This speech had to be great. It was better - Sidney Blumenthal [View All]

[acmavm]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1273124,00.html

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Every convention acceptance speech is politically weighted but few have been as burdened as John Kerry's.

The earlier speeches setting the stage for him - Bill Clinton's usual incomparable performance and Barack Obama's stellar debut - only added to the momentousness of his task.

On Thursday afternoon the Democratic party faithful were in a collective state of high anxiety. The test put on a single oration could not have been heavier.

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The Democrats gasped at his attacks on the religious right and its intolerance, his demand that Bush cease desecrating the constitution, his defence of science against Bush's cynical suppression, his holding Bush to account for his arrogant and incompetent conduct of the Iraq war, and his forceful advocacy of economic equity and national health insurance as a right.

Each phrase, delivered with self-confident force, succeeded in diminishing Bush and lending Kerry stature.

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