Obama will evoke JFK (again) with his stadium speech at Democratic convention

Yesterday’s announcement that Barack Obama will deliver his Democratic convention acceptance speech at Invesco Field, the 76,000-seat home of the Denver Broncos, has revived the Obama-as-JFK mythology that flowed so thick and fast between last fall’s anointing of Obama by JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen through the early days of primary season. (Here’s Frank Rich on the subject, and I wrote about it here.)

Not since Kennedy in 1960 has any Democratic candidate dared the star turn that Obama will assay. JFK delivered his acceptance speech that summer at the LA Coliseum, and it’s interesting now to look back at the TV coverage of the event. What’s most striking is the utter lack of spectacle about it visually. For all the pageantry of the broadcast presentation, Kennedy may as well have spoken in a church basement as far as the folks watching at home were concerned. This was before the days of lightweight cameras and Goodyear blimps over every stadium, and before political journalists began learning their best moves from sports programming and Leni Riefenstahl.

All of which underscores the fact that, however ostensibly similar to Kennedy’s gambit, Obama’s stadium gig will be a political rally the likes of which Americans have never really seen on television before.

John F. Kennedy, Democratic convention acceptance speech, 07/13/60, pt I (8:59)

JFK, Democratic convention acceptance speech, 07/13/60, pt II (8:58)