Marc Dann Was Impressive
The biggest political moment of the night came from Marc Dann. I'll have the audio of him speaking up tomorrow, but I think it is significant enough to post about tonight.
The very first thing he said, and he said it with sincerity, was to thank Subodh Chandra and ask his supporters to now help him. He said a lot of kind words about Subodh and it wasn't pandering it was real. From his blog reach out after the primary to this tonight I think Marc Dann has shown a real ability to build bridges and make it easy for people to get behind him. I think that is an ability he is going to need to use in spades to grab enough independent voters to beat Montgomery in the Fall.
Up until tonight the impression I, and I think quite a few folks have of Marc, is one of a real ball buster with some grandstanding too. I didn't see that at all tonight from him. I saw a genuine, self deprecating guy ready to kick the crap out of Betty Montgomery.
It was also very interesting to hear him speak of the issues. Instead of focusing on Taft as he has for some time - his fire was squarely directed at Montgomery - and it was pretty good too.
This is by far the most impressive I have seen him in person. He was also the only statewide candidate to stay right until the end.
Anyway, this is the most positive I've felt about a nominee after working for his opponent. I can echo what you said, about him being self-deprecating and genuine. And one thing that I didn't put my finger on until just now--when addressing people who worked for his opponent, the first thing he did is *thank* us. He didn't go right into, "We invite you to join us." Oh, heck--why don't I just find that spot on the audio, so I can actually get it right.
And he went on from there, but that's all I'll post tonight. I'm all transcripted out after writing up the Paul Hackett interview earlier today.