Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
E-mail: mailbox@governing.comTwitter: @governing
posted by Josh Goodman
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer's well-regarded speech at the Democratic convention wasn't the one he was supposed to deliver. From Ben Smith :
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer said his show-stealing speech Tuesday night, which brought the crowd in Denver to its feet and made him the talk of the convention, was a last-minute improvisation that departed from the prepared remarks he'd agreed on with the Obama campaign.
"We had a convention that went through the first day and didn't get anybody fired up," said Schweitzer, who spoke on the second evening after keynote speaker Mark Warner of Virginia. "We didn't have anybody stand up, and we didn't have anybody get excited," he said.
...
Schweitzer, other sources said, had already clashed with convention organizers over the editing of his speech. So when he took the stage, the Montana governor expanded dramatically on a prepared text sent by the campaign to reporters, adding signature language that stuck out from the rest of the speakers' words -- he was the only one talking about "petro-dictators" -- and offered a rhetorical merger of environmentalism and patriotism.
(Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan )
If this results in more improvised convention speeches, a grateful nation will thank Brian Schweitzer. I'm not holding my breath. By the way, the Schweitzer for keynoter 2012 campaign seems to have already started.
Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
E-mail: mailbox@governing.com 
GOVERNING Politics is the place for news and analysis on campaigns and elections. If there's a ballot measure in California, a legislative election in Alabama, a mayoral election in Anchorage or a governor's race in Rhode Island, GOVERNING Politics probably is writing about it. We love everything about state and local politics, from polls and campaign ads to policy debates and demographic trends.
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