Burnt Orange Report

Final Thoughts on Chris Bell Last Night

By Byron LaMasters

Since I liveblogged the Chris Bell speech last night, I didn't have a chance yet to provide too much analysis. While liveblogging is great for unfiltered instant reaction, it's not very well suited for analysis. Overall, the speech was phenomenally written. It touched on the points that Democrats must embrace in order to win back this state. I would, however, caution anyone from making over-the-top Bill Clinton references. I like Chris Bell as a person and a candidate, but I wouldn't describe him as Clintonesque. "Clintonesque" is a term I reserve for only the most inspiring and charismatic of politicians - ya know... Barack Obama, perhaps John Edwards in the primary, maybe a few others.

It was interesting to look at my trackback pings from the speech last night where I noticed that Saving String had exactly the same thought as my friend whom I spoke with as I walked to my car after the meeting. Both said that the speech read better on paper than it was spoken. I'm inclined to agree. The speech hits on all the themes that I would want from a candidate for governor, but the delivery certainly needs a bit of polishing. There were several times where it was hard to know if Bell believed what he was saying, or if he was just reading from a script. I could hear genuine passion when Bell spoke of the plight of Jovonnie Ochoa, and the failure of the state in leaving Jovonnie and other children behind because of overworked CPS officials and cuts in CHIP. However, I was a little bit less sold on other parts of the delivery.

Overall, this should basically just be read as a little bit of nitpicking. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet Chris Bell the candidate, and Chris Bell the man. I was very impressed with both. I think that he has the right message, and with time, I'm confident that he'll fine-tune, and polish his delivery. After all, most candidates deliver their stump speech at least ten to twenty times or more before it comes naturally to them. While there's lots of speculation, it's still unknown if there will be a Democratic primary for governor (which I don't necessarily think would be a bad thing), but either way, Chris Bell made an impression on me yesterday, and I'm certainly strongly leaning towards supporting his campaign.

Update: Oh... how could I forget - Saving String caught a picture of me liveblogging the speech.