Matters of Opinion

Republicans and other wags instantly christened it The Temple of Barackopolis, that Greek-columned stage where newly crowned Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech last night. [The whole text is here.] But, like it or loathe it, it was, as The Buffalo News noted in today's lead editorial, a historic moment. And it came, properly, on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech.
Maybe all men really are created equal or, at least, maybe we’re getting close to believing it.

Elsewhere:
-- Obama's hometown Chicago Tribune says the pageantry and Obama's delivery were spectacular, but that by sticking to traditional Democratic arguments rather than specific new plans, the candidate may have failed to seal the deal with the mere 8.5 percent of Americans who are still undecided, the fraction that will decide the election.
-- John McCain's hometown Arizona Republic was impressed: Obama took advantage of the speech to go beyond laying out the main points of his campaign. In a move that even Republicans can applaud, he called for Americans to show renewed individual and mutual responsibility. Well done, indeed.
-- The convention host city's Denver Post also rated the event highly: Surrounded by 75,000 of his closest friends and awash in Colorado twilight, Barack Obama made history Thursday night as he accepted his party's nomination for president. His soaring speech, fed by the energy of thousands of adoring fans piled into Invesco Field, was part promise, part assurance to nervous Americans, part substance and part attack on his opponent, John McCain.
-- The Wall Street Journal  has no use for what is sees as Obama's liberal, and vague, policy positions. But it notes: Martin Luther King Jr. and Frederick Douglass would have viewed Mr. Obama's success as vindication both of their struggles and their faith in America's promise. And while we have no polls to prove it, our guess is that more than a few white Americans would welcome an Obama victory in November in part as a way to put the battles over racial grievance and preference further into the background of American public life.
-- The WSJ's Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's wordsmith, said that, in trying to be taken seriously as a candidate for president, Obama may have been a little too heavy: The speech itself lacked lift but had heft. It wasn't precisely long on hope, but I think it showed audacity. In fact, by the end of the speech I thought it was quite a gamble.
-- The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says it is silly to dismiss political conventions as "mere theater": The traditions of democracy and theater arose together, simultaneously, out of ancient Greece, two siblings born of the same mother. ... So while the conventions have become nothing more than political theater, they remain essential for just that reason. A debate over tax policy or environmental laws doesn’t draw the public to politics; it is personality, drama, conflict.
-- The instant blogalysis from The Seattle Times scores it a victory: In the hours leading up to Sen. Barack Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention, it was hard not to wonder if expectations of his oratorical skills would beat him at his own game. That did not happen. Not even close. His speech to 80,000 supporters at Invesco Field was a big, round 10.

--George Pyle/Editorial Writer