Democrat National Convention

[dubman]

lol
there's a small part of me that wants him to be rather prepared for a debate.
but mostly i want to see a roast.

[cured]

Originally Posted by Deckard

From an interview with McCain that Time posted yesterday:



Umm... a little strange, no?

I mean, ok, it could have been worse (he could have called him a c***) but still, an unusual way to handle an interview at a time like this.

Maybe these upcoming debates will not work as well for him as I initially thought....

That's a prime example of his problems. When he's in a debate and he's given a question and two minutes to respond to it, he's really going to have to have everything rehearsed and his memory is going to have to not fail him. What I think he'll have the biggest problem with are the responses that Obama will send back his way. I'm not sure if McCain is prepared to respond to a rebut at this point.

[cacophony]

very savvy campaign strategy on the mccain campaign's part tonight. they released the information that mccain has settled on a VP running mate and timed it to reach the media in the gap between biden's speech and obama's speech. so now all of the media pundits are spinning their wheels talking about, "who could it be?" and repeating mccain's name when they would otherwise be winding up to obama's appearance. and in fact CNN spent several minutes showing the convention floor but mccain's news and name is all over the crawl. they're now back to talking about obama but i guarantee they'll revisit mccain's news as they're trying to come up with enough brainless chatter to fill the moments before the speech.

the announcement included a statement that they wouldn't reveal the name until tomorrow because tonight is obama's night. smart. they'll reveal the name tomorrow and usurp some of the continuing rehashing of obama's speech and get mccain's name rolling around and taking some of the spotlight back.

i've got to hand it to them. pretty smart move.

[cured]

It makes sense...their convention is next week. I wouldn't call it smart, just appropriate.

[cured]

oh, and I forgot to mention...Amy Holmes is having my children!

[gambit]

Okay, no thoughts on Obama's speech?

I watched it, and he delivered big time. McCain will need to answer this big time next week if he's going to have a shot at winning.

[cured]

Alright...FINE. I guess I can talk about this little speech he gave.

In short, Obama took off the gloves and bitch slapped McCain. Maybe its better to say he pimp slapped him. In 2004, Kerry shriveled when he was swift-boated. Obama took on his criticisms head on. The republican response was sophomoric and I don't think they were expecting him to come out and take a swing back. For certain, the republican slime machine is going to eat at him all of next week but the stage has been set. Soon we'll have the debates and soon we'll see the real main event.

I said Obama was going to have to dumb it down in terms of not having his diction fly over everyone's heads and he did that. He also humanized himself. And he laid out his vision.

Now that the gloves are off, you can fast forward through next week. Let me spoil it for you: Obama is inexperienced, he doesn't care for his own half-brother so how can he care for your family, he's going to bankrupt the US and the terrorists are going to drive small boats in droves across the atlantic and bring the fight to us. We can't be safe with Obama, he'll give your country away to the poor, the small businesses we depend on for job growth are going to go under, he'll bring witch doctors in to socialize your medicine, he isn't smart enough to find oil in our own country and, oh, and he's really famous. Lastly, God has chosen John McCain to succeed Premier Bush. And God can kick Allah's ass any time of the week.

Did I miss anything?

[Troy McClure]

Originally Posted by cured

Alright...FINE. I guess I can talk about this little speech he gave.

In short, Obama took off the gloves and bitch slapped McCain. Maybe its better to say he pimp slapped him. In 2004, Kerry shriveled when he was swift-boated. Obama took on his criticisms head on. The republican response was sophomoric and I don't think they were expecting him to come out and take a swing back. For certain, the republican slime machine is going to eat at him all of next week but the stage has been set. Soon we'll have the debates and soon we'll see the real main event.

I said Obama was going to have to dumb it down in terms of not having his diction fly over everyone's heads and he did that. He also humanized himself. And he laid out his vision.

Now that the gloves are off, you can fast forward through next week. Let me spoil it for you: Obama is inexperienced, he doesn't care for his own half-brother so how can he care for your family, he's going to bankrupt the US and the terrorists are going to drive small boats in droves across the atlantic and bring the fight to us. We can't be safe with Obama, he'll give your country away to the poor, the small businesses we depend on for job growth are going to go under, he'll bring witch doctors in to socialize your medicine, he isn't smart enough to find oil in our own country and, oh, and he's really famous. Lastly, God has chosen John McCain to succeed Premier Bush. And God can kick Allah's ass any time of the week.

Did I miss anything?

I can think of some stuff, but I don't want to type it out.

I thought the 'America Voices Program' segment before Dick Durbin was very effective. Senator Obama's speech brought the goods. He took on McCain with no mercy. To quote Chris Matthews on MSNBC tonight after listing the McCain tactics used so far '...a great way of throwing back the other side's (McCain) best shots, and saying it's full of crap'.

Jason

[Deckard]

I thought it was a very impressive speech. Yes the stage management and razzmattazz was always going to appear a bit cringeworthy to some of us not used to such things, but the speech had substance, he managed to address lots of areas, tick lots of boxes, come across as human, and I felt there were a good selection of soundbites for the evening news...

"Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution. Not even close."

"John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell - but he won't even go to the cave where he lives."

"You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying Iraq."

"So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain."

"...the change we need doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens because the American people demand it - because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership"

"What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you."

Also, after describing various struggling Americans – business owners, factory workers, young students...
" I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine. These are my heroes."

*smack*!!!

I thought he took a risk with this one though...
"If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as someone people should run from."

Hmm.

In short, I think he got almost everything right (including the name-check to Hillary so early on) primarily by making it about the audience, by empathisizing, by offering some specifics, and by keeping everything hooked into the theme of change and the future. I thought he laid into McCain very effectively, making him look a joke on economic issues in particular.

Most of us know Obama is not the Second Coming, and we realise that after a couple of years, we'll/you'll probably be feeling let down by him in the way that Tony "things can only get better" Blair let us Brits down. He will almost certainly disappoint when it comes to the degree of change he can realistically offer, and it would be easy, in anticipation of that, to buy into the mood of cynicism about him. But for now, at this point in time, this guy – to me at least – seems so many streets ahead of the choices America has previously had in their presidential candidates (issue of race aside), it would be a tragedy if they just let him slip by and voted in the Republican.

[Deckard]

Oh, and I thought those roman columns were fine - didn't even notice for most of the speech which was framed in close-up.

Had to laugh at the way our BBC commentator at the end had to reassure viewers (or probably listeners) that the loud bangs were fireworks and not gun shots!