On a whim, I live-tweeted President Obama's victory speech this morning. True to the forum, I doled out the snark and only slowly realized that this was the last and best address of a horrid campaign.
Here's how it rolled off my fingertips:
@ron_fournier: "The best is yet to come" #Hope
@ron_fournier: "We may have battled fiercely but it's only because we love this country deeply." #riiight
In hindsight, the hashtag sarcasm makes me wince. The president loves his country deeply, of course, but perhaps the battle could have been less fierce and more substantial. Obama's winning strategy was to disqualify Romney as a contender. It worked, but the scar tissue will make governing harder. After a bruising campaign, how willing or trusting will Republicans be when Obama reaches out for compromise?
"@ron_fournier: Bill Clinton should walk out now and take a bow, no? #bubba
The history of this campaign will include a chapter on the former president who used his convention address to reframe the campaign. Until that point, Romney was challenging Americans to ask if they were better off than four years ago. Clinton urged Americans to wonder which candidate would make their lives better four years from now. The forward-looking frame helped turn the campaign from being a referendum on Obama to a choice between two candidates -- exactly the narrative Obama needed.