I was actually rather impressed by the speech. As some of you know, I\u2019ve been complaining about the Rovian tactic of running on smears and fears, character assassination and polarization\u00a0rather than policies. Well, even though I think he\u2019s fundamentally wrong on so many issues (Iraq, health care, drilling, and did he promise to abolish unemployment insurance?), John McCain stood up tonight and made his case based on policy. True, the man is a lousy speaker with some obvious teleprompter mishaps (Sarah Palin has worked with her hands and nose\u2026), but still, he made his case, and he deserves credit for that. He also deserves credit for being classy and gracious when referring to Obama, and challenging him again only on policy issues. He even toned down the bellicosity and knee-jerk reactions and seemed instead to become a little more sober in his judgment.<\/p>\n
The tone was so starkly different from the ridiculous stereotype called Mitt Romney\u00a0or the\u00a0craziness of Rudy Giuliani who reminded me a little of Heath Ledger\u2019s Joker\u2026 It was also so starkly different from Palin\u2019s speech, full of nasty smears, exuding pointless pettiness. McCain seemed to rise above them all. But isn\u2019t that a problem when your base is closer to Palin, Romney, and Giuliani? Certainly, McCain\u2019s references to Republican corruption, corporate welfare, and the need to acknowledge good ideas from all corners\u00a0fell completely flat. But it was good to see a remnant of the old McCain. I can\u2019t imagine that is the speech Karl Rove would have recommended. Is he trying to have it both ways, I wonder: appeal to moderates while leaving the newest Rove creation, Sarah Palin, to take care of the base? Or will it be, as Topol said in Fiddler on the Roof, that if the party bends that far, it will break?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was actually rather impressed by the speech. As some of you know, I\u2019ve been complaining about the Rovian tactic of running on smears and fears, character assassination and polarization\u00a0rather than policies. Well, even though I think he\u2019s fundamentally wrong on so many issues (Iraq, health care, drilling, and did he promise to abolish unemployment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2951,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,295,32,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election","category-mccain","category-mornings-minion","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n