The Obama campaign should hammer these guys for being all rhetoric. McCain plans "to fight on our side" and "change the bad stuff in Washington." Now there's a plan! They have two ideas: drill and cut taxes--that'll solve all of our problems.

Who wrote this speech, and who worked with McCain on this delivery? I am genuinely perplexed by its vacuousness. Is this the best they could afford? My guess is TNR's talkbackers could have done better in a single afternoon.

MCCAIN DELIVERS CRAPPY SPEECH.  In other news, sun scheduled to rise in the east tomorrow, and I don't have a date this weekend.  

I'm reading the Corner on National Review Online. These people are eternal optimists (read their 2006 electoral predictions) and they considered Palin's speech to be the best since the sermon on the mount. And they can find almost nothing good to say about this speech.

On a tangent here, but could one of you TNR bloggers parse this "catch up with history" meme! What the heck does that MEAN?! Is this what Christopher Lloyd was trying to do in "Back to the Future"?

"sun scheduled to rise in the east tomorrow, and I don't have a date this weekend. "

Tell me about it

who would have ever guessed that Sarah Palin would thoroughly out shine John McCain?

That was a dull, tiring speech. Now I know why the GOP is stuck in the sarcasm mode: when they try to talk issues or policies, or even vision, it flops.

This was a Pete Incaviglia strikeout...

Man, McCain looks old and tired. Sorry, but the truth hoirts...

"Even the crowd in the hall isn't jazzed."

That would be because instead of sucking up to the base he's distancing himself from the party of the past 8 years. Which is one of the reasons I think this was an excellent speech, delivery aside (he's never been a great public speaker).

Sure, he stumbled and was not out of sync with the crowd. Good. The crowd, and the convention, was glib. Palin's celebrated oratory basically amounted to a marketing coup, an exhibition of the "21st Republican" straight out of central casting. McCain is not from central casting and that roughhewn quality is his primary appeal.

I thought this was the best speech of the convention. The Hanoi Hilton anecdotes, which have been used to demonstrate McCain's Super Republican credentials, was used here to demonstrate humility in a very moving way. Politics is generally a very glib affair but in McCain's words we got a glimpse at the suffering and darkness that, well ever-present in the real world, are often obscured in the glare of bright lights and colorful political banners. That, the genuineness of McCain's recollections and consequent convictions is what carried the speech and made it resonate beyond the shallow facility of Palin or Giuliani. And no, I don't think his characterizations of Obama were fair, nor do I think his policy proposals were as compelling or deep as Obama's - but I do think he spoke from the heart in terms of the general direction in which he wanted to take the country, and I was impressed.

I still plan on voting for Barack Obama in the fall - I feel he's a more imaginative and forward-looking individual, and more aware of where the country needs to go in terms of its most important issues. But this speech reminded me of why I like McCain and why I feel like I could live with a McCain presidency for 4 years. He said fuck you to the Republican Party, stood on his own two feet, and made the crowd, if not like it, at least put up with it.

willpastor, you say even the Corner has nothing good to say about the speech. Of course. It went beyond - or rather, outside of - red-meat Republican nonsense, or indeed partisan rhetoric. John McCain presented himself tonight not as the candidate of the Republican Party, but as John McCain, who happens to have been nominated by the Republicans. Good for him, and all the better that the crowd was uncomfortable with it. It was a speech for independents, and as such it was highly effective.

t-lazy, it's what McCain did at the Naval College after he spent 5 1/2 years as a POW.  Like Cindy.

Hey adaglas and irony, it's too bad TNR does not have a little corner for blogger dating...

(ap) And then, a nap! Good morning: Stripes: It's generally bad when journalism sinks to theater criticism -- but what is a convention but a big, fancy stage show? Summary judgment on John McCain's speech Thursday night was flat,...

John McCain delivered a speech last night that sounded as if he did not belong to the party in powe r