Well, I was there. One of the 85,000 who witnessed the Barackalypse. Maybe I’m just addled from exhaustion, but I’ll be dead honest: third best speech of the convention.

This is not an observation made just from style points. Clearly he’s one of the best orators in public life. But it just didn’t live up to the hype. To be fair, what could?

The drama of the Hillary speech, coupled with the emotion of the evening and how she far outdistanced her usual drone, made it the speech of the week. Her husband made the DNC tremble out of fear that he would not adequately back the nominee. He did, eloquently, and seeing the aging master at the top of his game packed a wallop.

The scene tonight was without peer. The atmosphere, the crowd, even that ostentatious stage set, were riveting.

The speech itself? Garden variety Obama. Which is pretty darn good, of course, but he is no longer the wondrous post-partisan trailblazer sworn to get us past our differences. He went after John McCain as any Democrat would.

Mild step back: I don’t know if other Democrats would have stooped to such a low blow as this: “John McCain says he’ll follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but he won’t even follow him to the cave where he lives.”

I have had it up to here with Democrat punks who try to suggest that bin Laden would have been brought to justice if only their weakling foreign policies had been in effect.

The morphing is complete. Barack Obama is now a thoroughly ordinary politician, resorting to the same old tired attacks that secured losses for Al Gore and John Kerry.

As the Democrat convention ends, my brain is about to burst from all the unadulterated crap that’s hit my ears:
–the obvious reliance on government to solve all problems;
–the pity party litany of downtrodden citizens used as pawns to convince the gullible that their lives wold be perfect if only BUsh were not president;
–the raw nerve of invoking the troops, who would have been driven defeated from Iraq if a Democrat had been in the White House these last years;
–the poisonous tax policies which would punish successful small businesses, rape the job-creating class of wage-earners and pluck more money from middle America’s pockets for more profligate spending;
–the brazen stupidity of hawking the minimum wage and auto fuel economy standards, which are none of government’s business;
–the insanity of pushing the value of a global policy too weak to confront evil, gullibly believing that enemies will fold if we just talk nice.

All of that said, yes, this is history. A man with African-American blood in his veins is one step away from the leadership of the free world. He won’t win, thank God, but this is surely evidence of the progress our great nation has made.

Some of these delegates are old enough to have sipped from water fountains labeled “Colored.” I cannot help but be moved by the looks on their faces as they see a man who shares their race accept the nomination of a major party.

But soon it will be time to focus not on Barack Obama’s skin but on his beliefs, and they are completely wrong for this period in American history, or any period.

So, off to Minnestota. Next week I’l have thoughts on the McCain VP pick, and we’ll track a Gulf hurricane that may play havoc with coastal cities and the RNC at the same time.

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