McCain Gives as Good as He Can

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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.

rd of MS 12:37PM September 06, 2008

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.

amyinleeds@fairpoint.net of ME 9:31AM September 06, 2008

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."

Douglas O of OH 10:30PM September 05, 2008

But the floor crowd didn't seem to get the protester tactics: They would respond to every yell or shriek with chants of "USA! USA! ...
Hahahah they didn't GET it? Stupid Republicans! They were supposed to, I guess, sit silently and stop and let these people scream and disrupt the convention. hahahaha Yeah. Okay. Inside you can hear just fine, and Obama is using -- gasp! -- a Mic! So can people at home! The ones who didn't "get" the tactics were the media, who focus on these people exactly as they want. Oh, right, they DO get it, 'cause the media give them press credentials every four years and let them into Republican conventions -- which ignoring groups like Recreate 68 at the DNCs.
I get real fuzzy feelings to notice that only eight people read this absurd tripe.

Chico of NY 4:58PM September 05, 2008

People miss the point with Ayers. It is not that Obama was 8 years old it's that Ayers still has the same philosophy and that Obama is a mentor and protege of Ayers. He has been indoctrinated into that philosophy, supports it and promotes it with his ideology!
As for McCains speech it was flat for people like me who have heard his story, however, there are a lot of people that tuned in that had not heard it before or realize that McCain has been trying to fight and change the government from within for 20 years. He wants to now be in the "pulpit" so he can have more influence to make those changes.
Dennis

Dennis Garton of OK 12:02PM September 05, 2008

Obama was 8 years old when Ayers was doing his bombing. He as well as a number of other academics and politicians in Chicago worked on the Annenberg Challenge, but Obama was not Chairman.

Chicago girl of IL 11:44AM September 05, 2008

The green screen is said to be the lawn of the Walter Reed middle school in California. We think they intended to show the Walter Reed medical center, but someone just googled "Walter Reed" and didn't know the difference about what they were putting up as a photo.

of 10:26AM September 05, 2008

From my perspective, the past 8 years have witnessed a horrendous dismantling of our government infrastructure in every department not to mention draining our treaasury of all funds. The FTC is backlogged to 2001 on consumer complaints, the border patrol and immigration policies have been largely ignored, the federal employees retirement fund is gone, creative accounting has been widespread so much that the GAO chair resigned earlier this year claiming "imminent collapse" of the US Treasury, the DOJ is in shambles after Gonzo neglecting enforcement of our legal system, our national debt is beyond out of control with estimates of the "Real" debt unmasked from the intragovernment borrowing between funds at over $70T. In short, our American government requires an complete overhaul in every department and a bare bones budget designed to pay for essentials with a continuing balanced budget requirement mandatory. Continuing to run huge annual deficits is notonly illogical but no longer possible as our credit is quickly becoming stagnant. Our next President must act quickly to first address the war direction and then convene a budget summit to repair our finances. Before our next President takes a single step in any direction he must first get America's domestic situation secured.

Ray Fisher of NM 9:51AM September 05, 2008

It seemed clear to two of watching both conventions that whomever CNN had determining the camera feeds was pro-Obama. They would cut away from McCain at strange times--in the middle of a line delivery--and quite frequently choose the goofiest looking convention goers or shots of nothing happening.
Some might say this was a benefit to McCain, as his grin is creepy, but it all seemed a bit contrived to us to undercut any 'flow' the speech might have had.
I dont remember this at all during the DNC, and as Obama is much prettier to look at, as well as being a much more gifted orator, perhaps it was just a misjudgment, and not 'liberal media bias'. But we most certainly felt it wasn't serving the American public, and showed a partisan bias.

Isaac Bouchard of CO 9:33AM September 05, 2008