An emotional Andrew Sullivan thinks Obama’s speech was great and says America cannot throw this opportunity away:

Look: I’m biased at this point. I’m one of those people, deeply distressed at what has happened to America, deeply ashamed of my own misjudgments, who has shifted out of my ideological comfort zone because this man seems different to me, and this moment in history seems different to me. I’m not sure we have many more chances to get off the addiction to foreign oil, to prevent a calamitous terrorist attack, to restore constitutional balance in the hurricane of a terror war.

I’ve said it before—months and months ago. I should say it again tonight. This is a remarkable man at a vital moment. America would be crazy to throw this opportunity away. America must not throw this opportunity away.

Megan McArdle says the speech was a disappointment—“nothing we haven't seen before from Obama, or for that matter, every Democratic presidential candidate in living memory.”

Eli Sanders writes:

Here’s what I think: I think Obama was, as usual, near flawless in his delivery. I think the whole staging and pacing of it was a tremendous bit of political theater. I think that he avoided all the right things: soaring too high; overtly suggesting a comparison between himself to MLK on this anniversary of the “Dream” speech; coming off as too light-weight or without a taste for blood. I think the idea of opening the convention, by way of inviting the public to a giant stadium on the last night, was very smart, especially in a swing state such as this one. And I think Obama has set himself up very well for the next big moment: the debates. He’ll be respectful of McCain’s service and accomplishments, but he won’t shrink from pointing out McCain’s failures and the feebleness of McCain’s ideas.

Perhaps—or, quite probably—Obama could have delivered a more soaring, more intricate, more detailed speech. But he didn’t need to. He needed to prove he could speak to, and relate to, the average American. And he did.

I second that.

Here’s the speech in full. I think it’s good, not brilliant—but good.