Republican National Convention '08

[JWBear]

This is funny!

[tracilicious]

VPM for Strangler. So fvcking funny.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Ack, no time to post.

Scaeagles - great post, really, and I appreciate what you said.

Can't mojo Strangler, too funny.

[innerSpaceman]

He actually winked.



Ya know, I like John McCain. And I'm thinking he's giving a pretty good speech. Kinda bland, but I'm impressed that none of it's very objectionable, and I admire his effort to come across well to undecided Americans.

I admired his admission that the Republican party had lost the trust of America, and I appreciated him blaming both parties equally for Washington corruption and ineptitude.


Then he had to go and use the code words for anti-gay rights, and he frelling actually WINKED while he was saying them. I can't fukking believe it.


Go Straight to Hell, Straight Talking McCain.


I'm an American, too. And if my denying my civil rights is such a cavalier matter to you ... if denying any American's civil rights is a joking matter, they you, sir, deserve to LOSE.

[Gemini Cricket]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

Then he had to go and use the code words for anti-gay rights, and he frelling actually WINKED while he was saying them. I can't fukking believe it.

I watched and I missed that. I'd love to see someone point it out on a transcript. I'd like to read it. Interesting...


I thought the parts where he spoke of his personal experiences sacrificing a lot for this country were great. Well done. But all in all, I'd have to say that this is one of the worst campaign speeches I have ever seen/heard. His pacing was incredibly slow, he stumbled several times and in the areas where he was trying to rally the crowd and get them excited he fell flat.

He's not the anti-Christ, he's not the worst politician in the world, but this speech was horrendous. Him apologizing for the last 8 years was nice, but instead of it making me see him in a positive light, it made me resent his party as a whole. I liked that he didn't speak with the venom that Palin did, so I guess his whole speech wasn't a total loss. But inspiring it wasn't and comparing it to Obama's speech it was poor.

People in the crowd looked as bored as I was. There was even a shot where someone was yawning. But that had more to do with bad direction, methinks. They did show more people of color this time. (I watched it on KCET, I don't know if the crowd shots vary from network to network.) The KCET and CNN hosts even brought up the small numbers of minorities in the GOP to the Republican and Democrat commentators and both sides said it indeed was an issue.

[JWBear]

Hear, hear!

[innerSpaceman]

Well, i'll grant that the end of his speech was rousing.



And there have been many worse Republicans than John McCain.





But, um, no.

[scaeagles]

I didn't watch tonight. I haven't yet found a transcript of it.

[innerSpaceman]

One thing is Not Going to be apparent from Reading the transcript ... the way he overcame being a slave to audience reaction by the end of the speech, gained the confidence that, d'uh, he is microcphoned and will be heard around the nation even if people in the hall are yelling.

Before that, he kept stumbling when the audience would insist on applause breaks. The worst tendencies of repeating the start of a sentence 3 times and the like ... really some of the worst public speaking pitfalls and sloppiness.

Then he had to actually quell the crowd when hecklers twice threatened to interrupt the speech. And even though they were never heard, interrupt it they did. The crowds' anti-chant visibly threw McCain off balance. He recovered the second time better with a cute one-liner, but two times in five minutes he completely lost control of the rythym of his words and themes, and was noticeably shaken.

(None of that will be in the written transcript.)



All the more amazing to me, then, when he ignored the cries and clamors of the crowds during his inspirational finale. Just talked right through it, kept the proper cadence to give the ooomph to the speech (said oomph also not likely be apparent from reading it, scaeagles).

And far from drowning him out, the roar of the audience served only to accentuate the "Oh-Yessitude" of John McCain's big finish.





Ok, well, much as I do not want to abide Mr. McCain as president, he doesn't make my skin crawl.


Sarah Palin, on the other hand, gives me the complete creeps.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

One thing is Not Going to be apparent from Reading the transcript ... the way he overcame being a slave to audience reaction by the end of the speech, gained the confidence that, d'uh, he is microcphoned and will be heard around the nation even if people in the hall are yelling.

Before that, he kept stumbling when the audience would insist on applause breaks. The worst tendencies of repeating the start of a sentence 3 times and the like ... really some of the worst public speaking pitfalls and sloppiness.

Did the broadcast you were watching show the dude with the banners?

We ended up watching the video on the RNC site. There was a guy in the way back holding banners reading things like "McCain votes against Vets". At one point I heard him yelling. The prolonged "USA" chants that had McCain halting were the crowd drowning him out. And that's why he threw the "Don't be distracted by the ground noise and static" line in.

We watched large chunks of it, then scanned the transcript. The only thing we could figure that Steve might be referring to is:

We -- we believe in the values of families, neighborhoods and communities.