"In Chief"

Hope some of you watched this morning's proceedings from the DNC Winter Meeting in DC on CSPAN or through the DNC's video streaming site.

Rules of engagement for this morning's speeches by presidential candidates provided for a 1 minute introduction, 30 seconds of music and 7 minutes of speaking. Each of the candidates we heard this morning: Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Wes Clark, Dennis Kucinich, and Hillary Clinton have their talking points down and clearly have broad and specific themes they are testing here.

I was chiefly struck by several things --- Obama could easily be tagged as our "Inspiration in Chief" while Edwards is our "Storyteller in Chief". Kucinich would be our "Peacenik in Chief" in contrast with Wes Clark who could be "Commander in Chief."

Hillary and Dodd were more difficult to tag but both had much to offer the crowd today.

All of the candidates pointed out how this administration's mantra should be MCLB --- the Middle Class Left Behind. We are clearly facing some deep cultural and economic divides that will take ACTION, not rhetoric, LEADERSHIP not lies to restore America's promise.

Obviously some of the candidates stuck with their script and rehearsed lines while others spoke from their heart about America and the choices ahead of us.

Two common threads were "Stand Up, Speak Out" and "Faith, Strength and Integrity" supported by Clark's references to "Duty, Honor, Country."

There's much more to come. Stay tuned.