US Presidential Electoral Race --- with DNC and RNC, who will make it home to Washington?

In the recently concluded Democratic National Convention and the Republic National Convention, Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain battled it out for the votes of Americans. Obama performed an unprecedented feat in speaking to 80,000 people outdoors and appearing larger-than-life. McCain on the other hand, was well aware of his oratorical limitations when compared to Obama. He wisely chose to speak to only a 20,000 audience in Xcel Energy Centre.

McCain offered himself as the US’ best shot at change. He outlined the many outdated policies: “from the way we protect our security to the way we compete in the world economy; from the way we respond to disasters to the way we fuel our transportation network; from the way we train our workers to the way we educate our children,” which were designed before the rise of the global economy, IT revolution the end of the Cold War.

Indeed, very bold and brave words, albeit somewhat similar to Obama’s campaign theme of “change we can believe in”. The question that lingers, though, is: was it effective?

I see a great difference in the objectives of Obama and McCain. McCain needs to unite his party behind him and get the support of independents too since his party base is smaller than Obama’s. Obama though needs to use his oratorical prowess to convince Americans to overlook his lack of experience in congress. It is according to these objectives that we should rate their speeches respectively.

Obama obviously lived up to his reputation as one of the greatest orator in American history. Throughout his nearly hour-long speech, the 80,000 strong audience got to their feet and cheered. The speech definitely did not lack eloquence and Obama got the huge crowd revved up several times. He also moved away from the famous rhetorical style that was widely criticized to be inspiring but without substance. This, together with pillars softly lit to recall Martin Luther King speech exactly 45 years ago earned his points with the voters across America.

Yet Obama glossed over many controversial subjects in his speech. In the words of David Freddoso, writing for National Review, “America did not see the real Barack Obama.” For example, although he holds extreme views on the issue of abortion, he sought to downplay it by expressing hope on “reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.”

Will voters pick these details up? That is unlikely. Freddoso agrees, saying, “Many voters will be fooled by [his] speech.” So Obama was considerably successful, since he managed to cover-up unpleasant issues with his natural flair for public speaking which revved up the crowd. Opinion polls prove that, with many voters expressing that they were more likely to vote for Obama after his speech. So, how did McCain fair?

Did McCain introduce himself to the nation? He did. Did he clearly tell people what he planned to do as president in real terms, not just in dreamy lyrical poetry (as compared to the way Obama is described)? Yes he did. And he also made clear why Americans must finally make real change in government rather than merely talk about change to get votes.

He managed to even up with Obama after his speech in the opinion polls. Is that a measure of his success? Definitely. Despite being inferior to Obama in terms of public speaking, McCain portrayed himself as the down-to-earth man with concrete policies to change Washington. And that obviously struck home with the voters.

At the end of the day, I think McCain achieved his objectives. He did not achieve any unprecedented feats, but he claimed the support of 89% of Republican compared to Obama’s 81% of Democrats. He also pulled 15% Democrats to support him. His speech definitely emphasized his advantage in experience over rival Obama, with carefully outlined policies, of which those on improving the education system received the most cheers.

So is McCain now closer to being sworn into office than Obama? It’s still too early to say, for opinion polls often do not accurately reflect voters’ choices in the end.