I'm so tired of being lied to it's not even funny.

The speech was never going to be accepted universally by conservatives, let alone both conservatives and liberals (or Republicans and Democrats) any more than McCain himself was. A suitable review of the speech can be found here, for example:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iMQlffIG-58c…

And now that the GOP convention show is over the Obama campaign will resurface and we'll have to see how well both campaigns develop their agendas and offer us details (that we can believe) and we'll see how both sides are doing in a week or two.

Note that with McCain's reach to the center and beyond (whose scope is beyond merely that of the tempting Clinton voters), Obama could counter it right away with likely improved prospects for his own (Obama's) campaign by settling the Clinton voter question with a promise of a Cabinet or other suitable appointment for Clinton. (Clinton herself needs to be more responsible here and reveal what she wants after November. Stay in the Senate, join the new administration, if the latter, what does she want? She should tell us.)

As I said, while I think the speech was good I also don't think it will do very much good for McCain.

I understand it was not a speech intended to appeal to liberal Democrats or Greens, but neither was the Obama speech intended to appeal to conservative Republicans or Libertarians.

As to my wanting him to do well, I've said several times I have no horse in this race yet. Did my positive review of the Democratic speeches or my negative comments on Thompson mean I wanted them to succeed or fail ?

I call em as I see em. Simply that.

By the way, so much for “TMV is a lefty site” considering how much of its authorship thinks the speech was good.

“Couldn't he have added “Become a community organizer” to that last paragraph on service? The disconnect is striking.”

Elrod, perhaps message loyalty? Maybe McCain didn't want the media dwelling on how disconnected he was from the other convention speakers from the last two days, many of whom belittled the community organizer option.

And yes: Supreme Court.

I watched the speech, but apparently, the speech was different here than wherever Patrick watched it. I wonder how many saw the version i did.

For starters, there was the feel good bio that has preceded each speech (yes, including Obama and Biden, but not Palin, because Rudy got wordy). Then, with dramatic voice-over, the room went dark for a dramatic buildup to the introduction. This is just as classic a theatrical or rock star entrance as any. His name, the stab of the spotlight, cheers. Patrick, that was hardly “just walking out on the stage”. Watch it again.

And ironically, Obama's giant stadium and Washingtonian columns did not impose at all on his speech, while the changing colors behind McCain, and the disconnect between the giant screen being seen live and the tight shot TV viewers saw was as bad as you suggest (what? no rehearsal?”) They finally did improve it mildly, by pixelating the field right behind his head, so as to mute the distraction of a flag video behind him.

I disagree about the protesters. I believe it was simply bad security, not bad Dem behavior vs an unwillingness of Republicans to be disruptive at the Dem convention. We're not ALL children here, Patrick. I remember when free speech meant that protesters could always get on camera at a convention. In this case, it was an Iraq vet with a sign pointing out (accurately) how many times McCain had voted against care for vets.

“His decision to declare that the Republicans HAVE messed up over the past 8 years” was just to deflect the Bush 3rd term attacks. But in fact, on all the key issues it is McSame, to wit: tax cuts for the wealthy, funding cuts for veterans, big deficit spending (borrow and spend, not tax and spend), rendition and torture, executive privilege, illegal wiretapping, unitary executive (that is, imperial presidency), far right judges, politicizing agencies including DOJ, etc.

Maybe it worked for you Patrick, but look at his positions on PATRIOT act, MCA and DOJ. No change, big foul. And by “touching on education” you mean blaming teachers and trotting out school vouchers as a solution? How bold of him. You seriously think this is appealing to the middle?

And you were concerned about Obama “not going into enough detail?” He laid out 29 proposals (invited all to get the exhaustive details online). McCain? Not so much. And of course he got well into his war heroics. McCain does not deserve to be president as a reward for his sacrifice 40 years ago, and Palin does not deserve to be VP for being a hockey mom and being “middle class” (you know, except for the living in the governor's mansion thing).

Please, America, this is not a sympathy contest. By all means, let's give them both the Amana range and a copy of our home game, but we're supposed to be choosing a leader here not Queen for a Day, and it's a really tough job of critical importance to each of us.

All in all, a pretty boring, pedestrian speech, and there was still a bit of the crazy uncle with the creepy smile thing, plus his ongoing difficulty with the teleprompter. That's the public speaking critic in me, having had professional training in that area as no doubt McCain has. It's not meant to demean the candidate.

His oratorical deficiencies are not good for his candidacy, but I do truly hope that voters decide on the issues. Both of them.

Supreme
Court

(Very) Short version:

This was as poorly staged a convention, and acceptance speech, as I've ever seen – Democratic or Republican, and the Republicans are usually the easy winners on that count.

The intro was truly jarring – “A momma's boy!” It did have the effect of silencing the crowd as they collectively thought 'huh?' Then we were treated to McCain telling us what a maverick he was, followed up by the same old laundry list of priorities that we've heard from every Republican since Reagan. School vouchers. Cut taxes. Win wars.

The only part of the i n c r e d i b l y l o n g speech (made so solely through delivery, not time spent) that was good was the personal, biographical description of being a POW. I'm already familiar with it, having read his books (one of mine is autographed), so I knew where he was headed, but still, it's a wonderful story rightly deserving of praise.

But all in all, it was the speech of a man looking back on a long career, as opposed to one looking forward to that which is to come.

Anyway, I didn't watch the speech. I peaked in for a couple minutes. I thought it dry and uninspiring. And then some protester came in and everybody got excited. And then it got dry and boring again. So I changed the channel and watched “Almost Famous.”