by Evie Stone

Former Virginia Governor (and current Senate Candidate) Mark Warner had a tough task tonight: follow Barack Obama's widely hailed 2004 convention keynote that ultimately catapulted him to the 2008 nomination. And Warner also had to try to make a mark on a night that ultimately belongs to Hillary Clinton.

Warner told reporters ahead of time that he wouldn't be going negative in his speech tonight. And he stayed true to that promise, offering only one mild rebuke to John McCain:

John McCain promises more of the same — a plan that would explode the deficit that will be passed on to our kids. No real strategy to invest in our crumbling infrastructure. And he would continue spending $10 billion a month in Iraq.

I don't know about you, but that's just not right. That's four more years that we just can't afford.

The speech mainly wove together self-biography (he was the first in his family to go to college and made his fortune as an early investor in wireless telecom); his own record as Governor of Virginia; and high-minded ideas about the American dream. He did mention Obama several times, as here:

Barack Obama has a different vision — and a different plan. Right now, at this critical moment in our history, we have one shot to get it right. And the status quo just won't cut it.

But nonetheless the remarks somehow had the anticlimactic flavor of a stump speech for Warner's own Senate campaign, rather than a convention keynote celebrating the 2008 Democratic nominee for President. His successors at the podium, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, were both far more bombastic than Warner and were rewarded with greater enthusiasm from the crowd.