Barack Obama produced a stirring performance in his 30 minute infomercial, writes Eve Fairbanks at The New Republic:

“Look, the performance was scripted, so I won’t extrapolate too broadly on Obama’s actual character from it, but the person he presented
himself as tonight was a listener, a gatherer of stories, a reporter,
somebody who’s interested in the pure, gritty texture of his
interlocutors’ lives, and not merely in the way their lives happen to
illustrate his abstract positions.”

“Obama never mentioned McCain. But McCain was
present, his signature stubborn bullheadedness brought out in the
contrast. I hadn’t thought about it much before, but McCain really
doesn’t relish this kind of from-the-trail detail, doesn’t relish
talking about people he’s met, at all.”

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