Pundits on Kerry: He nailed it

Salon.com: If Senator John Kerry's acceptance speech were the opening night of a Broadway production, it would be doing robust box office business Friday morning. The same talking heads who seemed openly skeptical of the Democratic presidential nominee for much of this week gave his speech strongly positive notices.
On a scale of 1 to 10, ABC's George Stephanopoulos gave Kerry's speech an 8 'as written,' and a '7.5 as delivered.'

'Face the Nation' host Bob Schieffer said Kerry had 'done about as well as he could do to set the stage for what's ahead.'

NBC's Tim Russert credited Kerry for opening himself up during the address. 'He gave more of himself than I've ever seen before.' He added that Democratic delegates 'have seen a candidate who's willing to take the battle to George Bush. Democrats heard what they needed to hear; it's on, full charge ahead.'

Time magazine's Joe Klein told CNN Kerry 'nailed it' and that he'd 'never seen the man speak so well.'

Meanwhile, Newsweek's Howard Fineman, appearing on MSNBC, said Kerry 'has established the point he's a fighter, a war hero and a real guy. Now it's up to Bush to tear him down.'

Some observers might suggest all those pundits have Democratic leanings to begin with, so their praise doesn't mean much. But they were precisely the type of commentators who routinely ridiculed Al Gore's campaign throughout the 2000 race, so the shift is worth noting.

The post-speech analysis got off to a comical start on CNN, when the news channel inadvertently broadcast frantic comments from a Democratic producer in a rage that more balloons were not dropping from the ceiling of the Fleet Center: ''More balloons! We need all of them coming down! All balloons! Balloons? What's happening, balloons? There's not enough coming down. All balloons! Where the hell -- there's nothing falling! What the fuck are you guys doing up there?'

Kerry: Hope is on the way

What a great finale of the National Democratic Convention that was! The hightlight of course was John Kerry's acceptance speech. Some excerpts:
"As president, that is my first pledge to you tonight. As president, I will restore trust and credibility to the White House.
"I will be a commander in chief who will never mislead us into war. I will have a vice president who will not conduct secret meetings with polluters to rewrite our environmental laws. I will have a secretary of defense who will listen to the advice of the military leaders. And I will appoint an attorney general who upholds the Constitution of the United States."
"America can do better: So tonight we say, help is on the way."
Some pundits call it the best speech John Kerry ever gave, but the reactions from some opinion-leading newspapers are quite different. Plus: The transcript, key points & sentences of John Kerry's acceptance speech and pictures of the last night of the Democratic convention)