"We stand at the edge of a New Frontier — the frontier of unfulfilled hopes and dreams. Beyond that frontier are uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered problems of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty and surplus."
Sen. John F. Kennedy,
Democratic presidential candidate,
July 14, 1960 acceptance speech
In a few hours, Barack Obama will give his nomination acceptance speech.
And when he does, we will live in a new America, one that I wonder if even John F. Kennedy could have imagined on that July night in 1960 — an America in which it is no longer a
"dream" (to coopt a word that Dr. Martin Luther King used frequently in his famous speech in Washington 45 years ago today) for a black American to be nominated for president.
(I suspect, however, that, if someone had asked Kennedy which party would be the first to nominate a black for president, he wouldn't have hesitated in saying that the Democrats would be the first to achieve that milestone.)
That's about as much of the American dream as can be pledged to anyone. All Americans are promised the right to participate — not necessarily to succeed.
Success (in
any endeavor) depends on things like effort and desire — as well as some things that are beyond an individual's control.
And, while
success can be defined as winning the nomination (especially when no one from your demographic group has won the nomination before), a presidential nominee should not be satisfied with that achievement alone.
(It is possible to win a nomination, lose the election, and later be renominated and go on to victory the second time — Richard Nixon proved that when he was elected in 1968 after losing to John F. Kennedy in 1960.
(For that matter,
Andrew Jackson was renominated in 1828, four years after losing the first time, and was elected.
Grover Cleveland was nominated in three consecutive elections, winning in 1884, losing in 1888, and winning again in 1892 — he's still the only president elected to two non-consecutive terms in office, although he won the popular vote all three times).
(But much more common in the American political experience have been people like Bob Dole, Michael Dukakis and Walter Mondale — candidates who were nominated for president once, lost and were not nominated again. Apparently, John Kerry and Al Gore are destined for that fate as well.)
Tonight's final session of the 2008 Democratic National Convention will be held at Invesco Field, where the Denver Broncos play their football games. The first three sessions of the convention were held indoors at the Pepsi Center, which is home to basketball's Denver Nuggets.
Clearly, the Invesco Field audience will be appreciably larger than the one that greeted Obama's wife on Monday night or Bill and Hillary Clinton for their speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
The TV audience might well be larger than the others, too, although that (obviously) won't be affected by the venue. The schedule of speakers clearly has something to do with it. According to the
Weekly Standard, the
Nielsen ratings for the convention revealed that Tuesday night's viewership went up 16% over the previous night.
Based on that, Hillary Clinton was a bigger draw than Michelle Obama.
"Tonight’s Obama-Palooza at Invesco Field should smash all the old records," says the
Weekly Standard,
"if for no other reason just to see if the Democratic nominee wears a toga to match the Greek columns." In what is sure to draw comparisons from political observers, Obama's acceptance speech will be the first delivered outdoors by a Democrat since John Kennedy's 1960 acceptance speech — the
"New Frontier" speech, as it has come to be known, that Kennedy gave at Los Angeles' Memorial Coliseum.
Former Vice President Al Gore, who was being urged to run for president again nearly a year ago, also is scheduled to deliver a speech tonight.
Obama faces some challenges tonight, as Kennedy did half a century ago.
Kennedy, as a Catholic, had to convince a largely Protestant electorate that he could be trusted. Obama, as the first black presidential nominee, has to do the same with a predominantly white electorate.
Kennedy's challenge differed a bit. In the world of 1960, in which there was a very limited number of political primaries as well as limited private ownership of television sets, it was necessary to use an event like a national convention to introduce himself to the public.
Obama won his nomination in an information-obsessed world — one in which an entire generation of voters has grown up with cell phones, personal computers and cable and satellite TV. It is not as vital to Obama's quest to make introducing himself one of the goals of tonight's speech.
Most viewers will already be familiar with much of Obama's personal story. Many of them will know far less about his positions on the issues.
Of course, like every nominee of the party that is out of power, Obama must present a list of problems that have not been adequately addressed by the incumbent administration.
It won't be enough to say that electing John McCain would mean
"four more years of the same." That may be true, but voters need to hear specifics about the problems and what Obama wants to do to correct them.
And that's the
"red meat" the delegates want, too.
They need details.
By the way ...
While we're on the subject of
details, the Republicans have eagerly used the events of September 11, 2001, for their own political purposes in the last seven years — including their selection of both the
location (New York) and
timing (early September) of their 2004 national convention.
But the Democrats may have the edge this time when it comes to using that event.
The city of Denver didn't figure prominently in the tragic events of September 11. But the stadium in which Obama will speak tonight was the site of an NFL game for the very first time on Monday night, Sept. 10, 2001 — only a few hours before the hijackings began.
And the team that visited Denver that night was none other than the
New York Giants.
(I've often wondered how many conversations about the Giants' 31-20 loss in that game were interrupted the next morning on New York's trains, subways and buses by reports — or actual sightings — of the carnage at the World Trade Center.)
The Republican convention, which is going to be held in St. Paul, Minn., won't lack its own ties to September 11.
Zacarias Moussaoui, who was convicted of being part of the 9-11 conspiracy, had some flight training in Eagan, Minnesota, which is only a few miles from St. Paul.
But, although Moussaoui reportedly was considered by Osama bin Laden for the role of the so-called
"20th hijacker," investigations have been able to conclusively determine only that he was a member of al-Qaeda.
While he was convicted on conspiracy charges that related to the 9-11 attacks, apparently, he was rejected as a member of the hijacking teams because he had not yet learned to fly adequately. (As a matter of fact, he already was in custody in Minnesota on the day of the hijackings.)
He is serving his sentence in a federal maximum security prison in Florence, Colo., which is about 100 miles south of Denver.
