I hadn't watched Obama's victory speech till now, but it's very good. He's getting a lot of attention for some smart shots at Clinton, but like Jon Cohn, I think the bigger story is that Obama is finally weaving the uplift into a concrete recitation of actual problems he hopes to solve. It was a less inspiring, soaring speech than the one he gave in Iowa, but it's probably better for that. Obama's Iowa address keyed into a feeling, a sense of a moment, and enlarged it, made it seem grand and historic. It worked on me. But if you weren't already in that space, it didn't do much for you. This speech was more of an argument: It was addressed less to Obama's movement and more to those who might be willing to come into the fold. So, unlike most of Obama's addresses, he actually said that "all of us share an abiding desire to end the disastrous policies of the current administration," and he articulated a critique of the current politics, rather than simply spinning his vision of the new politics. It did less to inspire, but probably a bit more to convince. And that, for now, is what Obama needs to do.
