Content: He has some good stuff that will work on a ton of people. Especially media types like David Brooks, who he name-checked and is part of a media army that pines for a great white hope to save the republic and restore the collegial Senate poker night. (The Georgetown cocktail parties have SUCKED since the Clintons, let’s face it.) I liked the “white supremacists are bad” stuff and might have liked him to hit the “Republicans in the Senate need to nut up and be Americans” a little harder, but he is running to be the peacemaker, President. PS – he didn’t announce except in a slip of the tongue in which he announced.
Style: I’ve heard him in much better speaking form at prior JJ Dinners. (Do they still call it JJ? I don’t think so) He is old. He is an old guy. It isn’t as fluid as it once was, so the slow rolling build that he’s mastered after a lifetime of doing this shit wasn’t there. It was more like “quiet, quiet, quiet, YELL YELL, YELL.” He can still hold a room in the palm of his hand, but he is rusty. The pace needs work.
Overall: All that said, he could win. He will benefit from a brokered convention in which Super Delegates come into play. You heard it first here.
BONUS: Carper is in full on crazy old man mode now. Coo-coo.
