John McCain Speech Reactions (VIDEO)

Below is reaction to John McCain's Republican convention speech.

David Gergen thought the speech repeated the same old GOP ideas:

I did not think that the substantive part of the speech worked very well. It was mostly a rerun, retread of a lot of old Republican ideas that have brought us to where we are now. I think the country is looking for fresh answers. It's hard to separate yourself out from President Bush when you essentially have the same economic policies as President Bush. I thought that the policy presentation was a little thin."

Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson slammed McCain's speech on MSNBC

The policy in the speech was rather typical for a Republican. Pretty disappointing. It didn't do a lot of outreach to moderates and independents on issues that they care about. It talked, about issues like drilling and school choice which was really speaking to the converted. I think that was a missed opportunity. Many Americans needed to hear from this speech something they have never heard from Republicans before. And in reality, a lot of the policy they've heard from Republicans before.

The New Republic thought the speech was flat:

It's not over yet but this is a very underwhelming speech. Familiar points explained in pedestrian terms. No overarching themes--right now it's sounding like a State of the Union laundry list. Even the crowd in the hall isn't jazzed. This is the sort of reception Tom Ridge got.

MSNBC pointed out that the biggest applause of the night was for Sarah Palin. Watch clip:

Jeffrey Toobin told Wolf Blitzer on CNN that:

I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I've heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980.

I thought it was disorganized, themeless, I thought it was very, very boring until the end when he started talking about his personal story, which is, of course, remarkable and always important to hear. I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad.

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The National Review also thought it fell flat:

Ehhhhh...maybe I'm missing some grand strategy or tactics, but I think it was a missed opportunity. Good that he did some policy. I liked that he championed free trade -- something he didn't have to do. I liked the fight, fight, fight stuff. Good that he was specific. I can come up with specific compliments about this or that. But it was flat, forced and basically a free pass for Obama.

The New York Times blog said people were falling asleep:

Sleepy? Our colleague Patrick Healy reports from the floor: There is a delegate in the Utah section and a delegate in Puerto Rico who are both drooping, eyes closed - look asleep - both are men.

ABC News asks whether McCain has a different take on community organizing:

ABC News' Deputy Political Director Karen Travers points out that despite all the "community organizer"-bashing at this convention, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., seems to like the notion, at least based on this passage:

If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you're disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.

If a community organizer isn't someone "defend(ing) the rights of the oppressed," or getting involved to correct the mistakes of government, what is it?

TPM asked if McCain's speech smothered Palin's sizzle?

Not a lot to say about McCain's speech but how on earth did they not avoid this:

Prediction: There will be little to no bounce out of tonight; indeed, McCain's speech will smother Palin's sizzle like a wet blanket.

Time gave it a mixed review:

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.

It also noted McCain's struggle with the Teleprompter.

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 not reading a teleprompter -- that the charade distracts and frustrates him.

Comments

[flatus]

It was fun, as the cameras panned the audience, to watch all the yawning that was going on. Ah, McSnooze, you are a fine fellow but not the man for this job.

[gintheb]

Here's my reaction! ZZZZzzzzzz­zzzzzzzzzz­zzzzzzz...­..........­....

[Gary47]

Can't wait until the republican party is dead, buried and gone. May Johnny-boy help it on its way.

[OneAngryDwarf]

What I saw last night was a Republican nominee throw a sitting Republican President under the bus for the policies of the last 8 years. There is a cognitive dissonance to this speech brought on by the fact that John McCain was there in Washington during that time, and he supported the policies of the failed governement he's on his way to change.

The first decision he made on this journey, was to choose a VP who believes in more of the same. Forget her teen daughter is pregnant, Forget that she is a member of the flat-earth society; all I care about is that her economic policies are the same failed ones that we are seeing play out in the news today.

From CNN today: the jobless rate is up, the stock market took a huge hit yesterday, and instead of being at the RNC promoting his parties convention, the lame-duck Vice-President Dick Cheney is in Europe provoking Russia. John McCain needed to put his money where his mouth was and this speech was just more tired Republican rhetoric and negative politics as usual.

More supply-side economics, more tax breaks for the investor class, more war, more fear. I wish John McCain had used this speech to promote his vision for the future. Instead the American people watched John McCain deny the last eight years, never once mention the President who led us here, and then promise us change he doesn't really believe in.

[jtmoney]

Instead of watching McwalkingCane, I instead watched "The Three Buriels of Melquiades Estrada" on HDNet last night. It was much more entertaining. I knew I wasn't going to miss anything, and from everything I've read and heard, I made the right choice. BTW, if y'all haven't, it's a great movie. Worth checking out...

[craigary]

Doesn't John McCain play Melquiades Estrada's corpse in that one?

;-)

Agreed, good movie, and even cleaning the cat litter box was more interesting last night than his speech. (And in some ways similar.)

[sueno]

It was so full of lies, it lacked substance
and by the end I was throwing-up because
of McBush's cheesy smile-

[Bobzmcishl]

McCain had the delegates confused. He was basically outing their party over the last eight years. They didn't even know when they were supposed to applaud - for example they see nothing wrong with giving handouts to oil companies so they didn't applaud when McCain accused Obama of voting that way. McCain likes to pretend that he just parachuted in from another planet and had nothing to do with the last eight years although he voted with Bush 90-95% of the time. Ok, I will give McCain 10% credit, but that's not enough to vote for him.

[JohnnieP]

Intellectually speaking, neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin is fit to shine Barack' Obama'shoes.
It's far past the time to return intelligence to the Offices of the President and Vice President of the
United States.

Obama/Biden 2008

[Keith52]

Exactly. I would love to vote based on IQ. But then again, Republicans think "book learnin" is elitist. And Palin wants to burn the ones that she doesn't like anyway. I swear as soon as we make education for all Americans our most important priority the Republican party, as we know it today, will cease to exist.

[booksnmore4you]

IT'S TRUE, ALL OF HIGHER EDUCATION IS NOTHING BUT A LIBERAL CESSPOOL OF LIES THAT BRAINWASH AMERICANS INTO THE UNAMERICAN LIBERAL MINDSET AND THIS MUST BE SEEN FOR BEING UNAMERICAN AND AGAINST THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF OUR FREE REPUBLIC.

[StillIRise]

Agree.

[StValentine]

I too was really bored and irritated with Sen. McCain's speech - and quit the war hero crap already. It's been over 40+ years, and has become an insult to the other 600+ POW/MIAs from that war. Joe Scarborough was quite honest this morning suggesting that it was a bad speech too (to my surprise), and that it didn't help forward the agenda - of course, he was diappointed.
And aside from the issues, and the selection of the female version of Ted Nugent (who has reminded men as to what they can't stand about women - screachy, catty, annoying, going about it the wrong way to be one of them) but struck me hard on my big screen was that McCain appeared like an old man. He's OLD!!! He's OLD!! He looks and behaves old - even older than his given age. How many of you have parents in their '70's and older - think about it?!?! Yikes!!

[Hood]

I did sleep through most of it!

[pzdoff]

It was like watching my grandfathe­r.........­..........­at his wake.

[StValentine]

psdoff: You made me laugh out loud - that's really funny!!!

[newdreams]

Jeffrey Toobin said " I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I've heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980.
I thought it was disorganized, themeless, I thought it was very, very boring until the end when he started talking about his personal story, which is, of course, remarkable and always important to hear. I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad. "

The difference between Carter's and McCain's is that Carter may have been equally boring, but at least he was authentic. McCain's speech had at least 10 fact-check errors (lies) about policy, and he was so insincere asking for anyone of any party to vote for him right before he explained his need to continue the current war and laying the groundwork justifying new wars. His speech was interrupted at least 3 times due to war protesters. There should be a red flag flying over this whole convention.

The really crazy thing about his speech was that it was the keynote speech for a theme of 'Peace'.

[rcozad]

Michael Tomasky of the Manchester Guardian got it right. He asserted that: "I think that maybe I've got it. Given that hating on the media has been such an incessant theme of this convention, I now suspect that the speech was intentionally awful, in order that it generate negative reviews in the press the better to fire up the base against the press. I really can't think of another explanation." I do sincerely hope that this tactic of deliberately attempting to prejudice the press against reporting how truly bankrupt the McCain campaign and his policies are does not work and that they stand fast and do their job! If McCain refuses to do an interview grab any number of willing Obama surrogates, or better yet Obama himself, to fill in not just let another Republican talk instead as we deserve to see how totally bad McCain really is!

[Revanchist]

plausible deniability?
Yet I think it was just McCain's flair for public speaking coming to the fore.

[vietjawn]

Uninspiring, lacked any enthusiasm (and credibility, to boot), and almost gave me an epileptic seizure because of the blue and green backdrops. Besides that, the Tom Ridge faux pas was rather humorous, but don't forget the recent Obama one about 'President' Biden.

[Sugar78]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZnf1V2QEUI

enjoy