Kerry's speech

I actually thought it was a pretty good speech.   Better than I thought he was capable of delivering (though I've never really heard him speak at length before).  From an emotional point of view, he came off as a very open, warm person, not too full of himself, even somewhat humble.   The themes he emphasized; nation, unity, service, opportunity, etc., were all very popular, though certainly not controversial.

Of course, he said very little about how he would achieve any of the widely shared goals he articulated, but who worries about the details?   The only specific proposal that I heard was that he was planning to raise taxes for families making more than $200k: those "tax giveaways to the rich".   Also that he knew what to do in Iraq, which was to get our allies to share the cost and the military burden.   (Good luck on that one, John.   If anyone seriously believes that will happen, I have great investment opportunity in a uniquely valuable piece of NYC's transportation infrastructure that I would love to speak to them about.)

I don't know how to handicap how much of a bounce the speech will give him, but I think it will certainly help. I wouldn't be surprised by a 5% jump in his polling results, but that's just a WAG.

One last thing: did anybody else find former Senator Max Cleland kind of creepy?