[Music]
Let me uh talk about some of the other
big moments of this convention because
one of the surprises for a lot of people
who aren't pay don't pay close attention
to Illinois politics like say David
Broer does was Barack Obama who's the
Democratic Senate nominee there and he
gave a big speech in which in which he
kind of roared and electrified the cl
electrified the it's been a long week.
Um, I had a chance to talk to uh to
Barack Obama after his speech that night
and I asked him what it would take for
him and for John Kerry to win in
November and he gave a pretty
self-confident answer.
We'll take care of Illinois. Um but uh I
think in those critical states uh uh
which may end up determining the
election, I think it's just a matter of
being clear,
straightforward, honest, uh specific
about uh how the Democrats can provide
opportunity for people who don't have it
and help give relief to those folks
who've made it into the middle class but
are still struggling uh and are feeling
that they may be slipping. kind of a
rockstar, Michael. Uh, a star is born.
Uh, the the interesting thing about
Obama's speech and and the whole week
again is that so much of this was about
unity within the party, but there was a
sub sort of river running through this
convention that you couldn't miss if you
were watching. And that is the Democrats
clearly are not willing to let George W.
Bush have 9/11. They want to keep a
piece of it for themselves. And it's
this piece. It's not simply that what
happened on 911 means we have to
reorganize the way we think about, you
know, defending the United States. The
Democrats were saying, "Yeah, that may
be true. That's right. But we also have
to remember what happened after 911,
which is that the we came together as a
nation." And and the theme of Obama's
speech and the theme of a lot of what a
lot of people said was that 911 means
something else as well to us, which is
that we came together and we we haven't
been together since. I think that's what
Carrie said last night. And and they're
saying, I think over and over all week,
we're going to put it back together.
That was a powerful I think one of the
most powerful themes because it
basically said we're not going to let
the president have what happened in
2001. We're going to define it the way
we see it. And that has real power
across I think the middle. I think Obama
had the best line of the convention, the
audacity of hope. I mean, how beautiful
and poetic. I thought I really still
stuck with the convention theme. Yeah,
he's he made probably the best writer uh
in politics in certainly in Illinois
since Adelaide Stevenson and his future
is just unlimited now. I didn't meet a
single reporter in Boston who was not
just blown away by their first session
with this man. And is it your
understanding, David, that he wrote his
own speech? Those are his words. He's
That is right. I'm more prepared to
believe that than that John Kerry
actually wrote the first draft in three
hours the day he found out he was doing
it. Wow. 80% was ready to go.