Barack takes the gloves off -- finally!

Last night's acceptance speech in Denver was what I've been waiting for -- not that I've been unhappy with the man's oratory abilities, but he needed to bring it home. And he did, brilliantly.


Highlights:

"America, we are better than these last eight years. We are a better country than this. "

"We are more compassionate than a government that lets veterans sleep on our streets and families slide into poverty; that sits on its hands while a major American city drowns before our eyes. "

"Tonight, I say to the American people, to Democrats and Republicans and Independents across this great land - enough!" (That "enough!" as forceful enough to get me from a horizontal position on the sofa to sitting up and leaning forward in anticipation.)

"It's not because John McCain doesn't care. It's because John McCain doesn't get it. "

"For over two decades, he's subscribed to that old, discredited Republican philosophy - give more and more to those with the most and hope that prosperity trickles down to everyone else. In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society, but what it really means is - you're on your own. Out of work? Tough luck. No healthcare? The market will fix it. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps - even if you don't have boots. You're on your own. Well, it's time for them to own their failure. "

"I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine."

"John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell – but he won't even go to the cave where he lives."

"So I've got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first. "

"I know there are those who dismiss such beliefs as happy talk. They claim that our insistence on something larger, something firmer and more honest in our public life is just a Trojan Horse for higher taxes and the abandonment of traditional values. And that's to be expected. Because if you don't have any fresh ideas, then you use stale tactics to scare the voters. If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from. You make a big election about small things."


FULL TEXT