1 For my colleagues: Any nominations for the memorable or great line of this speech?
2 When a challenger is introducing himself to a significant chunk of the American public, it’s hard for him to screw it up too badly. He will seem thoughtful, he will say things that sound like common sense–because the substance has been poll-tested and the formulations carefully designed. At the same time, he only gets to do it once, and so it’s easy to miss opportunities. The polls might show that Kerry “did well” in this speech, but it still seems to me that he is basically following a cautious strategy: hoping the public has soured on Bush and that he’s an acceptable alternative. It may work.