corrente

Atrios and Marshall are unwarrantedly respectful of the carping about Kerry "stepping on his applause lines" during his acceptance speech, holding out the possibility that the same morons who are wrong about everything else might be right for once. Nonsense. All we have to do is dial back the time machine to 2000. Here's Charlie Cook, one of the few intelligent commentators on the political scene, about reaction to Gore' speech:

Interestingly, many people who were in the Staples Center were not impressed with Gore's speech. They complained that he talked too fast, stepped on his applause lines, and plowed through the cheers of the crowd as if he couldn't hear them or was afraid to stop. As it turned out, the faster speaking style prevented Gore from sounding pedantic and condescending-problems he's yet to fully overcome. ... Breaking through the applause lines, as it turned out, made the speech sound more natural to television viewers, who were not focused on crowd reaction in the hall.

In short, Gore left a strong and positive impression with TV viewers, and he was rewarded with a big poll bounce that carried into September.

Personally I think plowing into applause is effective in an acceptance speech, because the whole point is establish momentum for the months ahead. It's like James Brown playing 'on the one'-- a tension is set up between two opposing forces that is electric and propulsive. Stopping every time your audience applauds, by contrast, merely dissipates the energy.

In any event, to paraphrase Mencken, no one ever went broke underestimating the imbecility of the chattering classes.