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September 04, 2008
GOP: Night Three
John McCain's speech needed to clear two major hurdles: Barack Obama's speech and Sarah Palin's speech.
I think he cleared the first. McCain's speech was simply less nasty than Obama's, who spent more time attacking his opponent than laying out his vision for America. McCain had a few lines critical of Obama, but trusted that the work his surrogates did earlier in the week was enough.
As for the second? Maybe it's just my growing crush on Palin speaking, but I don't think he cleared it. Palin's speech was a work of art - McCain's just did what it had to do.
Advantage? Barracuda.
Update - Ed Morrissey has a good analysis of the speech - he's a bit more positive on it than I am, but I do agree with him that the final third of the speech was the strongest section. My problem with the first part is that it was state of the union-ish - he started listing policy proposals before laying out the vision that bound them together.
One thing that did strike me last night was to wonder what he was thinking about when he stepped out on that stage. What a journey.
Posted by slublog at September 4, 2008 11:26 PM
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Comments
I confess, McCain's speech was fine, but I just wasn't into it. But, I mean, seriously, it was a good speech. It was fine.
Posted by: Kath at September 5, 2008 06:28 PM
The way he wound it up at the end redeemed and shortcomings in the previous parts for me.
Posted by: TBinSTL at September 6, 2008 02:50 PM