McCain's Nomination Speech

[BenBurch]

Ben, GW talk is easy to come by here, but without derailing the thread, what about bankruptcy reform would you like to see?

Not a derail; he needed to talk about it. He needed to embrace it and promise to do what ever it takes to avert it.

And for bankruptcy;

1. When a company goes bankrupt and CEO salaries are astronomical, as is often the case, those salaries should be considered to still be assets of the corporation and subject to seizure to satisfy creditors. This will prevent the looting of public corporations that we have seen.

2. Personal bankruptcy should be able to negate student loans if the person is infirm or if the conditions of the field that person trained for are so bad that it is not foreseeable that they will ever benefit from the education.

3. A return in general to the provisions of the law before the recent changes. This has not allowed people to get out of situations that bankruptcy laws were intended to help with.

 

[Cain]

I think people invest too much in how these speeches are delivered. While it's tempting to abide by the rule that the speaker is always responsible, the audience seemed to miss their applause cues.

Agreeing with a comment above - this whole "reform" thing is such a ****ing joke, which the Republicans get. They've had the presidency for the last eight years, and Congress for six years. By exploiting fears (if these people get elected more Americans will be attacked and killed) they've been able to push through a lot of their stupid agenda, one which has been marked by corruption and incompetence.

Throw the bums out of office. Republicans should just let this one go, and spend some time reorganizing their party. The fact is McCain would not be as bad a president as any of the other Republicans contending for the nomination (and we saw some of them give awful speeches this week).* Also, Democrats need to be prepared for disappointment, especially with regard to the war in Iraq. If you did have a conscience though, you'd vote for mah main man, Ralph Nader, yeah!

*Assuming he decides not to point the Deathstar at Russia, Iran, whomever. There is an arguably a greater possibility of such a foreign policy disaster under McCain, otherwise he's most likely to maintain what passes for "centrism" these days.

 

[PitPat]

... the audience seemed to miss their applause cues.

Good point, there seemed to be a disconnect between appropriate collective laughter, boos, applause and the message. I'd probably attribute it to insulated speechwriting; there were some good platitudes in there but not so much an acknowledgment of your audience. Or perhaps John McCain didn't gel with the words he was given and/or approved. Cindy McCain's speech showed a lot more of that, but then I don't expect her to be an inspiring speaker, more of a casualty of being candidate's spouse.

 

[Dr Adequate]

I notice that the word "Bush" was used just once ... preceded by the word "Laura".

 

[Brainster]

My take is that it was a good speech but not perfect. I would like to have seen more outreach to women, and to Hispanics; perhaps risky given his problems with the immigrant issue last year, and the base's generally negative response to Mexicans.

I liked the narrative history (sorry Peggy) but thought it was misplaced, coming as it did near the end of the speech.

Yes, the crowd applauded early on some lines, but at least that shows that not everything is choreographed (yet).

Amazing outreach to the center and across the aisle, much better than Obama's speech on that particular aspect. The counter-argument of course is that the GOP needs the center more than the Democrats do. Very much less negativity than Obama's speech.

I'll predict that there will be several polls showing McCain in the lead in the next few days (not counting that goofball Zogby). But everybody will be watching the debates.

 

[Undesired Walrus]

I didn't really see why he wasn't running as an Independent.

He didn't give any reasons for why the Republican Party was a superior party, and instead gave the impression it was a heavily rusting car that needed a bit of a grease. For a 72 year-old man, getting under the bonnet looks like a daunting task. If the party has been so terrible for the last 8 years, why was he running under their name? What exactly was he going to change about it?

And 'socialised healthcare'? Does attaching socialism to anything immediately disqualify it from consideration?

 

[chipmunk stew]

My take on the speech: McCain agrees with his campaign manager that this election is not about issues.

 

[SezMe]

And 'socialised healthcare'? Does attaching socialism to anything immediately disqualify it from consideration?

Yes, for conservatives. It's a code phrase for big, bad government.

 

[Meadmaker]

I notice that the word "Bush" was used just once ... preceded by the word "Laura".

 

[a_unique_person]

It says alot about his strength and character.

Given it was a formulaic action dictated purely by the back room number crunchers and polling analysts, like his choice of VP, it certainly does, it says he is just one more weak frontman. I started another thread on his promise of change, and just like that thread I had to wonder, what was so bad about the past eight years of Republican leadership that he needs to change it.

 

[pgwenthold]

McCain's solution to the education issue is the same as Bush's: school vouchers and teacher testing.

What a Maverick!!!!!

Add that to, "Stay the course" in Iraq, and "Make the Bush tax cuts permanent" and you have a guy who is so outside the box...

 

[Upchurch]

Add that to, "Stay the course" in Iraq, and "Make the Bush tax cuts permanent" and you have a guy who is so outside the box...

But in no way a continuation of the Bush administration.

 

[Zarathustra]

I found it interesting during the Democratic convention, the audience rather resembled a casting of sand into the venue; All colors, shapes, and sizes.
But strangely, the Republican convention seemed to be a demonstrably large swath of rotund white people.

I stand corrected.
I think there were precisely (2) African-American people in the audience.
I know this because the camera flashed their same visage a total 14 times during the
proceedings.

 

[FaisonMars]

What then? If it is impossible (for any number of reasons) for our workforce to compete in the steel market, what do you do?

I didn't mean to sound so dismissive of retraining-- that is important, but it's not the only thing and it won't work for everyone. Some people are going to lose out in the short term. Part of Obama's approach is retraining for green manufacturing jobs. Part of being green is making more stuff here, rather than shipping it to China and back.

Excellent education from the beginning would be part of my approach... if the US is really going to be a leader in innovation, we have to have the best schools in the world (not just in science and math, but also in other creative arts). I work in science higher-ed, and a huge fraction of grad students in science are coming from Asia. At some point, American students are not going to be able to compete.

 

[FaisonMars]

The fact is McCain would not be as bad a president as any of the other Republicans contending for the nomination (and we saw some of them give awful speeches this week).*

Before McCain picked Palin, I would have agreed with you, but now that she's on the ticket, grossly unqualified, wacko conservative, and has about a 1/4 chance of become president over the next 8 years (if they are elected), McCain scares me almost as much as Bush.

I was rooting for McCain over Bush back in 2000. I do think we would be better off if he had been elected instead.

 

[FaisonMars]

Add that to, "Stay the course" in Iraq, and "Make the Bush tax cuts permanent" and you have a guy who is so outside the box...

Obama wants to "raise your taxes" because he would let the Bush tax cuts expire. In fact, more than 90% of middle class Americans get a tax cut with Obama's plan. http://alchemytoday.com/obamataxcut/

Hopefully this will be discussed in the debates.

 

[ZenFountain]

The speech wasn't that great, but McCain had markedly better delivery than I have seen in his previous speeches. Not enough to make me worry about him in the debates, but if he can consistently speak at that level, without his usual awkwardness, terrible impromptu jokes and pointless anecdotal recollections, it won't be the disaster for him I thought it would be.

On a side note, why are Republicans so fascinated with shouting USA! USA! USA! at political rallies? Insert an elitist leftist comment here about the dreadful noise ignorant hicks make when they are excited.

 

[Wangler]

Obama wants to "raise your taxes" because he would let the Bush tax cuts expire. In fact, more than 90% of middle class Americans get a tax cut with Obama's plan. http://alchemytoday.com/obamataxcut/

Hopefully this will be discussed in the debates.

You raise taxes on 10% of the people, and everyone will feel it. It is not the way to prosperity.

Everyone ridiculed Reagan for his "trickle down" economics: "Don't give tax
breaks to the rich guys, their savings will never trickle down to us!"

But those same people think that those rich guys won't jack up the prices little old me pays, to cover their tax increase?

How naive.

Oh, and McCain wants to double the child tax credit....that will help more.

 

[FaisonMars]

You raise taxes on 10% of the people, and everyone will feel it. It is not the way to prosperity.

Everyone ridiculed Reagan for his "trickle down" economics: "Don't give tax
breaks to the rich guys, their savings will never trickle down to us!"

Obama wants to bring the upper income taxes back up to what they were under Clinton.

The economy was doing pretty well under Clinton.

Oh, and McCain wants to double the child tax credit....that will help more.

Agreed-- that's a good idea. So is making a portion of college tuition tax deductible (Obama).

 

[pgwenthold]

Everyone ridiculed Reagan for his "trickle down" economics: "Don't give tax
breaks to the rich guys, their savings will never trickle down to us!"

But those same people think that those rich guys won't jack up the prices little old me pays, to cover their tax increase?

How naive.

Yeah, how dare they fall for market economics...

Don't they know the world is controlled by the big corporation cabal?