The spotlight was on Elizabeth Warren, and this was a star turn: a prime time appearance on center stage of a nationally-televised convention.
I admit it: I don't get it.
"I sure never dreamed that I'd get to be the warm up act for President Bill Clinton," Warren said.
Me neither, and watching, I kept wondering, "why is she there?" Better known Democrats were given worse speaking times, and Warren isn't even ahead in her senate race with Scott Brown.
Right now, it's Brown 43.4%, to Warren's 42.6% in the polls.
And she also wasn't there because she's a running a great campaign: as the New York Times notes, Warren "…appears to be on the way to squandering her chance at reclaiming Ted Kennedy's old seat."
Warren's speech was clear and she was composed–showing no sign of the nervousness she said she felt before the speech. She promised to join the president in a fight for the middle class.
"People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: they're right," Warren said.
If you've followed her campaign, you know her targets:
"Oil companies guzzle down billions in profits. Billionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Wall Street CEOs…still strut around Congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them. Does anyone here have a problem with that? well I do, too," Warren said.
She mentioned Massachusetts, but there really wasn't much in her speech about this state.
Wall Street and Big Banks are more New York than here…and the hammered middle-class she wants to protect is everywhere.
So, once again tonight, Elizabeth Warren struck me more as a Senate candidate who's running in Massachusetts, than as a candidate for the United States Senate from Massachusetts.