Coming off the high of watching my beloved New York Giants stomp on their heated rival Washington Redskins, I found it impossible to focus on John McCain’s speech. 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. I had to watch some of the post-debate coverage to even learn that he allegedly broke with the Bush administration and his colleagues in the Capitol Building. I had the sound on during his speech. I was looking at the screen. I didn’t absorb any message at all except that John McCain was once captured in a war and that he suffered terribly as a result. He didn’t even manage to offend me. He didn’t even manage to make me feel uncomfortable. He was simply there…on the screen…mouthing words that signified nothing.
But he did actually deliver a speech with clauses and sentences and applause lines. There’s even a transcript. Chris Matthews seemed to be overly impressed with this part.
MCCAIN: I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us. We lost — we lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption. We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger.
We lost their trust when instead of freeing ourselves from a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, both parties — and Senator Obama — passed
another corporate welfare bill for oil companies. We lost their trust when we valued our power over our principles.We’re going to change that.
(APPLAUSE)
We’re going to recover the people’s trust by standing up again to the values Americans admire. The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is
going to get back to basics.
As for me, I was watching this part of the speech and I had the volume on, but I didn’t even notice it. It meant nothing to me. It was such obvious bullshit that it didn’t even register as something significant. When I read it in the transcript it had only marginally more meaning. It means that John McCain is going to run against Washington, including his own party and his own party’s leadership over the last eight years. But John McCain can’t deliver that message. Maybe Sarah Palin will be more successful with it, but John McCain can’t get away with it.
And so, my friends, it will just be a slow, painful, offensive nine weeks before we can say goodbye to John McCain. And we’ll also say goodbye to so many of his colleagues that he is now condemning with false rhetoric.
