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I could do a number of posts on Obama’s speech last night at the DNC. But I’m fairly sure that Mike will be doing an analysis of it at some point, and I’d rather take potshots at his analysis from the peanut gallery than write my own (well, at least I’m honest about these things…).

But here’s one line I’d like to dissect and disagree with in the interim:

“In Washington, they call this the “Ownership Society,” but what it really means is that you’re on your own. Out of work? Tough luck, you’re on your own. No health care? The market will fix it. You’re on your own. Born into poverty? Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, even if you don’t have boots. You are on your own.”

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this rhetoric. Congressman Rush Holt used this approach about 4 years ago to an audience of policy majors at Princeton in describing the GOP. I disagreed with it then, and I disagree with it still. Here’s why:

There’s a big difference between government not helping you, and nobody helping you.
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Its about 10 minutes before Obama gives his talk. I tuned in a bit early to be sure I didn’t miss it. I was intrigued by the “American Voices Program”… they have a bunch of normal Americans giving short talks about why Obama is their candidate. The speakers were carefully chosen to represent groups that are likely to be swing voters (although its not clear to me that any of these swing voters would be watching the talks).

Some of the talks seemed genuine and heartfelt. Some seem cliched and hackneyed. Some had clever turns of phrase. It made me wonder, did these people write their own speeches, or were they written by professional speech writers? If the latter, that seems a bit… disingenuous. If the former, then how do they ensure quality control? Do they have somebody proofing it? Do they give helpful tips and lessons? How do they ensure that one of the speakers doesn’t do the nightmare scenario (for the democrats) of endorsing John McCain?