And the crowd’s response didn’t help much, either. It was tepid throughout much of it–especially whenever McCain expressed a bipartisan perspective–and most of the applause was of an automatic nature. The only sincerely enthusiastic moments seemed to be when he praised Palin and when he attacked public schools.
Oh, and when they thought he was drawing to a close, and began prematurely cheering–and thus drowning out the last couple of paragraphs. I couldn’t hear much of his closing remarks except “Fight with me! Fight with me!”–which, out of context, sounded like a dare instead of an invitation.
I only watched a few minutes. That fake smile that he would throw in every now and then was really strange. Did anyone count how many times he said “my friends”?
I watched a little Hardball commentary afterwards, and they were still gushing over Sarah Palin. I guess she was a big hit with the pundits.
But from the excerpts I’ve seen, it’s McCain who’s selling himself as “The One.” It’s all about his character, his integrity, his service to country, and of course did you know that he suffered for five and a half years as a POW?
Obama’s a hell of a speaker, and he’s drawing a lot of adulation, but to the best of my ability to tell, he hasn’t tried to make this about him. McCain clearly has. It’s what he’s selling.
I tried to avoid it, but flipped to it out of curiousity for a minute. Would you believe that he was talking about his POW days when I did so? What are the odds? Wonder how many Republicans think the ticket is upside-down?
I thought the first part was boring as shit. Weird smiles, basic stump speech, polite applause. And the green background was awful.
He did not give an inspiring performance at all - except at the end. I think when he spoke of his war time it was and is important - it’s part of who he is and it shaped his character. But we really don’t need to hear it 1000 times from now to Nov exploited to the hilt.
As davidw said, they needed Reagan and they got Dole. Frankly, I would have liked very much to hear McCain give his GOP acceptance speech in 2000. THAT would have been a much different story.
What do you mean by the real one? He even contradicted himself when he picked a Bush clone to be his VP. Remember Bush was head of a big state as Govenor as well. We are now suffering the results of his so called experience which Bush seems to think is his calling from God!!!
I thought it was as good as could be expected. He’s not a great speaker, but he comes across as genuine. In a way, his lack of polish plays up that aspect of his personality.
It worked for me on a number of levels. McCain has been someone who has worked across the aisle on substantial legislation, to his own detriment within his party. Obama’s claims along these lines ring absolutely hollow, so that is a good contrast. McCain is perceived as “the Maverick,” so much so that he was NOT the darling of his party or the base, a fact that many on this board seem to have forgotten, but America will not. The Maverick label will stick, whether or not it gets him elected. He is a fiscal conservative, a stark contrast to the incumbent. I think the agent of change label worked, I think people will accept it in middle America, no matter how much it rolls eyes on this board. Some of the talking points regurgitated on this board and in this thread are not only overstated or misleading, the are irrelevancies to most voters.
It hit the points it needed to–McCain is substantial, to Obama’s polished lack of experience; he has been tested in the fire; his character, a man who has taken real political risk (his position on the surge); he is a small government, fiscal conservative; he rejects the big-government bullshit of the Dems. All the points he needed to make. That’s all–I had no expectation he was going to bring down the house with his oratory skills. Obama has that contest won.
I drifted in and out of the room during the speech, so I missed about half of it, but this morning I have started hearing rumors that there might have been a screwup on the backdrop screen he had. Did he speak with a large building behind him at one point? I’m trying to verify that it might have been Walter Reed — Middle School.
It’s too early in the morning for my brain to process this. Can they be that stupid? Can they? This is a major political party here. Who is doing the tech stuff? McCain himself?
I’m listening to it now and just had to share this.
Cindy said some nice things about me tonight, but in truth, she is more my inspiration than I am hers,…the cunt.
You beat me to it! The only explanation I can think of is that they mistook Walter Reed Middle School for Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I don’t understand how.
Did someone in McCain’s campaign go to middle school in North Hollywood California?
At this point, I’m presuming it’s another McCain Campaign Fuckup TM
I’ve been wondering about the whole ‘Cindy getting up and speaking thing’. Obviously, it’s different when it’s a politically involved spouse like a Dole or a Clinton, but is it typical for the candidate’s spouse to get up there and talk at a convention?
I thought so as well. I think some of the woodeness that people speak of is a result of not being really able to move his arms and shoulders much due to his war injuries. You can especially see this when he tries to give a ‘thumbs up’. He can’t hardly get his arms to horizontal. As a result, his shoulders/neck/torso always seem uptight.
I had fairly low expectations for his speech. This was actually the first one of his that I watched. Based on what I’ve heard, I was expecting something along the lines of GWB, but it was a competant, good speech.
But then, IMHO, oratory skills are really just superficial skills for a president, so I try to look beyond the delivery.
I just caught a few highlights on CNN. I cannot fathom how anybody could use the words “real”, “from the heart”, or “sincere” to describe that speech. The words themselves weren’t bad, but the delivery was worse than a Junior High production of “Romeo and Juliet”. He maxed out my “insincerity meter” faster than any used car salesman ever could. In all honesty, he really creeped me out.
I think the worst part was all the run up and the hype leading up to the Big Speech™. I don’t know about the rest of you but it was like biting tin foil, even if I was only listening with half an ear.
Plus, I know this will sound bad, but, well, McCain looked really REALLY old! I mean the contrast between him and Obama (or him and Palin) is beyond striking. The only one who looks like he belongs with McCain is Biden.
I didn’t catch Fox’s coverage (was watching on CNN)…wonder how they were spinning this speech? Anyone know?