By: Charles Geraci (Commentary) More than 84,000 people packed Denver's Invesco Field Thursday night to hear Barack Obama's acceptance speech, and E&P had a front row seat, just 50 feet from the podium.
Only three rows of chairs--reserved for political leaders such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid--separated E&P from Obama during his historic speech.
Pressed up against what the Secret Service referred to as the "shoe"--the horseshoe-shaped ring surrounding the podium--I watched Obama repeatedly electrify the crowd.
About an hour after the speech ended, I spotted Oprah Winfrey--flanked by Forest Whitaker and her best friend, Gayle King. Surrounded by security and fairly removed from the public and the media's eye, I approached Oprah and asked for her reaction to the speech for MTV (I also report for MTV's "Choose or Lose" Street Team '08).
Winfrey told me that Thursday night was the "most extraordinary, phenomenal evening I've ever experienced....
"Everything he (Obama) is, everything he presented, made me feel like I can be better, the country can be better, we can all walk taller, rise higher than we've ever been," Winfrey said. "I've never experienced anything like that."
As I walked with Winfrey, a few other print reporters, including one from the Chicago Tribune, began to assemble. E&P was one of about a half dozen publications there as Winfrey briefly spoke to the press about the speech.
E&P also got reactions to Obama's speech from several political personalities and media figures. Their comments are as follows.
Terry Moran, co-anchor of ABC News "Nightline":
"That was a new Barack Obama out there. You know, slashing, blunt, tough. And I think he was trying to answer the question that people have: Does he have what it takes?
" The question is: Was it over the top for some voters--independent voters? You know, the classic notion is that if you go tough like that, you're gonna turn some people off. But it was pretty impressive."
Rev. Jesse Jackson:
"Outstanding. I planned to fight back the tears tonight. When he talked about his mother dying with cancer, fighting with the insurance companies, I couldn't hold it back any longer.
"He showed a toughness--John McCain, 'Let's argue; let's debate the case.' He was not timid. And he showed a sense of his military willingness to fight necessary but not unnecessary wars. So it was not a liberal (speech); it was a liberating speech. It was a morally sacred speech that has real appeal I think to a broad swath of the American people."
Gray Davis, former governor of California:
"He enumerated very simply what he wanted to accomplish--to get out of Iraq responsibly, to provide 95 percent of America with a tax cut, to bring home American jobs, and in very specific terms, have America ... wean ourselves off Middle East oil in 10 years. That was a specific agenda.
"In addition to that, he took McCain on face to face. He took him on toe to toe and I think showed a measure of toughness in the speech that may have been lacking in the past. So this speech was the whole package. It had specifics. It showed he could be commander-in-chief, and it had many inspiring moments."
Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee chairman and former governor of Vermont:
"I thought it was exactly the right speech. He showed that he was tough enough to take on John McCain and tough enough to be president. That's what the American people wanted to know. He was really specific. He told us exactly what he was gonna do."
John King, CNN's chief national correspondent:
"I think he succeeded in what he was trying to do. There's another side of the story obviously we're about to hear next week in Minneapolis. But I thought the speech was very well-crafted in that he very specifically took on every argument that the Republicans have used against the Democrats historically and the specific arguments they're using against Barack Obama--whether it was God and values, gun control, gay rights, social issues like abortion--those have been the trap doors for Democrats in the past. ...
"And then he took on taxes because they're gonna call him a liberal next week--(that) he can't pay for everything he promised. He says he can. That will be a debating point next week.
"I thought the most telling part was how much time he took on the commander-in-chief issue, not only explaining his positions, but essentially challenging John McCain, saying, 'My judgment's better than your judgment.' Because that is his biggest weakness. And you learn watching politics, you can either run and hide from your weaknesses or you can take them on, and he took it on. We'll hear a very different story next week, but it was very smart politically."
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