A mixed performance. The ending worked, though in the hall I doubt anyone could hear him very well as he spoke through the crowd’s applause. The final peroration — “We’re Americans. We don’t hide from history. We make history” — was strong stuff.
The difference when he’s talking about something that truly animates him is startling.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania I’m watching McCain on TV, like most of America. I know the backdrop has been solid colors for most of the speakers, with a larger image above them, but that comes from watching the convention the past few days. For anyone tuning in tonight what they see, for the most part, is McCain [...]
He’s struggling, as he sometimes does — misplacing the emphasis on words, sounding at times like he’s reading the speech for the first time, losing energy during the sections on issues he’s never been particularly passionate about, buring applause lines in a string of sentences. It’s as if he can’t bring himself to pretend he’s [...]
Or is it kind of weird for the Michigan and Pennsylvania delegations to cheer as McCain talks about the economic trouble and the people who are suffering in the their states? UPDATE: Commenter Gunny asks: Deep question. At what point will Palin drop McCain?
Not sure what the protesters’ goal is — unless it’s to elicit sympathy for McCain among the viewers who tuned in to hear his speech. His response — telling the audience to ignore the “static” and that “Americans want us to stop shouting at each other” — let him come across as reasonable and cool-headed.
Maybe I’m imagining this, but it seems there are a lot of women in these parts suddenly wearing their hair in up-dos.
The teleprompter gave up early in his address, because he was not following the words as prepared. Suffice it to say, most of the words he just said about leaders wondering what “God would think” and thinking about how “God sent his son to Earth” were not officially scripted. They came from the paper he [...]
The signs have been distributed all across the convention floor: “Peace” they say, hundreds of them, as if this was still 1968 and Eugene McCarthy still had a chance. And upstairs, in the convention kitsch shop, they are selling tie-dye “John McCain 2008″ buttons. A little bit of conservative irony, and a whole lot of [...]
About the loneliest precinct in the GOP these days is the one reserved for troublesome Republicans who think Gov. Sarah Palin was a poor VP choice, even after The Speech. Well, here I am. Hello? Anybody else? Wow, there is a big echo in here… In my postings here and my appearances on NBC I’ve [...]
