Barack Obama’s speech: same old, same old.

Given that Barack Obama is in a fair bit of trouble, you’d think he’d have given a better speech to last night’s Democratic National Convention. Instead, he just trotted out his greatest hits. “Forward, not back,” etc. Like Mitt Romney last week, he gave a workmanlike speech and like Romney was outshone by his wife. He didn’t mention Obamacare, which is odd given that this is the signature achievement of his presidency. In fact, he hardly mentioned any achievements. He avoided the concrete and focused on the abstract which, if you’re an Obama believer, would delight you. If you’re an Obama sceptic, this would confirm why you’re unsure about him. His strategy seems to have been to reawaken his base, rather than win sceptics over.

I’d like to quote his main points at greater length, but there weren’t really any. This was a speech of soundbites – a laundry list of the familiar and the obvious.