Another fun night of convention watching and not just because Obama was great and Stevie Wonder sang a recognizable song (the second one, not the first). And not just because Al Gore did that growly thing he can do with his voice when he hits a particularly powerful point regarding injustice and global warming.
Last night was also great because of a guy named Barney Smith and other people like him with a story to tell.
These speakers were normal, run-of-the-mill, sometimes Republican people. Not delegates, not party operatives, but odd looking people from all around the country who had something to say about the American dream and it's all-too-common counterpart lately, the American nightmare. These people stood up in front of, what?, 80,000 people and told four-minute stories of themselves, their families, their battles with healthcare and lost jobs.
They were human stand-ins for Obama's dream of inclusion, and maybe you think they were pawns, but who cares. They were great.
Political Nanny loved the Ohio woman who clapped through her own speech, no doubt reading "applause" on the teleprompter. Or the small business pet store owner from Florida "by way of Long Island, N.Y. -- whoohooo!" who can't get health insurance. That lady could fist pump! Also, the Republican from North Carolina -- she's been voting for the right since Nixon! -- who lived the American dream until she lost everything to her husband's health crisis. She wasn't sad. She was pissed. She's voting for Obama.
And let's not get too down: did you see the woman from New Mexico, whose illiterate grandparents worked with her and pushed her in education and now she has a PhD. She got everybody chanting "Si, se puede!"
Yes, we live in the age where everybody wants to get a spot on reality TV, so it probably wasn't hard to find people who would come forward. Still. These guys had guts to get up there and speak loud and be themselves. The crowd loved them.
Of course, the best of these live vignettes was Barney Smith, whose factory job got shipped overseas. He delivered the line, "I want a president who puts Barney Smith before Smith Barney." You go, Barney, you go!
This convention will be a tough act to follow, and not just in Political Nanny's estimation.
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Photo: cnn.com
