I gave The Speech a B+. Thought O went on a little too long and, unfortunately, confused and lost some of the American audience early on with his reference to the Georgia that’s not one of the 50 states. And these are the people he has to reach.

Outlining his plans to the faithful and the intelligentsia isn’t going to get him one additional vote, and a lot of folks on the fence don’t read the New York Times or Washington Post on a regular basis. These are the people who heard a low level rumble about some sort of Russian invasion while immersed in the Olympics.

They’re also called swing voters. Blue collar Joe will help with them. Obama’s nuts and bolts description of his childhood (which he’s got to contrast hard with McCain’s son of an Admiral upbringing) helped as well. But O’s still got some work to do with the substantial part of the electorate that would rather watch wrestling and play video games than catch AC360 on CNN. Make no mistake, I’m a sucker for mindless pastimes, but I also try to make time for a bit of harder and, sadly, colder input on a regular basis.

Two good friends, let’s call them “Mogul With Heart” and “Power Behind Many Thrones,” who are generally way more critical than I am, both gave him an A+++. We agreed to disagree.

The only grade that matters is a “W” on November 4, when the individual speeches will be forgotten and only the residual impressions they’ve made will be of consequence.

Let the low blows begin.