Obama's speech

Back of the envelope thoughts about Obama's speech:

- The family stuff, the patriotism bit, the McCain criticism were all fine. The domestic policy section and the ending were really terrific, and the MLK reference at the end was particularly moving.

- But the foreign affairs stuff was muddled. The line about McCain not following Osama to his cave was one of the very few tin notes in the speech.

- Biggest surprise: Obama was notably subdued and serious throughout the speech. We didn't see much of his big grin, and he didn't evoke the usual euphoria that's typical for nominees who've just had the most important night of their lives. (Michelle Obama was also similarly serious-faced.) Obama is smart and he's run an incredibly sharp campaign, so we have to assume this was all strategy - that even though his campaign set him up to speak to 80,000 people, he (and they) didn't want to ride too high in that crowd.

- Which makes the set even weirder. I mean, why the faux White House? Weird and fake and unnecessary at a moment when Obama was pushing authenticity.

- Then again, the speech was really strong and presented Obama as strong and presidential - so, in the end, that's the reason for the faux White House.

- And I guess the success of the speech can be measured partly in the totally hypocritical reax from the NYT's David Brooks, who complained on the NewsHour that Obama didn't have enough high-flying rhetoric... and this from Brooks, who's obsessed with Obama's fancy-schmancy Hyde Park connections and pushed Biden as the VP, but now doesn't want to give Obama any credit for, well, anything. (And what is this totally kookoo Brooks column?

Now for McCain's veep choice. Alaska's Palin would be a bonkers choice vs. Biden. The networks say it isn't Pawlenty or Romney (Gail Collins will be disappointed.). So, Lieberman? We'll know soon anyway, but Lieberman would be decisively annoying.