The very best that is being said about McCain's speech is that it was good by his standards. I know what I saw and heard and the speech was atrocious. Granted, I do not support R candidates; however, I don't support Ds either because they are both virtually the same. I do like Obama because it is better to have someone with talent leading the USA at this time of extreme peril and he has talent for leadership.

There's no need to be coy or reserved and there's no need to fear contradiction by MSM pundits. Judge for yourselves on how well or poorly you think McCain's acceptance speech was.

It lacked specifics and it was totally contradictory in the sense that he's seeking to "change" that which his own party has wrought. That is rich.

Finally, the total lack of charisma, in contrast to Palin's ability to be an attack dog was startling. I counted at least 3 yawns and I lost count of the number of frowns and fist on chin gestures from the assembled faithful.

What did posters see and hear?

and he pulled out the freaking POW card again. I am soooooo sick of that. "I have the scars to proove it". Scars in his old sloppy a$$, what an old dysfuctional crook!!!

The POW ploy seems self-defeating to me. After all, John Wayne never got his butt shot out of the sky and captured. In addition, McCain admitted he "broke" meaning that he told his captors all they wanted to know. In that sense, he confirmed that torture works. And, they apparently didn't have to torture him that much. Unlike a lot of Iraqis, McCain survived his ordeal while we simply killed the Iraqis.

Does McCain assert that the Vietnamese killed American prisoners?

Basically, for image conscious Rs, I didn't see any benefit to admitting to being a POW because you can't win a war in your enemy's prison, can you?

Also, owning up to being right where the USS Forrestal tragic fire occurred is also not a testiment to war fighting capability; rather, it simply affirms that McCain has a tendency to court disaster.

I'm surprised they didn't mention that he crashed 5 planes and is, therefore, a Reverse Ace.

Yup, the speech was a contradiction. But then Americans have shown they have a high tolerance for cognitive dissonance, or at least dissonance. Inconsistency doesn't seem to be a problem for us Americans. Not only is the "change" message at odds with the legacy of the Republican Party as it's defined itself for the last 8 years, but the message of change (for betterment of the people) is fundamentally inconsistent with Republican values. Republicans are fundamentally selfish. That, more than anything else, defines the party. Their slogan should be "The most for the fewest". Having gotten that over the last 8 years, why would they want change, except to get EVEN MORE for EVEN FEWER.

They're bullshit artists and sociopaths, nothing more. Reckless generalization? Yes, but I don't give a damn. No Republican even gets my consideration anymore.

Another factor, consistent with the above, is that Rs disdain competence in governance. If there's one thing Murkins have succeeded in grasping at long last it is that GWBush is incompetent and that his incompetence is a major reason why the USA is in such deep peril.

Yet, what did Rs do? They nominated a barely qualified person as their Veep candidate simply because she was cute and could use put downs to good advantage.

This is not exaggeration. The Rs have really convinced themselves that Palin has "executive experience" and they are literally brow-beating us to accept that she has that kind of experience. They literally want us to accept that being a mayor of a town of <6000 people and governor for a year of Alaska qualifies a person to be C-in-C.

They are serious about that; yet, all that does is re-confirm R disdain for true competence. They are trying to give us Bush all over again.

Liberals (I am not a liberal, I am a progressive) have, if anything, been way to restrained in their disdain for what the R party is doing to the country in putting forward Palin. MSM are not going to do the job for us. MSM supports the R destruction of the USA through incompetence in governance. We will have to expose this R tendency for what it actually is ourselves, posters.

In my admittedly somewhat limited firsthand experience with Republicans I've found three basic sometimes overlapping reasons for their support of the party. Money, traditional values, and macho militarism.

It doesn't seem to matter to any of them that only a tiny number of people are or ever will be rich enough to benefit in any serious way from Republican policies and that when Republican politicians piously proclaim their support for traditional (read Fundie) values they are usually doing it for votes and money, and that militarism ala Bush and Cheney and McCain makes us weaker rather than stronger. But I guess being a Republican makes them feel prosperous, moral, and strong and they like that high.

The ideas expressed above are worth exploring. I suspect, too, that most of us simply do not grasp reality very well. All people live in their own worlds of illusion, one supposes. It seems the theory is that when the collective do something together, like, for instance, vote on candidates, the collective outcome will bring about the best outcome, serving as a synthesis of opinion from amongst individuals who, in the main, are either not very well informed; or, operating on the basis of self-created illusions.

Our problem is that when the choices are limited to tweedle dee and tweedle dum, where screwed from the gitgo.

Mind you, I do think Obama is a cut above the norm for Murkin politicians and is, therefore, worthy of our support despite the overall limitation imposed by the system itself.

In my spare time I am an artist/producer. I personally don't have a lot of talent as a musician, for example, but recognize those who have but, more importantly understand what a talented musician could do to package their unique sound to make it popular. Appeal to the masses if you will.

I think most of us have this talent. We know talent when we see it and crap when we see it, nomatter what "professionals" tell us. I know nothing about figure skating but "know" a great performance when I see it.

Now it helps to have a wide range of tastes. This allows you to be open minded about a performance and react to it with curiosity as opposed to being immediately repulsed by something by prejudice. I'm not fond of country by know a good county song when I hear it. Same for rap.

Sarah Palin scared me. She gave a great speech. I was so overcome by her talent I was not able to immediately tear apart the content UNTIL SHE STOPPED SPEAKING.

John Mccain was just awful. He sucks. He's old. But not Cocoon old or George Burns old. He's brain damage old. Organic Brain Syndrome specifically, most likely a result of malnutrition while he was a POW. George Bush has OBS also, but because of years of substance abuse.

The reason I mention art in the begining of this ramble is because the early stages of OBS are hard to detect sometimes. But what is the earliest sign of brain dysfunction in the case of, for example, intoxication? Your speech gets messed up.

Mccain can't talk. Bush can't talk. Language is the artform of politics and a reflection of the mental ability of the candidate.

Sorry for the psycho babble. Back to work for me.

I think the speech had some specifics, but I agree it was kind of boorig, pretty typical McCain speech.

Republicans are in a strategic dead end. They stirred into a big pot:

(1) John McCain's age, military record
(2) Palin's gender, parochialism, "toughness"
(3) Obama's messages that "sell" - change, bipartisanship, etc

They are trying to convince Americans that this melange is "virtual John McCain". They can't remove Palin, cause then McCain's judgment stinks. They can't remove Obama's messages, cause then they'd have nothing. And they can't remove McCain, cause then they'd only have Palin and as President, she's simply a joke.

They are stuck now, and as Americans come to understand this, they'll self-destruct.

Does anyone seriously think or believe that Rove is done yet?

It's all about timing as well. There will be something else much closer to the election. Something for which Obama will be unprepared and for which there will not be enough time to counter.

This is a test for the American people. As a population, we are somewhere between a nation of dogs and a nation of Einsteins. The more intelligent, aware, concerned we are about how we are governed (more Einstein-like), the more we will filter bullshit and lies out of what we are fed, and the more democracy will work for us. The more doglike we are, the less reason and information and dialogue means to us, and anyone who has a slab of meat for a dog can get his vote.

I am hoping and gaining confidence that, after 8 years of GWB, and with the eloquence and perpspicacity of Obama, that we are to the Einstein side of center, and we will see through Rovian tactics (which I agree will come). If we cannot, then maybe democracy isn't for us.

My husband fell asleep during his speech! IT WAS SOOOOO BORING!!
Me? I went out and walked the dog!