Barack Obama's speech: 'Workmanlike'?
Obama pauses during his nomination acceptance speech. (ROBYN BECKROBYN/GettyImages)
This is a humbled Obama, not the crusading champion of change he was four years ago, writes the Washington Post: "What President Obama offered the country on the final night of the Democratic convention was reminiscent of what Warren G. Harding offered almost a century ago: A return to normalcy after a long period of emergency."
"After the passionate personal testimonial from his wife and the extended master class presented by his Democratic predecessor earlier this week, Barack Obama gave a much more orthodox and workmanlike political address on Thursday night," says the New Yorker.
"Clint Eastwood’s empty chair could have given a better speech than what Barack Obama offered up. And to think he wanted to give that in a stadium," said the editor-in-chief of the leading conservative blog, Red State. Fox News says "It's advantage Romney after Obama fails to move the needle in Charlotte."
Those over at Bloomberg said the president's speech had "shockingly little content in defense of his economic policies over the last four years."
Paul Krugman, writing for the New York Times, disagrees. "The next four years are likely to be much better than the last four years — unless misguided policies create another mess," he says, "Obama did push through policies — the auto bailout and the Recovery Act — that made the slump a lot less awful than it might have been. And despite Mitt Romney’s attempt to rewrite history on the bailout, the fact is that Republicans bitterly opposed both measures, as well as everything else the president has proposed."
In general, pundits are giving Joe Biden a hat tip. "The vice president is an expert in the art of overcoming ridicule and using low expectations to his advantage," says the New York Times.
Politico does a roundup of things to take away from the DNC.
All Obama needs is to be reelected and his policies will come into effect, with or without the cooperation of Congress. That's because his policies are long term, writes Ezra Klein for the Washington Post. For example, the Affordable Health Care Act will be implemented in 2014.
"They don’t require another vote in Congress, or the buy-in of House Republicans. They just need to be left alone. They just need Barack Obama rather than Mitt Romney to be sitting in the Oval Office," says Klein. This holds true for not only the health care act, but Frank-Dodd financial reforms as well as the tax code. "Conversely, if Obama isn’t reelected, both laws are likely to be fully or mostly repealed. And so the most lasting changes Obama has signed into law depend upon his reelection not just to survive, but to simply begin."
And here are some ideas for 2016 Democratic candidates, including Gov. Martin O'Malley and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
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