McCain Gives as Good as He Can
ST. PAUL—John McCain gave about as good a speech as he can give: not great, but surprisingly effective—and definitely good enough.
The speech's best moments came when McCain worked riffs: Repetitions of what he has fought for ("Fight with me! Fight with me!"), who he has fought, and we believe, we believe, we believe.
McCain's best moments involved his describing his time as a POW (somewhat surprising given the extent to which the campaign is cheapening that coin through overuse) and when he ad-libbed a response to one of a couple of protesters who tried to disrupt him early on. "My friends, don't be diverted by the ground noise and the static," he said. He added with an almost-Reaganesque smile that Americans "want us to stop yelling at each other."
But the floor crowd didn't seem to get the protester tactics: They would respond to every yell or shriek with chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!"—drowning out the dumb protester, but also drowning out their candidate.
(Side note to the protesters—oh be quiet. You annoyed more people this evening than you persuaded.)
Another protester managed to get a sign in and periodically yelled something about the war. At first he managed to hold people off by leaning out over the edge of his balcony to keep it away from fellow guests' grasp. Then a volunteer in the next section over grabbed the sign and spent a couple of comical minutes trying to tear it up. When he finally managed it the crowd cheered—it's unclear whether the crowd cheered for him or for McCain's applause line.
McCain's worst moment came when he was delivering what was supposed to be a signature line of the speech: "I have that record, and the scars to prove it," he said, pausing and flashing his creepy grin before adding, "Senator Obama does not." Not really the time for the grin.
He got his biggest cheers in the peroration, but he tried to talk over them—no one sitting in my area of the press stands could make out a word of the last section of speech.
He got one of his biggest cheers when he talked about lessening the U.S. dependency on foreign oil, which prompted another round of "Drill, baby, drill."
(Side note to the GOP conventioneers: "Drill, baby, drill!" sounds good in the hall, but it sounds a bit fanatical-scary beamed into living rooms—drilling is a winning issue for the GOP right now, but Americans come to it reluctantly. All else being even, though, they'd prefer to not. Lusty chants of "Drill, baby, drill!" bring to mind the Goths finally let through the gates of Rome.)
And of course we can expect to see another reprise of the McCain Green Screen Challenge on Colbert—that should be good for a laugh.
Tags: presidential election 2008 | Republicans | speeches | John McCain | Republican National Convention
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Reader Comments
drilling for oil
I'm curious as to how the author knows that people would prefer to not drill. You are aware that all else will never be even? I submit that if people were better informed, that is, they knew to the extent we are helping to support countries that would prefer there was no USA, we wouldn't need higher gas prices to chant drill . . . whatever. I for one have never understood (although I know the arguments) why we don't drill here. Except maybe that we're waiting for everybody else to run out.
Green Screen
I wholeheartedly agree about the screen, which was distracting. In some cases it moved behind the speaker, but often the color was just plain unflattering. The powerful electic blue minimized McCain. Once the screen changed colors as McCain spoke.
I was particularly sorry to see McCain walk out on stage with a brightly lit screen behind him, as this only accentuated the odd way he holds his arms and his stiff gait. Much or most of his physical stiffness surely is due to wartime injuries and torture rather than his age. However the average TV viewer might not register why McCain moves as he does. They would just think he looks like an old man. How much more effective it would have been for McCain to walk out with a dark backround, which would have minimized his physical issues. The visual impact would have been on his face and personality... he would have looked stronger. We should all remember that FDR governed from a wheel chair.
By far the most powerful line in either convention was McCain's admission that his torturers broke him. It was infinately more effective than claiming tough bravado. McCain's admission to all the world showed tremendous humility. For the first time I understood why McCain's POW experience is important. It transformed a youthful hot shot into a man with a servant attitude.
I agree however, we should have heard way less about this POW experience and way more about specific proposals... that's what the undecideds tuned in to hear.
McCain needs to find soundbites that better explain his economic proposals. Fred Thompson's point that Obama's taxes on business wouldn't affect you unless you buy food, gas etc. was perfect and beautiful. In a recent interview McCain explained why politicians vote against good things...because often Congress tacks a bad thing on to a good thing. Wonderful soundbite.
As Good as He Can
ST. PAUL—John McCain gave about as good a speech as he can give.That isn't saying much as it offered absolutely no policy for the myriad of severe problems affecting our country.McCain has hitched his wagon to the most unpopular president in modern history,George W. Bush,a failure as president in every sense of the word.John McCain actually brags about his voting record supporting Bush 95% of the time.McCain has voted time and again against benefits for vets yet claims to support them.Sounds familiar doesn't it.McCain picked as his V.P. another republican under investigation for trying to improperly influence another public official to do her dirty work and fire her ex-brother in law,clearly a violation of the law.She is a chronic and habitual lier,and has a mean streak rivaling that of Cheney.She is anything but a reformer.What she is,is a racist,referring to the native Eskimo as snow Arabs and snow n****rs.People like Palin are the descendents of those who went to Alaska,first to steal the gold and,after that was gone to rape the land of anything of value,be it the oil,the minerals or the wildlife.Palin wants the media and the American public to respect the privacy and her daughter and her decision to keep her child.Palin doesn't want your or my daughter to have the same privacy to make her own decision about birth or abortion.As I always say:If you don't like abortion,don't have one,and if you don't like gay marriage,don't marry one.And you know what is really creepy? David of FL and the rest of the right wing christo-fascists who wish to impose their own puritanical value system on the world.Freedom at the end of a rifle.This isn't change we can believe in,this is more of the same.Vote for real change America. As Barack Obama said in his acceptance address at the Democratic Convention,"We are a better nation then this."
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