Oh, That Liberal Media!

You’d think one of the network commentators would play the contrarian, and not praise Kerry’s speech like it was the Sermon on the Mount.

You’d think that–and you’d be wrong. Of course, as Evan Thomas of Newsweek said…

Update: Writing about Talk Left’s Jeralyn Merrit (whom I had the pleasure of meeting briefly at the Colorado Blogger Bash in May) and her immediate reaction to Kerry’s speech (very much along the lines of the TV commentators), Steve Green noted:

Well, “I was there” is exactly the problem with analyzing Kerry’s speech. How many people who were there did Kerry need to sway?

Correct answer: Zero.

Kerry needed to move some portion of the estimated 25 million Americans watching tonight. How many did he convince to vote for him? How many did he convince at least enough not to vote for Bush? How many people did he move into the Bush column?

I don’t know. Neither does Jeralyn — even though she feels like it was “electric.” Of course it was electric. It’s electric to be a Nuggets fan in Denver, even when the Lakers comes to play. You know they’re going to lose, but, hey, they’re your team.

The electricity of a large cheering home team crowd would also explain the immediate “Gosh–Kerry’s so totally cool and dreamy!!” reaction of the TV pundits last night. Some of their colleagues in the press, who aren’t required to immediately blurt out a comment on live TV, aren’t anywhere near as upbeat at his speech. Even Andrew Sullivan, who went from being pro-Bush and pro-liberation to appearing to be totally in the tank for Kerry, described his speech as “far too long” and delivered by “an arrogant jerk”.

Update: As we were saying: “Kerry’s Speech Disappoints Liberal Newspapers“.