| Kos: "Before Obama spoke in 2004, I told people to watch, because he would one day be the first black president. He didn't disappoint.
"Now, I'm feeling the same sense of anticipation with Schweitzer. The man will be president one day. Heck, sign me up right now for his 2016 effort."
LA Times: "Montana Democrats no doubt will revel in Barack Obama's appearance in Billings today, his last campaign stop before heading here. But they already had reason to be excited this morning -- their offbeat folksy governor, Brain Schweitzer, was the surprise hit of the party's national convention Tuesday night, garnering rave reviews for a rousing speech."
The Plank's Dayo Olopade: "I'd like to declare Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer the MVP of Tuesday night. Not only was Schweitzer's delivery emphatic and simple--his mien was entirely genuine, a reality only enhanced by his bolo tie. The governor, an irrigation specialist and practicing catholic, got the meat of these two identities across without being pedantic, speaking of a crucifix in his home and the environmental battles he fights as an executive with fluency. Voters can smell inauthenticity, which perhaps unfairly, plagued Senate candidate Mark Warner during his keynote just prior--and that was not a whiff of that surrounding Schweitzer (in fact, the governor, who described himself off the bat as a "rancher", regularly wears bolo ties)."
The Christian Science Monitor's Jimmy Orr: "Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer did the equivalent of summiting Everest for the first time yesterday, getting the crowd to roar while discussing renewable energy."
Newsweek's Andrew Romano, criticizing Warner's lackluster keynote speech: "For Dems, the most depressing part of the whole debacle must've been realizing, approximately 20 minutes after Warner finished his keynote address, that the right guy for the job had been there all along. The night--or at least the night B.C. (before Clinton)--belonged to Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer. A nonideological, plainspoken pragmatist who has come represent the rising Democratic tide out west, this former rancher and irrigation specialist delivered an old-school stemwinder that blended policy, politics and personality in the proper proportions....
"As Schweitzer finished his remarks, the hall went crazy. 'That's what's supposed to happen at the end of a keynote speech,' said one of my fellow hacks. Seriously. It was like watching a waistcoat-wearing rabble-rouser circa 1934. It was, in other words, fun."
New West's Jill Kuraitis: "In that hallway, nobody but me was listening when Schweitzer began. But within just a few minutes, Pepsi Center workers began to pause at their jobs and hang around the screens. Journalists and political staff did the same. The center of the hall was still a thruway, but now many Schweitzer-watchers leaned on the walls.
"When Schweitzer hit one of his winning applause lines or did his twinkly-eyes thing, the housekeeper standing next to me, Lorena, would clap and laugh. 'Why didn't you people nominate HIM?' she wanted to know."
This morning, Schweitzer visited the Florida delegation. From the report:
"Schweitzer had a challenge for Florida and its 27 electoral votes.
"'Florida is the big dog,' the guest speaker said. 'Are you going to let a tail like Montana wag the big dog, or is the big dog going to stand up and bark?'
That brought the Florida delegates to their feet and prompted more than a few to 'Bark! bark! bark!'" |
