Convention Flashback: Still No There There

Barack Obama took the Democratic Party by storm at its national convention four years ago, but one high-profile blogger was unimpressed. Here is what Matt Stoller, now of Open Left, wrote at The Blogging Of The President on Monday of the 2004 convention:

Barack Obama came in a gave a little speech to the bloggers at the Blogger breakfast. To be honest, I don't get the big deal. I've seen him speak a few times. He seems very charismatic, but I have yet to cross that bridge with him where I feel like he's saying anything really interesting or useful. He's a lot like [John] Edwards -- charismatic and demographically useful for the Democrats. But is there there there?

For that insightful bit of truth-telling, which National Journal's Technology Daily broke from the convention while I was its managing editor, Stoller was unceremoniously dumped by the Democratic National Convention Committee from his volunteer slot as the convention's "blog community coordinator."

Maybe that's why Obama passed over Hillary Clinton as his running mate without even vetting her as a potential vice president. Like Stoller and millions of Americans not smitten like the media, Clinton was unimpressed with Obama until he bested her in the Democratic race.

"I think that I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House," she said during the primary. "I know Senator [John] McCain has a lifetime of experienc [to bring] to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."