McCain's Speech, Initial Analysis

Horrible.

Awful. Just awful.

Absolutely dreadful. Could not have won him a single vote, and assuredly moved many wavering voters to Obama.

My favorite part of the disaster was when he dropped in the dire circumstances of real American families -- and then just moved on and forgot about them, never saying anything about what he would do to help them.

The intro video was bad; the weird "when you've lived in a box" poem in the dark was creepy; the endless recitations of his Vietnam experience bordered on obsessive (did that work for John Kerry at his convention? I forget...); the podium pushed out into the crowd made for bad angles; on the tight shots he looked like he was in front of a movie-set blue screen (even worse, green at the start); on the wide shots he looked lost in front of incongruous random Americana clip-art; he stumbled and misfired through an endless stream of disconnected, themeless platitudes; he offered almost no specific agenda, and what he did was old, vague, completely out of step with current problems, and not at all comforting (if you've lost your good-paying job, the government will help you get a lower-paying one!?!?!?!); he kept doing that weird, self-pleased smirk at the end of phrases, sometimes at inapproriate moments; the audience frequently applauded inappropriately; he kept talking about change and reaching across the aisle and not caring about party, while essentially blaming the ills of the country on the people in front of him cheering in wild partisan frenzy; and he kept reminding people how old he was (I was alive when they bombed Pearl Harbor!).

It could have been worse, I suppose. He could have had a big booger in his nose.