Word: moment
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Every big event needs a director. Think of the Oscars, the Beijing Olympics, the Super Bowl: in each case there was a guy, or girl, timing the fireworks, cueing the music, lining up the athletes or yanking starlets' heads out of toilets for their big moment. For the Democratic National Convention in Denver that guy is Matt Nugen, an unlikely, happy-go-lucky 36-year-old who is responsible for making Barack Obama's coronation go off without a hitch...
...with carefully prepared passion to John McCain's scurrilous campaign theme that Obama doesn't put America first. "Let me be clear: I will let no one question my love of this country," he said, to the best applause he received from that skeptical crowd. It was an effective moment, but defensive. It was not how you win a presidential campaign...
...Heading into a crucial moment in this race - his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention - Obama was failing as a candidate in two crucial areas. He had failed to define his opponent, and he was failing, in all but the most amorphous ways, to define himself. He desperately needed to do unto McCain what McCain had done unto him: hammer his opponent in a sustained, thematic way - not just a few tossed-away lines in a stump speech. That shouldn't be too difficult. An argument can be made that McCain is trigger-happy overseas and out of touch...
...speech claiming victory after his epic nomination battle: "If we are willing to work for it and fight for it and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image...
...though, is to time the gluing just right. There is a magic moment just before the glue dries when it's hard enough to stick, but still tacky enough to give. That's when players at the Games want to hit the tables. If they don't, it's pong-demonium. "One of our players melted down [in a previous competition] because the match in front of her was delayed," said Fox, "so she thought her glue was losing its effect." Table tennis can be so stressful...