September 05, 2008

9/5: McCain's Moment

While conservative bloggers didn't love John McCain's speech as much as they loved Sarah Palin's, most of them thought it was effective. In fact, many righty bloggers are comparing it favorably to Barack Obama's well-received speech from last Thursday. Paul Mirengoff argues that McCain "seemed more real and more sincere than Obama" while Kathryn Jean Lopez predicts that McCain's speech will "resonate" more than Obama's:

"Thinking about this Thursday vs. last Thursday: I think this McCain speech is one that will resonate. What will you remember about Obama's speech/show when you're in the voting booth? That he wants to give you a lot of stuff? What will you remember about McCain's speech? That he has the character and track record to lead?"

Liberal bloggers took the opposite view, arguing that McCain placed too much emphasis on his biography and not enough emphasis on the changes he'll deliver. Steve Benen writes:

"McCain simply didn't have a vision or a policy agenda for the future. He has his character, and his biography, and he hopes that's enough. The message of the night, and practically the entire convention, seemed to be: 'Vote for John McCain, not because he's right, but because he's John McCain.'"

MCCAIN: He's No Sarah Palin, But...

McCain's speech drew mostly positive reviews from conservative bloggers:

• Townhall's Matt Lewis: "If Palin's speech was an 'A Plus'...McCain's speech was a solid 'B'..."
• RedState's Erickson: "It was not a great speech. John McCain is no Sarah Palin. He is, however, a hard worker. The speech was the speech of a worker -- of a fighter. [...] The McCain campaign knows it could not compete with Obama for the media's affection in delivering flowery prose and poetry. But, because of the vapid shallowness of Obama's speeches, McCain could compete on substance. He did. And he delivered."
• CBN's David Brody: "For a man not known for giving a great speech, he sure did turn the tables tonight. John McCain is never going to match Barack Obama's oratory skills but Thursday night at the Xcel Center in St. Paul, John McCain did not speak as a Republican. Instead, he spoke as an honorable American. [...] If you can just check your partisanship at the door, the speech was really a thing of beauty."
• RedState's Leon H. Wolf: "[McCain's] speech was not the stick of dynamite that [Wednesday] night's speech by Sarah Palin was. It was not supposed to be. It accomplished everything it set out to accomplish. It established McCain's personal story of heroism, but above that, it put that story in the context of his vision for the entire country. His delivery dragged and was a bit awkward at points -- McCain has never been the greatest orator, but he oddly turned that into a strength by appearing almost painfully humble throughout the speech."
• Power Line's John Hinderaker: "McCain's style was conversational; he did not try to compete with Obama's oratory, and most would say that his style didn't compare with his rival's. But that doesn't mean that he communicated less effectively. Television is an intimate medium that lends itself to a conversational style. If a speaker orates on television, he creates distance between himself and the audience. The audience at home may say that he is a good speaker, but that is different from being persuaded by his ideas. McCain's speech may simultaneously have been less impressive and more effective than Obama's."
• Power Line's Mirengoff: "In many ways, Barack Obama probably gave a better speech, qua speech, last week. But with all that said, I think McCain may well have connected better with the American people on an emotional level than Obama did. And nothing matters more than that. For McCain seemed more real and more sincere than Obama, and he seemed to be speaking more from the heart."
• RedState's Hunter Baker: "I have to rate the first 1/2 to 2/3 of the speech as weak. It had the same uninspiring feeling as a George W. Bush State of the Union. [...] You have to wade through it to get to the meat. The good news is that there was meat. McCain got through the faux SOTU and began talking about what really matters -- who he is, what his life has been like, why he is ready to lead. When he talked about that, the tingle started to develop."
• AmSpec Blog's J.P. Freire: "As a speech, on paper, it looks far better than it was spoken. Unfortunately, no one reads [speeches]. That said, his run towards the end was impressive. Yes, it was Churchillian. I don't think he's given a better speech during his campaign."
• NRO's Jim Geraghty: "[The speech] was pure McCain. [...] McCain's speechwriters -- Mark Salter and others? - know their man, and how to articulate what drives him. This is the man. This is what he will be as President. Your choice, America."

MCCAIN II: A Good Week For The Mac

Most conservative bloggers are pleased with how the convention went -- thanks, in large part, to Palin:

• Mirengoff: "I think we can say that the Republican convention exceeded all reasonable expectations. A week ago, we were wondering whether there would even be a convention in any traditional sense. In the end, we got three days. And because they were put to such good use, this amount of time was easily enough. The first real day was about John McCain. Fred Thompson did the bio; Joe Lieberman did the 'maverick,' post-partisan pitch to independents and other swing voters. Both were quite effective. The second day proved to be the most important. It was designed to achieve two critical purposes: deflate Obama and introduce Palin. The team of [Rudy] Giuliani and, of course, Palin herself completed both tasks masterfully. On the final day, it was back to McCain. The nominee effectively synthesized the bio and the post-partisan pitch, and topped it off with a memorable finish."
• Right Wing News' John Hawkins: "What we saw last night may be the beginning of a strategy that may last through the election. Palin attacks Obama, draws liberal fire, and pumps up conservatives, while McCain plays the bipartisan reformer and appeals directly to the voters still up for grabs. All in all, I think the GOP convention vs. the Democratic convention gave the GOP a slight edge at best or was a wash at worst. In a few days, after the polls finish sorting all this out, I expect to see most polls putting the race back to a tie or perhaps giving a small lead to John McCain."
• NRO's Yuval Levin: "The week since the end of the Democratic convention, which seems now like years ago, has been defined by McCain's choice of Palin, and at the end of this convention there is simply no question that the choice has done him enormous good. It has rallied conservatives behind him as basically nothing else could have; it created an intense fascination unlike anything seen in American politics in decades that drew an audience of more than 40 million Americans Wednesday night to watch the most compelling performance by a Republican politician since Ronald Reagan; it left the Democrats reeling, at least briefly, and offered the spectacle of their presidential nominee struggling to compare himself to the Republican VP candidate; and it gave the McCain campaign a new coherence and energy. [...] For all its anxious moments and uncertainty, this has been a very good week for the McCain campaign."
• Michelle Malkin: "The future of conservatism is bright. All those liberal Republicans who were arguing that the GOP needed to 'rebrand' itself and move leftward are now crying in their coffee. [PA Sen.] Arlen Specter is feeling lonely."

MCCAIN III: Boooooring

Most liberal bloggers were unimpressed by McCain's speech:

• TPM's Josh Marshall: "[The speech] certainly wasn't bad. He didn't say anything embarrassing or have any real flubs. But the truth is that John McCain does have, at least for a critical five years of his life, a compelling story. And for a relatively brief period of the speech, toward the end, he spoke about it powerfully. But there wasn't that much of it. The rest of the speech, when condensed to its essence, seemed to be that he'll turn the page on the Bush era by continuing all of Bush's policies."
• FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver: "The crowd simply wasn't giving him much love when he wasn't talking about the three P's -- Palin, Petroleum, and POW. That led to a fairly dreadful stretch of ten or fifteen minutes as he tried to rebut the Democrats on the economy, which in turn reduced the energy level and deprived Mark Salter's conclusion of some of its thunder."
• Mother Jones' Kevin Drum: "It was workmanlike and competent and he hit most of his marks -- though some of those marks (e.g., his support for a culture of life) didn't get hit with much passion. But the base didn't need any more pumping up after yesterday, so that's probably not a problem. Bottom line: I have my doubts that this speech is going to sway a lot of votes, but it was OK."
• MyDD's Jonathan Singer: "It's possible that this speech is the inverse of Sarah Palin's last night -- boring for the crowd inside, but more palatable for the general viewership. I say possible, though, for a reason; McCain's delivery was decidedly underwhelming, and the staging by his campaign....was similarly unsuccessful. McCain certainly tried to embrace the 'change' label. Will it work for a candidate who hugged George W. Bush both figuratively and literally in recent years, voting at least 90 percent of the time for the most unpopular President in the history of polling? Color me unimpressed."

As usual, many bloggers were critical of McCain's delivery:

• Balloon Juice's John Cole: "This is not only the worst acceptance speech I have ever heard, but perhaps the worst speech by a major candidate in any race. The crowd can't even figure out when to 'Boo.'"
• BooMan: "He's the worst orator I've ever seen win a nomination of a major party. Dan Quayle gave much better speeches. Lloyd Bentsen gave better speeches. Joe Lieberman gave better speeches. Ralph Nader gives a better speech. John McCain is terrible and he's boring."
• Open Left's Matt Stoller: "If I'm a Republican, I'm really annoyed that Palin isn't running for President. McCain's speech was not nearly as good or as interesting as Palin's, and he's an awkward speaker. The loudest applause came from his references to her. This was Palin's coming out party."

MCCAIN IV: POW! POW! POW!

Liberal bloggers are arguing that McCain is basing his candidacy entirely on his biography instead of offering substance:

• Ezra Klein: "McCain's recounting of his experiences as a prisoner of war remain powerful. But that was 40 years ago. He has now been campaigning for president for the better part of a decade. He needs more than a story. He needs a vision. Yet tonight's speech was all about him. The policies are his qualities, the vision is his story, the vice president is his understudy. For all that he mocks Obama for being 'the one,' it is McCain who has rested the weight of a presidential candidacy atop his person."
• The Washington Monthly's Benen: "McCain simply didn't have a vision or a policy agenda for the future. He has his character, and his biography, and he hopes that's enough. The message of the night, and practically the entire convention, seemed to be: 'Vote for John McCain, not because he's right, but because he's John McCain.'"
• AMERICAblog's Robert Arena: "Without any ideas, John McCain offered up all he has, biography. He tells a story of a war hero, someone to sympathize with, and then basically says that's all he needs to tell us. And somehow we're supposed to believe that this is maverick?"
• Mother Jones' David Corn: "The convention ended as it began: a commemoration of McCain's hellish years in a Hanoi prison cell four decades ago. The political equation was a simple one: POW equals patriotic hero equals a fighting president. [...Earlier,] Senator Sam Brownback told the delegates, 'It's not about him; it's about us.' Not really. It was about what happened to John McCain forty years ago and what that means to Americans today."
• Obsidian Wings' publius: "The big story here is that McCain (and the GOP convention) has been almost entirely biographical and substance free. I'm stealing this from a friend, but I think the Dems could counterpunch effectively by noting that the GOP offered virtually nothing to help working class people (other than tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts). The Dems really should never stop saying this until November."
• Marshall: "I watched a lot of Obama's convention. But I don't remember this level of personality cult gushed up around him."

Liberal bloggers are mocking McCain's emphasis on his experience as a POW:

• Stoller: "BREAKING: McCain was a prisoner of war!"
• Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias: "You can't help but admire the way John McCain refuses to exploit his wartime service for political gain."
• Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher: "What he does mention is his POW experience. Over, and over, and over again. I was a lot more sympathetic to his personal stories of being plucky in the face of torture before he started using his POW history to assert that the very same techniques used on him can't be considered torture when we use them on 'detainees.' McCain's rather fluid definition of torture, and his willingness to use his history for political advantage as some enormous, all-purpose trump card leaves me a bit unmoved the more I hear his story. And boy, do we hear it a lot."

PALIN: Does Sarah Know That Jesus Was A Community Organizer?

Liberal bloggers continue to criticize Palin for saying, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities":

• Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas: "So apparently Republicans hate community organizers. A reader sends me a pithy response: 'Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor.'"
• Atrios: "I suppose it's an alien concept to people who lack community, but [community organizers] are vital in many neighborhoods."
• Firedoglake's Christy Hardin Smith: "Welcome to Republican world, where trying to make things better in your hometown makes you something they laugh at proudly. How's that feel America?"
• Marshall: "Palin: Community service is for losers and freaks."

dday thinks Dems should make an issue out of Palin's remark: "Community organizers, which were part of George H.W. Bush's thousand points of light, provide comfort, help save jobs, create opportunity. In a nation ripped asunder by right-wing policies, they are often the last line of defense. Leaders of this nation like Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony, even Thomas Paine and Sam Adams, were community organizers. [...] In the largely white confines of the Republican National Convention, the phrase is a slur, like 'ghetto hustler,' but lots and lots of people today derive great benefit from community groups, including church groups, and the help they provide ordinary people. Most Americans live in metropolitan areas and actually have experienced the value of community organizing in their lives. Think bake sale. [...GOPers] can go ahead and hate the people who try to make a difference in their communities. They can keep turning up their nose at regular people. Winning this election will be about making sure those people know who's on their side."

On the right side of the blogosphere, RedState's Pejman Yousefzadeh thinks the GOP should stop mocking community organizers: "Look, if people want to say that Barack Obama does not have enough experience to be President of the United States, I can entirely and completely get on board with that argument. But I can't get on board with the feeling -- and yes, it does exist -- that a community organizer, per se, has nothing of value to add. Snarking at community organizers may make for great speech lines. But it is lousy long term strategy and will only serve to cut out the philosophical and political ground from under us in the future."

Geraghty has a different attitude: "Perhaps there are parts of the country where mothers hope their children will grow up to be community organizers. The only 'community organizer' I knew growing up was Al Sharpton's work in New York City, and he seemed to define his job as going into a bad situation and making sure it got worse, sometimes to the point of murderous arson. If our friends on the other side of the aisle really want to get into an argument about that...role (I hesitate to call it a job)...Isn't there something inherently undemocratic about self-appointed 'community organizers?' [...] Who the heck ever elected or appointed community organizers to their positions? By what metrics do they measure their success? To whom do they answer? Who removes them from their positions for insufficient results? There are probably fine people who claim that title, but even by Obama's own description, he didn't accomplish much in his three years in that work. I don't doubt that when young Obama ventured to the South Side, he walked the streets with the best of intentions. But they're insufficient when contrasted with results. In fact there's a particular road that's paved with those intentions."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: City Mice

Kevin Drum:

"On a purely personal note, the most grating part of Palin's speech (and Giuliani's) was their reliance -- yet again -- on the trope that the only true Americans are those from small towns in the heartland. As a native Californian, that stuff just drives me up the wall. This smoldering esthetic resentment, eagerly stoked by the GOP every fours years since at least [Richard] Nixon, relies on the myth that us coastal urbanites spend all our time looking down our patrician noses at anyone who lives outside the city limits, and it's dangerous, divisive, and annoying as hell. What's more, as near as I can tell, it's completely backwards. Far from criticizing small town life, America celebrates it. Liberals celebrate it. Politicians celebrate it. Everyone celebrates it. I can hardly turn on the TV without hearing that, compared with the hardworking everymen and women who populate the prairies and put food on our tables, anyone who lives where I do is degenerate, suspiciously cosmopolitan, and one step away from turning the country over to the UN.

Feh. I know this is hardly new or uniquely American. And it's designed for specifically political reasons. And it works and it wins elections and that's all conservatives care about. And this is exactly the reaction they're trying to sucker me into. But it still annoys me, and for some reason everyone feels like they have to continue playing this game forever. It's time to stop it."

LEST WE FORGET: Brett Favre Getting That Retirement Itch Again

From The Onion:

"EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ -- Although veteran Jets quarterback Brett Favre claims he still loves the game, dwindling enthusiasm and a desire to bow out while on top has him contemplating retirement again, Favre confirmed Monday.

'I always told myself I'd know when it was time to walk away,' the guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer told reporters at the Jets practice facility. 'But after 17 or 18, you know, practices as the quarterback of this team, I'm just tired, mentally and physically.'

Favre's decision to sit out last Thursday's preseason game against the Eagles sparked rumors that Favre was already reconsidering finally hanging up his cleats again. Favre said that, although he had not yet made a decision, he and his wife Deanna had been discussing his possible retirement since he returned from retirement in early August."

Posted by Ian Faerstein at September 5, 2008 12:06 PM