Wolfson's Road to Denver Conversion

Former Hillary Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson -- he of the ever-moving goalposts and sarcastic conference calls -- writes in this morning's WP that at Obama's Invesco speech last week he finally saw the magic...

During the campaign, we scoffed at events like this, mostly because we were not capable of producing them. A cross section of voters waited for hours to enter the stadium and take their seats. As one friend put it, it looked more like an American convention than the convention of any particular political party.

(snip)

The setting raised the bar for Obama's speech. The task before him: Explain what change meant and how it would be accomplished while weaving his own biography into the fabric of America's and laying out an appropriate contrast with John McCain.

No one in recent history had attempted this kind of a political conversation with 75,000 people. Barack Obama pulled it off.

For 18 months, I listened to Obama on television, sometimes intently, often just barely -- background noise to a running series of conference calls and meetings and e-mails.

In person, my attention undivided, I saw something of what so many others had seen for so long.

Sounds just like his former boss predicted back in February: "The sky will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect..."

-- Evie Stone

11:45 AM ET | 09- 1-2008 | permalink

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