Almost lets me forget the slime of the last 6 months....not. Especially after hearing the crowd's ugliness, he brought that on himself. He will have a lot more work to do to repair the damage....

I'm glad he scrapped the original version which started off: "I would like to extend a laurel and hearty handshake to our new..."

Well never mind, the point is this one was better.

Akward extreme close-up of Sarah Palin on the MSNBC feed.

Is it impolitic to point out that McCain's concession speech was far more gracious than Hillary's, when she had the greater duty to be gracious?

It's actually unfair to compare that speech to Hillary's, because it was really the best concession speech I have ever heard.  And I have seen a lot of 'em.   McCain did a solid.  

It was a remarkable speech. Moved my 9-year old daughter to tears. She's been following this race since the primaries and was rooting for Hillary to win, but has kept interested since. Good modeling by McCain how a loser should behave in a contest that really matters, not just sporting events.

That was the McCain of 2000. Too bad he couldn't have come out in 2008.

Yeah, a classy speech. Many of his supporters don't appear to have gotten the memo, sadly- there were a lot of boos and weird chants. I think he is better than his campaign, or at least than some of the subhumans it attracted.

The dignity of his speech adds to the history of the moment. He played his cards well. Very impressive stuff.

As I watched McCain's concession speech, and saw Palin subdued and quiet, I realized that no longer having to hear her speak was a significant source of my elation with Obama's victory.

I agree with dbhuff; the crowd's interrupting ugliness was an appropriate final statement for the McCain campaign - a final reminder of the source of its failure.

Smart, too - he gave them very little that could be booed after the boilerplate congratulations.

Absolutely.  He was a class act.  You shouldn't exaggerate that, or short it.

McCain did give a great speech. It makes me believe all the more that he let himself be shamelessly and disgustingly shaped and defined by political pieces of shit. Which meant, of course, that he couldn't be elected president. It was quite a weakness that was exposed.

It was also nice to see Palin's red eyes, though.  Cry, cry, cry, you nasty piece of work. See you in 2012!

It's so odd that sometimes you really see the candidate who might have won breaking through the candidate who lost.

Palin didn't choose herself, however, John McCain chose her.  And that was the most unconvincing part of his speech:  Palin's future.  Despite his approving words, she represents the constituency in the GOP that really has no time for John McCain and the kind of perspective he has.

WTF?  We've all turned Catholic suddenly?  A deathbed repentance cleans the slate?  So he gave a good speech - it was not great, but passable at best - but the boos at Obama's name underlined the ugliness he had unleashed.  It will be a long time before POWPOW can atone for his shameful, dishonourable, undignified, pathetic campaign.  

Let's not get carried away with praise for this small, vindictive, angry old man.  He did what he had to do to squeeze the last bit of "honour" left in his name.  I'll give him that and no more.

As to the barracuda/pit bill/moosemama or whatever other wild animal there is in the Alaska menagerie, I hope she gets impeached and is sent packing to Fox news, where she will get her show and bomb because she is too stupid to carry on a conversation.  And yeah, I fervently hope that the Republicans nominate the Palin woman in 2012.  It would be interesting to see a fifty-state sweep by Obama.

icarusr,

I'm more or less lamenting the Death Of The Maverick. I thought about voting for McCain in 2000 and was hooooorified by what he did from 2001 on. It was slightly nice to hear his comments tonight, because they put me in mind of the 2000 McCain. I do agree with you that 2008 McCain was small, vindictive and angry. I feel a little bit of empathy for him because I don't *really* think that's him. That he embraced it and ran on it? Grounds for disqualification. But I don't condemn the man eternally. I don't think it was *really* him. I think he just got too desperate and was more of a tragic figure than an evil figure. (Barely,  though.)

Palin? She can kiss my chocolate lab's ass.

Mc Cain did a brilliant thing in clearly recognizing how much ‘Change’ has swept through the USA. His condolences to Obama after losing his aunt, was an act of gentlemen. On a more positive note, the entire Western world is breathing a massive sigh of relief of:That there isn't going to be  another four more years of George W Bush!

McCain is a tragic figure, and his speech tonight provided the necessary bitter to Obama's sweet. It somehow strangthened the night, made it even more moving. The two hours between Obama's looming victory and the conclusion of his speech, with the declaration of victory, the moving interviews with civil-rights veterans, and one of the greatest speechs in political history, could rival any movie for drama, power, and excitement.

What a moment.

With so much news flooding in last night and this morning, we've rounded up our election night and