CAPLIS: Home audience not likely to buy the spectacle
By Dan Caplis, Special to the Rocky
Published August 28, 2008 at 9:42 p.m.
Political conventions are now just long commercials. For the most part, whether they succeed or not can be judged the same way a commercial for shampoo is. Did the customer buy the product?
At this point, the national polls say that the answer is no. The polls have been largely a wash since Barack Obama chose Joe Biden as his running mate and the convention began.
Maybe Obama’s stadium show at Invesco will change that. This column is being written before Obama basked (and perhaps drowned?) in adulation.
There is no doubt that the folks in the stadium will have left thrilled, mesmerized and motivated. Just like the 200,000 who swooned at Obama’s feet in Berlin.
But the good folks at Invesco were already members of the choir. The audience that mattered most was the one watching on television or listening on the radio (perhaps while stuck in traffic ).
There is a real risk for Obama in moving his big night to Invesco. His poll numbers dropped after his self-aggrandizing blowout in Berlin. John McCain’s spots have effectively portrayed Obama as an empty celebrity, more famous for being famous than for any accomplishments. The rock-star images that will flow from Invesco will only feed that perception.
Obama certainly didn’t help himself with the enormous Greco-Roman monument he built to himself in the middle of Invesco. All hail Emperor Obama! But what the hail was he thinking?
When John Kennedy gave his acceptance speech at the Los Angeles Coliseum he stood on a simple platform. His presence came from his proven courage and accomplishments. He didn’t need special effects from Hollywood to make himself look big.
The truth is that Obama is a man of very few accomplishments, no military experience, and no executive experience.The fact that believes that he has to build a phony monument to make himself look bigger than he really is says it all.
That’s why voters have not bought what the Democrats have tried to sell this week. And I don’t think they’re going to be fooled by the Hollywood production at Invesco.
Dan Caplis is a lawyer and co-host of KHOW radio's Caplis & Silverman Show.
Featured
-
DNC in Denver
Complete coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.
-
The Crevasse
A five-part series that examines one tragic day on Mount Rainier.
-
Deadly denial
Sick nuclear workers applied for government compensation but most haven't seen a dime.
-
Final Salute
The Rocky followed Maj. Steve Beck as he took on the most difficult duty of his career.
-
'Colorado's burning'
Coverage of the state's worst wildfires.
-
Columbine shootings
Coverage of the April 20, 1999, shootings at Littleton's Columbine High School.
-
The Crossing
Colorado's deadliest traffic accident killed 20 children on Dec. 14, 1961.
-
Osveli's journey
Osveli Sales left Guatemala for a better life. Two months later, he came home in a box.
-
Wake for an Indian warrior
Oglala Sioux bestow a tribute to the first tribal fatality in Iraq.
August 29, 2008
7:15 a.m.
Suggest removal
taoistblockhead writes:
Caplis - Get a real job.
August 29, 2008
1 p.m.
Suggest removal
oma writes:
few accomplishments? what about president of harvard law review? even acheiving a law degree from harvard that he earned, not given to him as the mba was given to bush. military experience is way overrated. nbd. no executive experience? neither does mccain. in fact, mccain's executive experience resides in his involvement w/ the keating five. never forget he was dirty up to his eyeballs in that scandal, an admitted serious lapse in judgement. the guy is now a doddering old fool who has switched his positions so many times he even gets them mixed up withing the same speeches he makes.