John McCain is not renowned for his public speaking ability, but last night he bloviated more boldly and blustered more blatantly than he has ever done before.
Even with the bloated bloviations of his ill-advised acceptance speech, McCain fell flat on his face. McCain’s delivery was wooden, uninspiring, a pompous litany littered with clichés and empty promises that left the convention with nothing but broken dreams.
The stage had been set by a series of unsubtle hints dropped by speakers in earlier bloviations at the Republican National Convention -- a political conference that set world records for blustering bloviation. If the Excel Center in St. Paul were a blimp or an airship, it would have bloated, inflated and floated away.
Rudolf Giuliani and Sarah Palin delivered stem-winders that bloviated about McCain’s ‘maverick’ qualifications as the genuine agent of serious change. These glaring clues to McCain’s odd choice of a theme returned in full force when he mounted the runway-platform to deliver his eagerly anticipated acceptance speech.
Warming to his topic, McCain heaped praise on himself as he seriously asked the American people to accept him as the genuine agent of positive change shamelessly stealing the theme of his opponent, Barack Obama.
Recalling his well-known biography as a wounded prisoner-of-war, McCain confessed that he fell in love with America while incarcerated with his fellow US soldiers in Hanoi. In a futile attempt to establish his credibility, McCain’s account of his war experience was crafted in minute detail. But when he tried to steal the message of change, his case fell apart, and only the truly deluded could follow him.
Devoid of ideas and delivered as if McCain were addressing his audience in a crypt, the Republican nominee promised to ‘change’ Washington.
McCain miscalculated badly. Stealing Obama’s message was a step too far. Even the Republicans will not permit him to get away with it.
McCain’s speech failed to mention the economy, the mortgage crisis, the financial crisis, the price of gasoline and every other issue except the war. With only a military record to provide inspiration in a period obsessed with an unpopular war, McCain offered the American people one and only one tangible policy option: war to end war. War is the background of John McCain, and war is the foreground for John McCain. John McCain is consumed by the war in his own mind, a place where he crashed a Navy jet to suffer truly horrendous injuries and the humiliation of years in one of the world’s most abusive prisons. McCain’s life is a portrait of tragedy, not a source of inspiration.
The American military heroes elected to the presidency -- Jackson, Harrison, Grant, Roosevelt, Eisenhower -- were successful conquerors who vanquished their enemies and led America to victory. Through no fault of his own, John McCain does not have the military credentials for the presidency, and his pathetic attempt to steal the central theme of his opponent proves the point – McCain’s resume is starkly thin.
This morning after the speech of the night before, McCain’s secret hope could be that there will be some sort of international crisis between today and the fourth of November that would create a tension so electrifying that the nation will cringe in horror and collapse into a terror-driven fetal position to elect a man who would feel comfortable at the helm of a culture besieged by ruthless aggressors. In effect, when America as a nation feels as isolated and fearful as a young pilot did in Vietnam forty years ago, McCain’s message might resonate with more voters, although the public reaction to a terrorist attack could be instantaneous repudiation of McCain and his ilk who have done little but bloviate for the last eight years.
Then there is always the possibility that Osama Bin Laden might endorse Obama on Halloween, just as he issued his Halloween threat in 2004.
Until those unlikely events occur, McCain will find it hard to make a favorable impression – and there is little hope that he would gain much traction in either event.
The American people are fed up to the teeth with McCain and his flag-waving tax-cutting panaceas. McCain is the one who should stand up for his country, fight for what is right and exit swiftly stage left.
 |
American Politics 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
From the perspective of John McCain, the Russian conflict with Georgia is an extremely convenient gift from the gods of war, but from another perspective – it is hardly coincidental. Far from it, for the confrontation between the US and Russia will dominate the MSM before, during and after the Democratic National Convention in Denver distracting the American people from the nomination of Barack Obama and his still obscure running mate.
Notwithstanding the blustering bloviation at RNC, these same fed-up American people are polling in favour of John McShame.
Obama's centrist strategists who have taken over his brain are responsibe for this mess. Two months ago, this man was messianic in his appeal. He could do no wrong. Then he supported FISA, shilled for AIPAC and threatened Iran, inter alia. What were they thinking over there? That the numbers would keep on climbing?
Obama's quantum collapse into the centre (McCain's putative territory), a little neo-cold war action in the Caucasus (contrived precisely to elevate McCain, according to Putin), plus the strategically brilliant Palin pick which galvanized the heretofore moribund and gobsmacked vote-rich dollar-flush evangelicals, and McCain is now by some accounts suddenly as many as 7 points ahead.
Idiots!