With two exceptions, an uninspired affair

Ho-hum.

After CNN’s Wolf Blitzer tried his mightiest to get the Democratic presidential candidates into another issue-less sound bite frenzy Thursday, local partisans were hoping the candidates might show them a little something more when the hopefuls each spoke at the Clark County Jefferson Jackson Dinner following the debate.

But while the 2,300 faithful attending the dinner got a small portion of red meat amid the entree offerings, they found very little of that coming from the stage.

Perhaps candidates felt boxed to the seven-minute time slot. Maybe they were just spent after the two-hour plus debate on important matters such as gender and whether Chris Dodd thinks John Edwards is angry.

With two notable exceptions, the speeches to Democratic precinct captains, elected officials and activists were uninspired, unfocused combinations of anti-Bush administration standards with a little “get out the vote” thrown in.

Even screamin’ Howard Dean, one of the Democrats’ sharpest tongues, was relegated to a Rovian speech on metrics.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson who took the stage to Elvis’ “Now or Never,” has so little energy that Clark County party chairman John Hunt had to ask him to “quickly” blow out the candles on the 60th birthday cake the party gave him. There were only two, but they were at risk of causing a real problem in the packed-to-the-rafters ballroom.

Richardson stressed he was the Westerner. He mentioned junk food, right-to-work laws, health care for veterans and vehicle fuel efficiency. The speech was clearly more “never” than “now.”

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich was more focused than he usually is, but seemed shorter than ever as his elegantly tall wife, Elizabeth, stood behind him.

He reminded Democrats that he’s the most principled among them, having voted six times against Yucca Mountain.

“These candidates have been all over the map,” he said. “We may need to change the mascot of our party to a donkey that glows in the dark.”

His music summed up his campaign beautifully: John Mayer’s apathetic anthem, “Waiting on the World to Change.”

John Edwards’ speech was so disjointed, I twice looked to see when he’d be approaching the seven-minute mark

As candidates left the stage, Hunt privately asked if they would return to the dinner if they win the nomination. But when Hunt asked Edwards, the former senator looked so pissy the party actually temporarily took down the image on the big screens. For all anyone in the room knew, Hunt was chastising him for going 90 seconds over his allotted time.

Sen. Chris Dodd took the stage to the New Radicals but sounded off on his support for classic Democratic programs and themes. Boomers nodded in agreement when he said he entered the Peace Corps more than 40 years ago because his president had asked him for service.

Hillary Clinton’s speech, the last of the night, went off without a hitch to her hyperscripted campaign. Her supporters were told in a handout what response to use for each of her call prompts.

Most of them fell in line with the ridiculous “turn up the heat” chant. But in the event some weren’t privy to the little memo, campaign volunteers ran up and down the aisles waving signs like prepubescent girls trying out for the jayvee cheer squad.

No matter, Clinton had the hands-down biggest amount of support in the room.

The two speeches that actually were watchable were as different as night and day.

Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign sent red-shirted teens into the dinner prior to his speech as if it were a convention, not a gala. So there was actually some healthy noise when he bounded up the steps and flashed his winning smile.

He talked about why he’s running, how he’s different and built to a crowd-raising crescendo by the time he cited Martin Luther King Jr.’s “fierce urgency of now.”

There was an oblique shot at Clinton with, “I’m not in this race to fulfill some long-held plans.” And without saying too much he deftly presented the illusion befitting his music, “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.”

The speech that actually had both the proper energy, message and tone was Sen. Joe Biden’s. He rocked, just as he had at Thursday night’s debate at UNLV.

Biden talked about foreign leaders with as much ease and knowledge as Republicans do about evangelical leaders. Just as he had in the debate, Biden spoke about his recent talks with Pakistani President/General Pervez Musharraf and opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

He knows his stuff, even if most Democrats prefer the pep rally pablum. He even quoted Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney. “I am sick and tired of hearing the Republicans talk about values,” Biden said. “Give me a break about values. They confuse ideology with morality.”

“Tell me how moral it is to torture, how moral it is to not insure children,” he continued. “Their values are not American values, and if in fact we do not do this well, we’re going to have George W. Guiliani or George W. Romney in the White House.”

Biden, who exuberantly left the stage to Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best,” was.

Contact Erin Neff at eneff@ reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2906.