Obama on Warpath Pleases, Worries Pundits

The chattering class saw strength—even Rovian aggression—in Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, for better or worse. A sampling of what observers are saying:

• The Democratic nominee managed to be about voters, not himself, magnificently deflecting John McCain’s entire “celebrity” narrative, Michael Tomasky writes in the Guardian.
• This speech is exactly what Democrats have been calling for: a bare-knuckled attack on McCain, challenging the Republican "not to stoop to questioning his motives," Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post.

• "If the Rove Republicans thought they were playing with a patsy, they just got a reality check," writes Andrew Sullivan for the Atlantic. Sullivan calls Obama's speech a "transformational moment,"  forcefully rebutting every McCain attack while giving national security back to the Democrats. 
• But that attack seemed at odds with the second half of the speech, wherein Obama called for a post-partisan Washington, John Harris and Jim Vandehei note on Politico: “It's hard to practice new politics and old at the very same time.”

(More Barack Obama stories.)