I'm watching the John Edwards speech, having missed the first few minutes of it, and am not terribly impressed. He's a good speaker but not terribly energizing. He takes a more conversational approach, and the constant cheering seems a bit strained to me. Only at a few points was it matched by a high point in his speech.

"Hope Is On The Way" -- are they implying that Clinton will replace John Kerry? After all, he was the Man From Hope. Maybe that's what they're hoping for from John Jr, but while he speaks more naturally than John Sr, I just don't think it's much more than a typical smooth politico's voice. And I don't know if the stagehands put a spot directly behind the camera, but whenever Edwards looked straight ahead, he either blinked constantly or squinted his eyes. It got to be distracting, as though he was either light-sensitive (migraine?) or trying too hard to look analytical.

He has a lovely family, and from some of the descriptions of his wife's intro floating around the blogosphere, she will be a real asset and possibly an antidote to Teresa, and Lord knows the Dems could use one. Best I can say is that he did no damage, but the populist "Two Americas" speech seems a bit tired -- and let's not forget it was ultimately a loser in the primaries.

Hey, but hope is on the way -- Clash Of The Titans comes on at 10 CT on HBO Family. Isn't that where I came in this morning?

UPDATE: It's the next morning, and John Edwards' address to the convention has mostly slipped my mind. It was weightless, a sort of rehash of his primary speech with a dash of John Kerry endorsement thrown in. However, if you want a hilarious live-blog take on the Edwards speech and the reasons you may want to think twice about Edwards' "Two Americas" bandwagon, check out Deacon's post at Power Line:

10:28 Edwards predicts that the Republicans will have the audacity to criticize the Democratic ticket this fall. ...

10:33 Under Kerry-Edwards, we'll have only one school system. Sounds like Communism to me. The best teachers will be moved to where they are most needed. Sounds like Chinese Communism to me.

10:34 We'll also have only one economy, not the two we have now consisting of people who do well and people who don't do that well. Sounds like, oh never mind. ...

10:48 If you have stubbed your toe, hope is on the way.

10:49 If you're a soldier in Iraq, hope is on the way. But funding wouldn't be, if Kerry and Edwards had had their way.

Read the whole thing -- there's plenty more analysis. One thing for which Edwards deserves credit: he actually introduced John Kerry to some extent, something that the rest of the lineup didn't bother to do tonight.

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Tracked on July 28, 2004 10:42 PM