Exactly. I found myself smiling through most of what I saw the first two days of the DNC. Then we pulled over to listen to his speech on the radio. The station was actually a TV channel you get sometimes on the radio. And one news guy (older dude) was gushing. They cut him off toward the end but he was hyped for sure.
Remember young people have not heard this kind of rhetoric from a candidate they felt connected to. And the oldsters remember Roosevelt and/or JFK.
While their's no great depression, there is that vaccuum created by poor health coverage that can wipe out a hard working families' savings. And many people work two jobs not to get ahead but to stay afloat. Because there aren't many good jobs left in America and we get tired of wearing and eating the crappy stuff that is imported. We put forth our energy to get back crap.
And that is why the words "hope" and "change" have new and rejeuvenated meaning for many people.
To put it in common redneck language (of which you no doubt noticed I am well versed):
We seen a light at the end of the tunnel onct; then the summbishch went dark on us...then somebodyheld up a bic lighter and said, "Come on, fellas, I'll show you the way out!"

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well that was kind of anticlimactic...