Obama at the Convention

(By Peter Kirsanow/National Review Online) - The plan to have Obama speak before a crowd of perhaps as many as 70,000 people at the Democratic convention will only reinforce the McCain celebrity ads as well as remind of the airy excess of the Berlin speech (although this time he'll be speaking to actual voters). Not good — especially in light of today's polls showing voters suffering from Obama fatigue.

Consequently, expect Obama's speech to be very heavy on humility to counteract the ego/arrogance storyline of the last few weeks. In addition, Obama will try to recapture the aura of racial transcendence that began evaporating with the appearance of Rev. Wright and now is almost completely gone due to the "dollar bill" comments. No doubt patriotism also will be a dominant theme.

The problem for Obama is that each of these themes lends itself to the soaring rhetoric for which the candidate is famous and for which — as opposed to the heady early days of the primaries when the rhetoric sounded fresh and inspiring — he is being parodied with increasing gusto.

The good news for Obama is that by all accounts, he remains, Czar of the Teleprompter.