I was actually pretty impressed by the first night speeches. Maybe it's not very sophisticated to admit being impressed by a political speech, but too bad. Gore was pretty good, and Clinton excellent (in spite of David Brooks pronouncement on PBS that it was merely a pedestrian "fine but without poetry"). In all cases I felt that the speakers articulated a vision of the country that is uniquely Democratic.
Carter's speech was also quite substantive, but I was really looking forward to post-speech analysis to fill in meaning. Imagine my surprise when Jim Leher (PBS), on scoring an interview with Carter, chose this as his first question:
(paraphrased) "You haven't been invited to speak at a Democratic convention since 1992. Did you have hard feelings about that?"
Wuh-huh????
And when Carter said, in effect, "No", Leher rephrased the same question, causing Carter to state that no, he'd been suffering no "burning ambition to give a short speech at a Democratic convention". Whereupon he took the reins and started answering questions Leher should have asked.
