Dana Milbank @ WaPo:
It began, like the Obama presidency itself, with the loftiest of hopes and the greatest of expectations.
The Democratic National Convention was to have opened here Monday with a festival at the Charlotte Motor Speedway, where, convention officials said, some 100,000 people would participate in a Labor Day festival that demonstrated the party’s openness and inclusion.
After a couple of nights at the Time Warner Cable Arena, the convention was to have closed with President Obama’s acceptance speech at the Bank of America Stadium, where convention officials were planning to squeeze nearly 6,000 seats onto the field to expand the stadium’s capacity beyond its usual 74,000.
But the speedway event was canceled — ostensibly because of logistical problems but more likely because convention fundraising was running low. Then the Democrats canceled the stadium event in favor of the smaller arena — ostensibly because of “severe thunderstorm” concerns but more likely because they couldn’t be sure enough people would come to fill the stadium.
In fact, the forecast hadn’t called for severe weather, and conditions were fine Thursday night. The change caused thousands to be turned away, and the crush of crowds at the arena led authorities at one point to lock down the building for a second straight night – leaving some delegates on the street while lobbyists enjoyed the proceedings inside.
It was quite a comedown from that heady night in Denver four years ago when Obama accepted the nomination in front of about 80,000 at Invesco Field. The candidate, on a stage set resembling a Greek temple, spoke about remaking the nation and the world.
The demigod turned out to be entirely human, and his results were disappointing. On Thursday night, as Obama admitted to “failings,” Democrats who dreamed of the biggest and the best in 2008 were learning to accept good enough.
Most democratic voters had no expectation that their candidate would demonstrate an ability to walk on water. The expectation was that his policies would forestall impending economic calamity, which they have done, and realign our national priorities with the best interests of the bottom 95% in mind rather than the top 5%, which they are doing.
What Romney and Ryan are selling is something quite different. I can understand why the top 5% would appreciate their intentions. Why the average American would do so is a puzzle. All I can figure is that they’ve mistaken the sales pitch for the actual product.
That applies to obama quite well.
In your rabid hatred of those that disagree with you, you assume anything the GOP does is motivated by evil and greed. Why? Because you are narcissitic bigots and it is what would motivate you. Unable to deal with such facts you project your traits onto us in order to absolve yourselves.
You are not the friend of the working class or the middle class. You are not patriots and you are not pro-America. You are against all that you claim to support and the end results prove us right. That is why you make it a point to ignore the destruction you create.
Greg has drunken too deep of the Koolaid.
@Greg: “Most democratic voters had no expectation that their candidate would demonstrate an ability to walk on water. ” And yet that is exactly what the he preached in 2008. Obama declared his presidency would result in ‘the rise of the oceans beginning to slow’. You all bought that now, didn’t you?
inthemiddle
geez you stole my answer right in front of my turn to say it,
but you did answer better than me,
bye