The person named Pat Buchanan who appears on MSNBC (obviously no relation to the old Pat Buchanan) called it "The Greatest Convention Speech of All Time" or something equally effusive. Oddly enough, I felt a tiny letdown when I finally watched the Obama stemwinder. It probably achieved what it was supposed to achieve in terms of vote-wrangling but I guess I was waiting for a little more poetry…some line that people would be quoting for decades after. If there was one in there, I missed it. For me, the best line of the convention was still John Kerry's "Talk about being for it before you were against it."
Then again, I'm not the audience that matters. Obama already has my vote — a vote, I might add, which won't make much difference since there's very little chance of him not carrying California. To the extent I could imagine myself in the position of an Undecided Voter, I think it may have been fine. He seemed smart and patriotic and passionate and — most important to some people, apparently — a good family man. He also managed to make a pretty good case that four years of McCain equals Years 9-12 of Bush-Cheney — and I don't believe that even most people who say they're happy with Bush want more of him.
So I was satisfied but that was about it. And in politics these days, that's not bad. I mean, I'll settle for just not being totally disappointed.