[I came in a few minutes late, but I think I caught most of it.]
John's not a very good speaker. He does best when he's chatting. He does worse when trying to be a "speech-making" guy. He does much worse when trying to be snarky.
John didn't learn (from Colbert) the danger of having a blue or green screen behind him.
The crowd went wild whenever he talked about safe stuff - war, guns, America, apple pie. The crowd was much more subdued when he talked about socking it to big business, to ear marks, to actually cleaning up Washington, to bipartisanship, to anything that smacked of progressive politics or "maverick" stuff.
But they were more than happy to boo whenever he referred critically (and awkwardly) to Obama.
Though, overall, the crowd's enthusiasm did seem to die down the more policy-minded he got, even though he was fairly short on specifics.
His grin looks ... really uncomfortably odd. He only flashes it when slamming Obama, almost shame-facedly.
The cameras are (unfairly, but it's still real) lots of people who are ... slumping in their chairs. Using their Blackberries. Sitting with their eyes closed.
Front row folks clapping mechanically, unsmiling.
Oh, thank heavens, I was afraid we'd go through a speech without hearing about his POW experience.
It's a bit odd, but moving, to hear McCain say, "My country saved me ... and I will fight for her as long as I have breath, so help me God." Really. That he then broke into one of those cheap grins.
"THE MAVRICK!" shouts one sign [sic].
There was some really good stuff he said. Even inspiring. If he was just giving a speech, that would be fine. But everything he said except for those inspiring, earnest items was awkard, flabby, dull, short on details and just unconvincing.
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