Some quick thoughts: It struck me as schizophrenic, as if he's trying to do two opposite things at the same time–please the base and appear non-partisan to attract independents in the middle. All the policy stuff was the same-old, same-old Republican litany, but then he says he wants to use Democratic ideas? Is that believable from somebody who voted with Bush 90+% of the time? I don't believe it–or I believe it as much as I believe George Bush was capable of becoming the compassionate conservative he told us he would be. McCain may want to separate himself from Bush, his party's failures, and its vicious partisanship, but will the party let him?
"And then the bit about how he hates war from a guy who jokes Bomb, bomb, bomb–Bomb-bomb Iran." His sabre-rattling about Russia and Georgia, his aggressive support for the unnecessary invasion of Iraq, his refusal to listen to sense about a timely withdrawal does not represent the thinking of a man who truly, deeply hates war and cares about the soldiers. How can anybody take this seriously?
The delivery, except for the last two minutes or so, was stilted and quite frankly awful. How can somebody in public service for so long be so bad at reading a teleprompter? Is he so uncoachable? He certainly leaves the impression that he isn't very bright, but these days I guess that's a good thing. The fact is that the convention was Palin's, and regardless who John McCain thinks he is, the party belongs to right-wingers like her. Whether she's in over her head or not doesn't matter. I read somewhere today that the campaign is not letting her do any interviews. She's going to be a completely packaged commodity. (Update: See here.)
I know conventions are occasions for contrived or manufactured enthusiasm, but there seemed a kind of bizarre disconnect, especially at the beginning, between the blandness of his statements and the enthusiastic response of the crowd–and then other times when he was pausing for applause and didn't get it. Ninety percent of the speech struck me as a disjointed mess.
I was a little surprised about the POW story, not because I thought he wouldn't push that theme, but because of the way he spoke about it. Talking about being broken, being dependent, being weak and being reborn to serve others. Those are not your typical GOP talking points. But the fact remains that he came home, dumped his sick wife, and married a woman almost twenty years younger with a lot of money. So there's a disconnect there between the story's point that his experience as a POW made him stop being a selfish jerk. He came home and acted like a selfish jerk. And in his 1999 book he admitted that he was running for president simply for his own ambition. All this stuff about serving and fighting for others is cant. If John McCain is man for others, I need more evidence than his simply asserting he is.
I don't know. I'll be interested to learn what others think, but the two goals that this speech seemed to set out for itself canceled one another out. Or maybe people just listen to the part that they agree with and filter out the part they don't. Not sure. I think the main thing McCain accomplished in the past week was to energize the base by the Palin pick, but if tonight was his attempt to reach out to the middle, I don't think it worked, and it probably angered the base. (But will they work energetically for him anyway because it will mean Palin in 2012?) We'll see what kind of bump he'll get, but it wouldn't surprise me if Obama holds onto at least a 6 or 7% lead. That might be wishful thinking, but time will tell.
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