Out to prove he has credentials for the job

Published on Friday 29 August 2008 21:40

AS A SPECTACLE, Barack Obama's speech accepting the Democratic party's presidential nomination was in a class of its own. No other candidate would have risked delivering his address in a football stadium before a crowd of 80,000 people; no other candidate would have been able to pull it off.

Until now, this election has been a referendum on Mr Obama's fitness for office. Mr Obama's speech was intended to demonstrate that he has the strength and the judgment to lead and inspire his country. But it was also the moment when the Obama campaign pivoted to attack John McCain's ability to be the president of the United States needs. Now you know who I am, Mr Obama implied, what do you really know about the candidate who has voted with George Bush 90 per cent of the time?

The key line in the speech, and the one that will frame the Democrat's attacks on Mr McCain was: "It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it."

This was aimed squarely at middle-America. By putting the economy first and by tying Mr McCain to Mr Bush Mr, Obama sought to reassure voters that he was on their side, in touch with the mood of a public in uncertain times. This element of the speech was aimed at white working-class voters in key battlegrounds such as Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri.

Concentrating on economic uncertainty also allowed Mr Obama to reassure white voters that they need not fear he would elevate the interests of African-American voters above the needs of all.

The speech was bold too, as Mr Obama launched a defence of a brand of liberalism that has not won an election since Jimmy Carter took the White House in 1976. Mr Obama promised that the government should "protect us" and guarantee "the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper".

"Now is not the time for small plans" he declared, promising more money for education, expensive health care reform and, most improbably, "energy independence" within a decade, ending US "addiction" to middle eastern oil. That wasn't the end of it either: an Obama administration would eliminate capital gains tax for small businesses and cut income taxes for 95 per cent of American families.

This laundry list of policy initiatives was not meant to excite his audience; it aimed to reassure voters he has the heft to be president.

Though his theme was "restoring the promise of America" this was a speech largely shorn of the soaring rhetoric that has made Mr Obama the most gifted rhetorician of our time. It was a business-like address designed to show that Mr Obama's campaign rests on more than character, the colour of his skin and vague bromides about "changing" Washington.