WASHINGTON—Snagging a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention is impressive enough for most politicians.
But when Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill takes the podium in Denver on Monday night, she’ll be in even rarer company. Her remarks will come right before headline speaker Michelle Obama.
That kind of pressure can make even seasoned public speakers a bit jittery.
“I thought I was beyond getting nervous about giving a speech because I’ve given thousands,” McCaskill said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But I’m definitely nervous about this speech.”
One reason is the national television audience. Also, McCaskill doesn’t like to use prepared text, so she might have a hard time reading off a TelePrompter.
Her 10-minute speech—to be shown between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. MDT—will focus on the economic and family hardships Barack Obama and his wife had to overcome.
“The path that these two people have traveled is uniquely American,” McCaskill said. “I want to bring it down to a pretty basic level about who they are and why they represent the best of us.”
She’ll also make her case that Obama “has more in common with most Missouri families than John McCain does.”
It will be a family affair, with McCaskill being introduced at the podium by her three children: Austin, 20, Maddie, 19 and Lilly, 16.
It’s a long way from where she stood just two years ago—a state auditor, little known outside Missouri, trying to unseat an incumbent Republican senator.
McCaskill’s speaking slot may, in part, be a reward for her early support for Obama’s presidential campaign. She showed during the campaign that she could deliver Obama’s talking points in polished sound bites.
So what does she consider the most important theme of her speech?
“We’ve tried it John McCain’s way for 7 1/2 years and it hasn’t turned out very well,” McCaskill said. “We’ve tried a foreign policy that’s just focused just on Iraq, we’ve tried economic policies that are all about tax breaks for the very wealthy, we’ve tried giving big oil everything they wanted. Frankly, the results have really kind of stunk.”
The only other decisions left about her speech were which of her children would do the talking and what she’s going to wear.
“I hope my two sisters would quit arguing over what I should wear,” she said. “There’s a lot of stress going on.”
