The Lime Green Monster: McCain's Speech Widely Panned

It may be a superficial quip with Senator McCain's speech tonight, but as Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic noted, in presidential politics, "theatrics matter."

The choice of a lime green backdrop was, to put it kindly, not wise. Beyond representing a jarring visual for even the most colorblind political viewer, the set up was clearly a distraction from the speech itself. Take a look at some of the reviews:

Ambinder: "I wish I had a screen grab... but the green background is very weird and very jarring. On this stage, theatrics matter."

Matt Yglesias notes: "...it's interesting that he's shifted his aesthetic from his old black and white 'fascist' aesthetic to a new green and white Islamofascist aesthetic."

Andrew Sullivan: "From the re-branded green background to the silly attempt to capitalize on Democratic divisions to the Clintonian cooptation of an Obama meme - "a leader we can believe in" - McCain's opening gambit in the general election was, in my judgment, underwhelming."

Atrios: "It'll make you look like the cottage cheese in a lime jello salad. Always a good look for an older gentlemen... The aesthetics of McCain's speech, just mercifully completed before a slightly energized crowd of literally dozens, was awesome in how dreadful it was. No matter what Harold Ford thinks, who was somehow thoroughly moved by lime-jello McCain.

From TPM:

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This is not to distract from McCain's address; that too was poorly reviewed. The most biting of the criticisms came from CNN's Jeffrey Toobin, who intoned, moments after its conclusion: "That was awful! That was pathetic!"

Josh Marshall, over at TPM, noted: "Here's how bad it is. All the Fox commentators are giving competing explanation for why McCain's speech sucked."

But if you think this was strictly a liberal prerogative, here is a sampling of the Republican response to McCain's general election launch.

Here's Mark Levin over at National Review's The Corner: "Not to offend those who might be offended, but this speech is a mash and tough to digest. You have to get through the self-congratulatory praise of independence and commander-in-chief pose from the Senate, then you have to try to follow the inconsistency of some of his big-government ideas vs. his anti-big-government rhetoric, and his inconsistency even on his supposed strength -- the surge in Iraq vs. closing GITMO and conferring additional rights on the detainees."

Summing up GOP sentiment was prominent Republican media consultant, Alex Castellanos, speaking on CNN: "Last I checked this was not a speech-making contest, thank God."

Comments

[wanj]

His speech was beyond painful...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/7/22316/88387/912/531990

[srtjsrtj]

Voted Against the bill to raise minimum wage 8 times

Refused to go back to Washington on Thursday to Vote to give Women Rights For Equal Pay on the same jobs as MEN (Said they need more Training) Women are you really listening?
The bill sought to counteract a Supreme Court decision limiting how long workers can wait before suing for pay discrimination.

Voted against Equal Pay Law ; the right to give Women the same pay as men because and the President said it would cause Women to file Lawsuits. Funny they did not think if Employers would not discriminate in the pay scales there would not be a need to file a lawsuit. Sounds like Sen.McCain and the President expect Employers to keep paying women less for the same job.
NEW ORLEANS — Republican Sen. John McCain, campaigning through poverty-stricken cities and towns, said Wednesday he opposes a Senate bill that seeks equal pay for women because it would lead to more lawsuits.

[ndnndpendent]

I just read through a good deal of the comments in here and being somewhat familiar with stagecraft, I can offer some suggestions. I am an Obama supporter but in the interest of fairness--we are taught that a black cloth background with some orange light bouncing off the background­--enhances the subject. McCain and his people might want to try that or some variation of that.

Also, I feel Senator MccCain is at his best when he is himself. I would guess that is the reason he wants the town halls, I think that's fair. Obama, being a lawyer, which I m also familiar--the first thing the legal profession teaches you is never ask a question you dont know the answer to. Preparedness is key, this may be a weak point for Obama.

[ndnndpendent]

It is just a bad year for McCain to run, if Obama choses Clinton, I predict a landslide.

[ShirleyBowers]

Did you ever, in your wildest dreams, believe anyone could make George Bush appear eloquent by comparison?

[trickynick]

He's going down. Let me rephrase that- HE'S GOING DOWN!

[charon]

He is following in that great public speaking tradition started by Bush II. I've seen high school freshmen--­literally-­-with far better speaking ability than McCant. Usually one's ability to speak is a reflection of one's ability to understand what one is speaking about, and general mental organization.

McCain and Bush have very poor speaking skills because they have poor thinking skills, substituting stereotypes and cliches for real thought.

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

Since McCain says he is so different from Bush, he should debate him

[ChicagoBlackRainbowWomen]

Mcbush made the biggest mistake of his campaign by attempting to upstage Pres. Os day. We will look back on this speech as not only the worst in primary history, but also what lost his bid for the WH.

Mark my words at the end of November we will all be watching the pundents analyze what went wrong with his campaign much like they are doing now with Hillary's defeat.

Someone should have told him that a green background with yellow teeth are also the same colors you see in soccor uniforms or on a blimpees submarine bag.

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

I was listening to some left wing whacko,Thom Hartman, on the way home from work and he was talking about John McCain and how he's drawing a service related disability payment of 58K per year.He claims it's for a 100% disability.I just know that couldn't be true,could it?

[nellie]

It is true. And few, if any, radio hosts know American History better than Thom Hartmann. You should make him a regular. You might learn something.

[weaselbasher]

If that's true it's unbelievable. He gets paid a nice salary as a senator. His wife is worth millions and he takes the 58k from the taxpapers??? wtf How can you collect disability and have a full time job making thousands of dollars? Can I do that? And I hate to dogpile on the rabbit but that was the lamest speech I've ever heard in my life.

[skibum49]

Yes this is true and its quite legal. His pension from the Navy is classified as a 100 percent disability. It should be noted that this $58,000 is what he normally would have received as a O6 with 22 years of service. The only difference is that it is classified as tax free due to the 100 percent disability. The thing that makes that a bit strange is that even though the physical problems that classifly him as disabled happened while he was a POW he actually fought the Navy to return him to flight status after his release. Normally one would not take a pilot that was 100 percent disabled and return him to active flight status.

[peterv]

Normally you should there is copy right infringements, the blatant use of almost the same banner.
It says a lot from staff that they can't come up with a good, creative, original narrative or banner but have to resort to a reframed copy. Opponent is successful, and we want some of that too, really pathetic. Furthermore, there must be serious concerns of his speech writings, since he makes everytime obvious mistakes, you wonder if they check the facts for accuracy. Can't rely on McCain himself, since he cant recall halve the time which way he voted .

[ChartreuseMuse]

He's trying to appeal to the widest demographic- stealing the Dems logo and the Green Party's background!!

Honestly though, I think we have enough common sense not to go with quite that unflattering of a hue!

[northcan]

Lime green? environmentally friendly, green with envy, green monster of jealousy, green cash that stands beside him, or his lobbyist friends green hard cold cash. Whatever the message, McCain is not green, but grey, pale, terrible communicator, does not do well speaking without a written speech and his glass's. His behavior is scarry, slow body movement's and steps to turn to his audience. I know that he has trouble with his shoulder's, but this particular venue and behavior makes him look older than his mother, dear soul.

His message is doing the comparison brand of politic's. More experience (should hope so he's almost twice his age, military service (POW is not a job description - in fact brings a lot of baggage) and his service in the military was years ago, things have changed McCain! He has an anger management problem, explosive and volitile anger and he was always a difficult child, serviceman and husband - temperement for Presidency is vital. Abuse against women a problem, and his flirtation. His economic academia is lacking substantially. He has so many negative's, he'll bury the Republican's in the fall, and Leiberman will help him do that.

[anamorphicart]

I used to believe a hero was someone who saved people at his own risk.....I think there are many better POW candidates that should be running and not this old fool!

[skibum49]

For those not familiar with Armed Forces Network (AFN).
We don't see regular commercials on AFN TV. Instead we get AFN spots. These cover a wide variety of topics. One of the favorite topics of AFN "commercials" are so called "Code of Conduct" ads. These mostly feature Vietnam era veterans, many fellow POW's who were captured and imprisioned in some of the same camps as John McCain. The point of these ads is to show us how these men upheld the Code of Conduct through very difficult conditions. Interestingly enough there has NEVER been a code of conduct spot that featured the man who is arguably the most famous POW of the Vietnam era.... Senator John McCain.

That little tidbit of information should speak volumes to those of you who continue to buy this "war hero" narrative that McCain wants us to believe.

[carlgt1]

it reminded me of the part in Oliver Sack's book where the aphasiac patients could see right through Reagan's lies and were laughing their butts off that he was delivering a speech that he was totally insincere about (although Reagan was a better actor and to the avg person looked "great" -- yet McCain looks bad no matter what!)

[jpcline004]

The green screen wasn't supposed to show up. It was gonna be a CGI background of Tatooine, but George Lucas endorses Obama at the last minute.

here is a snap of what McCain would look like had it worked correctly:

http://www.cybertronical.com/allsites/starwars/main/aliens/watto/watto2.jpg

[wanj]

I laughed so much I cried.. Jezuz! That pic is beyond funny. It jaulted me a little even...