It’s alright Bill, all us junkies are feeling wistful too
May 7, 2008 by Mary Clyens
Ten Observations from another night watching the returns:
1. When Obama tries to “Edwards down” his speeches (basically adding in anecdotes about people he’s met and everyday problems), he sounds kinda bored. He wakes up quite a bit when he starts talking about changing the process.
2. Obama did add a nice bit of patriotism in his victory speech last night; nice use of imagery too — “flag-draped coffin,” “shuttered steel mills,” etc…
3. That poor placard-waving guy with the teal Izod shirt behind Obama sure was entertaining. I can’t be sure, but it seemed like he spent a little more energy trying to figure out when he was supposed to cheer than he actually did listening to the speech. I felt pretty happy for him when he got it right. Still, it wasn’t as distracting as the A & F trio following Pennsylvania.
4. Bill Clinton is a bit transparent. Watching him stand behind Hillary last night, it was clear he knew it was over. He was pretty clearly lost in his own thoughts… I don’t often use the word wistful, but…
5. Hillary sounded a bit Lieberman-esque “3 way tie for third” when she tried to pull that “we won the tie-breaker” stuff.
6. Also, that weird fundraising call during her speech didn’t really play.
7. By the end of it, she sounded like she was just reading the words off the paper. Wow, I felt really badly for her.
8. Watching Harold Ford Jr. on MSNBC after 9pm makes me tired. Every time he blinks, I don’t expect his eyes to re-open.
9. Watching Norah O’Donnell present early exit poll data is always staggeringly misleading. About an hour before the polls in Indiana closed, she revealed that almost half of Democratic voters in both states considered the Reverend Wright controversy “an important factor” in making a decision. I pointlessly tried to figure out the math on that for about 60 seconds until I checked online and read that Obama was leading in those same exit polls by 15 points in North Carolina. Sure glad the networks embargo the head-to-head numbers before polls close… keeps people from jumping to conclusions…
10. I think they’ve managed to tame Chris Matthews a bit since his little “thrill running up my leg” remark he made after the Chesapeake Primary.
