he understands these things. This was a speech about policy. Agree or disagree with him, but I think most of us can at least be a little happy at the prospect of a thoughtful, intelligent president who really cares about doing the right thing.

Your thoughts?