SALON

Friday, Sep 7, 2012 12:03 PM UTC

DNC makes for good TV

As a matter of stagecraft, the Democrats outdid the Republicans in every particular. Well, except for Clint's chair

By

Topics: Democratic National Convention, Democratic Convention, Democratic Party, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Bill Clinton, Television, TV,

DNC makes for good TVthe Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)(Credit: Charles Dharapak)

Even before Barack Obama took to the stage for the final speech of the Democratic National Convention, the Democrats had won the convention-off of the last two weeks by doing what conventions are meant to do, give or take some face-to-face politicking and the nitty-gritty procedural elements of nominating a candidate: being good television.

The writing was on the wall — or really in the set design — before any of the speakers even opened their mouths. The hokey wood paneling and endless screenage of the Republican National Convention made it look as though two wicked Wal-Mart salesmen, one from the tech department and the other from home goods, had been left to assemble something “impressive.”  The Democrats went with a relatively clean, precise, non-vertigo-inducing backdrop.

From there, the DNC rose above in the quality of its speech-making, in the rapid-fire pacing of its presenters, in the palpable passion those speakers had for their president, and in its usage of celebrities (not in prime time unless it’s a George Clooney voice-over). They also won the battle for the indelible image (the big embrace between Clinton and Obama, the release of Obama curled up with the girls watching Michelle’s speech, the Obama family tableau), in the genuinely diverse group of people in the convention center ready to appear in network camera reaction shots. It was a crisp, well-produced, energetic piece of stagecraft (with or without balloons).

The speechifying at the DNC was such that talks immediately lauded by the punditocracy — Deval Patrick, Julian Castro — were overshadowed almost immediately by the speakers that followed. Michelle Obama not only owned the convention’s first night, she owned it so thoroughly she seems to have achieved a sort of time travel, making Ann Romney’s speech of a week before retroactively seem like not much at all. On Wednesday, a slim Bill Clinton came onstage to the sounds of Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” apparently a Proustian-level nostalgia cue for almost the entire nation, to give the only performance of either convention as memorable as Clint Eastwood’s. The conventions will always be must see-TV for the politically minded, but Michelle and Clinton’s speech could have entertained anyone.

Their performances were such that for Obama to hew to the typically desired convention arc — to do better than his wife and his predecessor, to raise the energy — would have taken quite a freaking speech. In keeping with the professionalism of the DNC thus far, with its clear-eyed assessment of what would and would not play, he didn’t exactly try. Last night’s speech was intentionally sober and adult. Introduced by Michelle, in at least her third dress of the convention, Obama was serious and calm, slowly working up, emotionally, to the speech’s rousing end. There were a few jokes, the “I approved this message” complaint,  the “Take two tax cuts, roll back some regulations and call us in the morning” dig, but the whole thing was very “there’s a grown-up in charge,” very, as Obama put it, “I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the president.”

Some pundits have opined that Obama’s speech seemed like the careful words of someone who knows he is winning, and was playing not to lose, but the tone of Obama’s speech was based on something less cynical than just that. The heart of the speech was Obama’s move to reenergize and repurpose the themes and catchphrases of his first campaign — “Be the change you want to see in the world,” “Hope” —  by reframing them slightly. In last night’s crafting, we, the people, and not Obama, “are the change,” we “give him hope.” This idea, that the citizenry is inspiring the president, and not just the other way around, would seem to preclude — not as a matter of speech-making, but as a matter of principle — a certain kind of lavish, self-aggrandizing rhetoric. If we really are the change and the hope, there is only so much verbal showboating Obama might want to do, lest he undermine his very premise.

Obama’s speech was the least exciting of the DNC’s big three speeches, but it wasn’t a misstep. Those first two speeches were doozies, and Obama’s turn at the mic was presidential, uplifting, if less showy, not less felt. And when it was over, Michelle came onstage with Malia and Sasha, so big now, and grabbed Obama’s waist from behind. They made for the perfect picture.

Willa Paskin

Willa Paskin is Salon's staff TV writer. More Willa Paskin.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 5 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations