SPEECH OF A LIFETIME– Oh – and that Sarah person

At
last.   Our whole day had been built around this.  Obama accepts
the nomination with the highest TV ratings of
any acceptance speech in modern US history, according to the Hollywood
Reporter:

Barack Obama’s historic acceptance speech for the Democratic
presidential nomination Thursday night was seen by 38.4 million viewers — 57%
more than watched John Kerry four years ago — and was the most-watched
convention speech ever.

Thursday
night’s viewership set a new record for national convention coverage, according
to Nielsen Media Research. Naturally, it’s also the largest number since the
convention began, up 42% from Hillary Clinton’s
speech on Day 2.

Obama’s
speech was seen by more U.S. viewers than the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony
(34.2 million).

It was a remarkable speech in a spectacular setting.  You either watched it or
you didn’t – watch it here.  It’s actually worth more than one viewing for
not only the substance but also the environment and symbolism.  Watch it —
it’s pretty amazing.

Here’s
a
transcript, too.

I
waited until today to write this because I felt so much emotion last night that
I thought I should let it all sink in.   I’ve seen so many acceptance
speeches, and my sense of Obama’s role is so deep that I didn’t think I had
much new to offer.  It doesn’t seem to be wearing off though — not that
I’m alone.  MSNBC super-conservative and often inflamatory and somewhat
cruel Joe
Scarborough was still rhapsodizing when I woke up.  I think any aware
American, anyone who’s lived through a substantial portion of our modern racial
history, anyone with any desire for a better, more just country — any of us —
could not have watched what happened last night and remained
dispassionate.  Tweets all night, and not just from those in the arena
kept saying "Tears everywhere"  "Tearing up"
"Didn’t think I’d cry but…"  I was fine until the family
walked out to the center of the stadium holding hands.  Then I just
disolved.

Beyond
the moving historic moment, and the incredible tableau of two decent committed
families who have made public service a life-time commitment, who are the kinds
of people who seem to manifest what Americans used to think of as "real
American" character, the substance was also inspiring, at least for
me.  You can read blogger comments on the wonderful CSPAN Hub — assembled by a team that
includes that very smart woman you keep seeing on CSPAN, Leslie Bradshaw.  This post of
hers will give you an idea of
what it took to run the Hub operation – so valuable to so many bloggers.

From there, of
course, we moved to Sarah Palin. I
thought it was smart but very unsportsmanlike of McCain to name her today, but
there ain’t gonna be no playing nice in this campaign.

Again, people who
know more about her will let us all know who she really is.  But,
listening to her, all I could think of was some of my mom’s slightly goofy but
smart and always fun friends.  I think it would be a mistake to
understimate her.  She’s nervy enough to get herself from small-town mayor
to governor and to be raising five children, one with special needs and another
on his way to Iraq.  (Take a look at what Morra Aarons-Mele has written about
this in the HuffPost: a caution to us all.)  Palin is also, by the way, married
to an Alaskan fisherman who for all we know may be a cool, Deadliest
Catch kind of guy and another kind of asset.  This is uncharted territory and we all better hold
on to our hats – or at least our blackberrys.  I’m betting that among
these four candidates we won’t wake up many mornings to a day without some kind
of electoral surprise.