Just because I was surfing while trying to become sleepy, I found a couple of links that might be of interest to some of you:
- Bill Clinton’s acceptance speech at the 1992 convention in New York
- Ronald Reagan’s acceptance speech at the 1980 convention in Detroit
Once Obama’s speech this evening started to settle in, I began to be bothered by the fact that there were a lot of promises made…but not much explanation of how the numbers would add up in support of those promises. I understand that such accounting isn’t appropriate for a half-hour-ish speech, but still….
Looking back at Clinton’s and Reagan’s speeches, I can’t help but note that both speeches seemed tailored to capture average Americans’ desire for optimism, or a change for the better. Promises were made…many of which weren’t kept…but in spite of the broken promises, history seems to be remembering both Presidents as being pretty good, although definitely not flawless.
Although, I can’t help but remember that the first two years of the Clinton administration were pretty shambolic; and it took a Republican majority in Congress to attempt to reign in some of the excesses of the Clinton White House before a happy, moderate medium was struck.
In 1992/1994, just as now, ensuring that no political party has a monopoly of control is definitely a good thing.
