Go Scweitzer Go!

Speeches That Sometimes Lead to Big, Big Things

The big news last night was, of course, Hillary Clinton's speech to fellow Democrats. What was she going to say? Would she be enthusiastic enough about Barack Obama? Would she mean what she said? Would she be persuasive enough?

I say yes. She did the gracious and loyal thing and she did it well.

But I believe something else might have happened last night. A rising star made an impression and you never know where that leads, sometimes to the White House. There was a whole line-up of rising star speakers for last night's convention proceedings. But there was only one who stood out. And my guess is that it wouldn't have been the one you'd expect. I suppose the Democratic Party must have been clued in, as must be the state of Montana, but the rest of us might have supposed that Mark Warner would rock our worlds, or maybe Deval Patrick. It wasn't them.

Brian Schweitzer, Governor of Montana, was the man of the hour. He impressed some CBS News folks I was sharing space with - both for the speech and for the affect he had on the crowd. And they were right - the Hall was snoozing until Schweitzer got going. He was great! Watch out for him in the coming years!