The Note: The Mountaintop

Aug. 28, 2008 -- DENVER --

Even if it's disappointed those who were looking for chaos rather than comity, they've had their roles: The defeated rival, coming to terms with a real kind of inevitability; the former leader, bestowing his blessings at long, long last; an evening capped by the grizzled veteran, basking in his moment -- and lighting the path for the chosen one.

In case Sen. Barack Obama needed to see how it was done on Thursday, a couple of old pros made it work for him Wednesday. By the time Obama heard the roar of the crowd for himself, a convention that looked dangerously close to veering off track was tantalizingly close to fulfilling its goals.

Sen. Joe Biden made the case for Obama -- and against Sen. John McCain -- more eloquently, coherently, and tactically than maybe even that guy at the top of the ticket.

Former President Bill Clinton completed the sentiments his wife started (but didn't finish) articulating the night before -- and for a night, and perhaps now for a campaign, we witnessed grace and generosity.

And the masterstroke: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton made the final, minutely choreographed gesture herself. "Clinton did the honors for the man who had denied her dream of becoming the first woman ever nominated to lead a major party," Dan Balz and Anne Kornblut write in The Washington Post.

(Suddenly, with McCain poised to pick a running mate, does it seem that the drama is drifting in the general vicinity of St. Paul?)

At last, a message: "This week's events served as a national debut of sorts for the Obama campaign attack machine, even if that machinery is operated mostly by supporters and aides rather than the candidate himself," Peter Wallsten and Doyle McManus write in the Los Angeles Times. "It was clear that the campaign has settled on its favorite theme: portraying McCain as out of touch economically and an identical twin to President Bush."

Now Obama just has to give at least the second-best speech of his life Thursday night at Invesco Field at Mile High -- while not letting the setting become the story. (He's presumptive no more, but that doesn't take care of presumptuous.)

"His campaign has gambled on the historic moment by creating a stage that will magnify his performance," Eli Saslow writes in The Washington Post.

"Succeed here, in front of the largest Democratic National Convention crowd in nearly 50 years, and Obama's speech will be remembered as one of the most powerful moments in modern politics, a perfect launch into the final stage of the general election," he writes. "Fail, and Obama risks fueling Republicans' criticism that he is an aloof celebrity, fond of speaking to big crowds but incapable of forming genuine connections."

(But inside Obamaland, they'll be feeling their universe expand with every text message sent out of Invesco . . . )

As the campaign tweaks the camera angles -- and prays the Rocky Mountain forecast stays clear -- it's not just Greek columns as backdrop: "He'll be surrounded by an array of little-known supporters, people he has met along the trail and who have become a cast of folksy characters in his campaign speeches," Christi Parsons and John McCormick write in the Chicago Tribune.

"Their presence is quiet acknowledgment of the challenge before Obama as he takes that stage: to soar to the oratorical heights expected of him while still reaching out to the everyday Americans who can deliver him to the White House. . . . Above all, he needs to convince Americans that he is as good as his words."

Worried, anyone? "Workers were still making changes to Invesco Field, home to the Denver Broncos, so it would feel more intimate, less like the boisterous rallies that served Mr. Obama so well early in the primaries, but also created the celebrity image that dogs him," Jim Rutenberg and Jeff Zeleny write in The New York Times. "For Mr. Obama, the dramatic setting of the speech, which will take place between 10 and 11 p.m. Eastern time, stands in contrast to the 'workmanlike' message he intends to offer."

"When Barack Obama strides onto the 50-yard line of Denver's mile-high Invesco Field tonight to accept his party's nomination, expectations will be just as elevated," Bloomberg's Indira A.R. Lakshmanan reports. "His decision to move his prime-time acceptance speech to a 76,000-person football stadium carries no small risk, and Republicans pounced on aerial photos of a colonnaded stage reminiscent of the White House portico or a Greek temple."

"Having rock star concert crowds and uplifting rhetoric doesn't work with working-class voters," Lanny Davis, a longtime Clinton confidante, tells the New York Sun's Seth Gitell.

Counters Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, on "Today": "It's ridiculous, this convention is going to be open up to the American people, that should be celebrated."

"A common concern: that the stadium appearance plays against Obama's convention goal of lowering his star wattage and connecting with average Americans and that it gives Republicans a chance to drive home their message that the Democratic nominee is a narcissistic celebrity candidate," Charles Mahtesian writes for Politico. "The campaign is already prepared to pull the trigger on ads spun out of the Invesco Field event, perhaps rolling out ads similar to the notorious spot featuring Paris Hilton and Britney Spears."

"This time, advisers said, Sen. Obama won't hesitate to express his views on President Bush and Sen. McCain," Nick Timiraos writes in The Wall Street Journal.

"This convention either ends on a bang if he delivers a well received speech, or it is a huge missed opportunity," per ABC News. "Biden and both Clintons have set the table for Obama. Now it is all up to him."

"Bill Clinton passed the torch. Now it is up to Obama to take it," Todd Purdum writes for Vanity Fair.

He really hasn't given a speech like this yet: "Yes he can -- especially when on teleprompter -- but sometimes, especially when tired and off-prompter, no he cannot," ABC's Jake Tapper reported on "Good Morning America" Thursday.

While he's at it, he just has to take back his convention: "Barack Obama has been forced, by the clout Hillary Rodham Clinton showed in their primary battle and his need for her voters in his race against Republican John McCain, to allow the gathering of Democrats to look a lot like the Clinton Convention," the AP's Jennifer Loven reports.

Then there's a matter of a new voice: "Some of the same qualities that have brought him just one election away from the White House -- his virtuosity, his seriousness, his ability to inspire, his seeming immunity from the strains that afflict others -- may be among his biggest obstacles to getting there," Jodi Kantor writes in The New York Times, in a "Man in the News" piece. (You think?)