Revisiting McCain’s Speech
Sometimes in politics you get these scenarios where left and right seem to be living in different worlds. I worried that my sense that McCain’s speech from last night was a fiasco was something like that — groupthink driven by watching it in a room full of liberals. It’s clear, however, from The Corner that the right feels the same way. Yuval Levin, who even recommended the themes that McCain used, is especially good on the problems with the address.
On one level, this is just aesthetics, just the question of the delivery of the speech. But it does seem to me that McCain had trouble with the text largely because important swathes of it just aren’t about stuff he cares about. He likes to talk about war, and steely resolve to continue prosecuting wars, but he’s not into getting into the weeds of this person’s tax policy versus that person’s tax policy. Not that he can’t talk domestic issues, but he likes to frame them as battles between the white hats of the public interest and the black hats of corruption. That’s a limited frame for anyone to use, but it’s an especially odd one for a conservative, which is presumably why all of McCain’s memorable domestic crusades have involved him attacking Republicans rather than Democrats.
36 Responses to “Revisiting McCain’s Speech”
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June 4th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Somehow I was reminded of Dole ‘96: I think it was the sensation of watching a war hero, larger-than-life figure come across in some sense as lost, and shockingly diminished.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I continue to think that McCain is a weak candidate– but, given that the other Republican candidates could have provided exhibits for a museum of psychopathology, ‘weak’ isn’t really all that bad. McCain will do for anyone who doesn’t want to vote for Obama, for whatever reason.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Dole ‘96 is the right comparison, and expect to see a lot of it in the coming months.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:16 am
If we’re lucky, that is.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Over at Atrios’s crack tent, it was noted that McCain looked especially bad in HD. The phrase ‘cottage cheese on green jello’ was used.
We can also go back to Senate-itis, the habits picked up by chamber speeches that can be crippling on the stump, which suggests that any Senator wanting to run for the presidency should do so early.
But the substantive point is that McCain does ‘no surrender’ and ‘we will face down our enemies’, and that’s it.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:21 am
I’m about to make an analogy with dentists: look out. I really didn’t like my daughter’s first dentist, and when she suggested covering her molars to prevent cavities it sounded like “there’s nothing wrong with her teeth, so I think you should pay for some random extra service.”
Then we switched dentists. And the new one was great. And when they suggested covering the molars, it was after talking to me as an equal adult about different options, and I said “Why sure.” And then realized what a huge difference the tone of the suggestion had made.
So I’m with Levin. If McCain is hitting ideas that are important to you, but without passion or a sense that he gets where you’re coming from on those ideas, it’s not good.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:26 am
The Japanese build better humanoid robots than McCain’s performance last night. Utterly without anything approaching believability or sincerity. His ’smile’ each time he said ‘this isn’t change we can believe in’ was so vapid that it was CGI in a movie the audience would laugh louder than the soundtrack, and then leave the theater.
That something approaching half of the US electorate will vote for this past-sell-date candidate makes my tummy and brain hurt really bad.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Isn’t this also the weakness of George W. Bush – that is, not exhibiting passion or comprehension in important parts of his speeches? In Bush’s case it comes across as defiant ignorance, whereas McCain seemed to be trying and failing.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:42 am
Look, the delivery was really bad. Fine. But the very content of the speech was a mess. Maybe this is why the delivery was so bad?
McCain starts out with talking how he is going to make government better. Government is going to take care of people. But then he pivots instantly to saying government shouldn’t be doing anything! My god. It is obviously all just meaningless, stale republican sound bites. Contradictory sound bites at that.
Also, he through his base and Bush under the bus in a big way. He practically came out said, “hey, I agree with you America, Bush is a horrible president.” First, how is that going to go over with the Republican base. But more astonishing to me is the idea that he thinks he can run against the Republican party. Are we supposed to believe there are going to be two Democrats running this fall? Where was this guy for the last 8 years? If he thought the Republicans were so bad, why didn’t he quit the party? How in the world does he think he can escape the Republican label when he is going to be nominated by a Republican convention?
The speech just made no sense at all.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Well said, Deborah. Also, it’s painful to watch a political veteran turn in such a wooden, coached performance. He obviously was barely thinking about the text of his speech. He just kept thinking: Uh, oh, time to look at a different teleprompter screen! Uh, oh, better remember to smile!
I don’t point this out just to be a superficial critic; I think this simply reinforces Matt’s point. The economy just doesn’t turn McCain on, so he goes through the motions. Here I think he comes off more like George H.W. Bush than Bob Dole. People forget how Bush I was utterly tone-deaf on economic issues (even if he had a far better grasp of economic policy than McCain does) and how much this hurt him in the 1992 election.
This famous clip from the town hall debate demonstrates my point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ffbFvKlWqE&feature=related rel=”nofollow”> When a woman asked a question about the national debt, Bush could only see the policy debate on economics and ignores the real concerns behind the question (the woman’s use of the word “personally” offended him because it smacked of challenge to his elite background). However, Clinton immediately connected with her questions about the human costs of the recession (here his “I’m the governor of a small state” sounds most like Phil Hartman’s unfrozen caveman lawyer) and then he gently took issue with the questioner’s assertion that the national debt was the cause of the recession and deftly contrasted his policy with Bush’s.
While I don’t want the Clintons to join Obama’s ticket, I sure hope he borrows heavily from their 1992 playbook. Bill sure had some good moves back then.
June 4th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Can anyone think of a prominent politician with a less appealing voice than McCain?
For me, Ronald R’s. His drove me up the wall, too. I still get pissed when I even think of it.
Since I seem to be 180 degrees out of phase with the US electorate, I predict McCain in a landslide.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:01 am
McCain starts out with talking how he is going to make government better. Government is going to take care of people. But then he pivots instantly to saying government shouldn’t be doing anything!
It was a really unfocused speech– I would’ve gotten a C for it freshman year of college, I think. I thought McCain was using this endless Democratic primary as a chance to shore up his message, but apparently he doesn’t know what his message is. And I think saying Obama’s running on old ideas is just a terrible message and won’t work– nothing’s going to point up the fact that Obama’s a post-Boomer and McCain’s ancient better than that, and it’s an unconvincing argument on almost every level.
In other words, more McCain speeches like this. Please.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Time for something strange:
Has anyone every notice how when McCain gets to the really incredulous parts of his address that he starts blinking a lot?? Can this be an indication that he knows what he is saying is full of crap?
Just asking.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Greg Abbott:
You have to remember, if it weren’t for “The Village”, McCain wouldn’t have even been on that stage last night. They can’t cover for McCain when he actually has to get up on stage and speak. Where the hell was he speaking last night? Did you notice anything about the crowds last night? Where are the supporters behind McCain? They can’t even afford to pay people to sit behind him and fake it(Meaning the cheering and carrying on)?
June 4th, 2008 at 11:26 am
But it does seem to me that McCain had trouble with the text largely because important swathes of it just aren’t about stuff he cares about. He likes to talk about war, and steely resolve to continue prosecuting wars, but he’s not into getting into the weeds of this person’s tax policy versus that person’s tax policy.
I think this description gets pretty close to what McCain is about. I think he gravitates toward positions that allow him to feel a certain way — determined, duty-bound, honorable. My guess is that his policy flip-flops, and his political ones, all serve the purpose of maintaining that feeling — his honor and duty compelled him to consider leaving the GOP after Bush had shat all over him in 2000. But then, he found a way to be honorable and duty-bound within the GOP, so he stayed.
Matt’s observation also reveals one of the risks of nominating a Senator, especially one who’s not in leadership. Senator McCain can pretty much ignore 90% of the issues in the Senate. If he wants to spend all of his public energy on reconciliation with Vietnam and arguing for the Iraq War, while not saying anything about other issues and voting the way his caucus wants him to, that’s his prerogative. He doesn’t need to talk a lot about issues he finds uninteresting. But you can’t do that as a Presidential nominee.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Not that he can’t talk domestic issues, but he likes to frame them as battles between the white hats of the public interest and the black hats of corruption.
While studiously ignoring that his entire campaign is run by people with dark headgear. Presumably because he feels he can rely upon the mainstream media to continue buying him donuts and squealing about his manly barbecue skills.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I burst out laughing when McCain tried to use his Reagan faux earnestness imitation tone and cadence in phrases like “tax policy”.
Comedy gold.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Has anyone every notice how when McCain gets to the really incredulous parts of his address that he starts blinking a lot?? Can this be an indication that he knows what he is saying is full of crap?
Maybe he’s blinking a message in morse code, Jeremiah Denton style.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I want to attend his speeches and chant “Four more years!”.
If I get booed down, then even his crowd does not want that.
I other join the chant, even better!
June 4th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I want to attend his speeches and chant “Four more years!”.
If I get booed down, then even his crowd does not want that.
If others join the chant, even better!
June 4th, 2008 at 11:59 am
I want to attend his speeches and chant “Four more years!”.
If I get booed down, then even his crowd does not want that.
If others join the chant, even better!
June 4th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
pseudonymous writes: “Over at Atrios’s crack tent, it was noted that McCain looked especially bad in HD. The phrase ‘cottage cheese on green jello’ was used.”
Oh, yuck.
I was reminded of the Bruce’s father from “Braveheart.”
June 4th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I think the psychological key to McCain is what Matt alludes to in his last line — “all of McCain’s memorable domestic crusades have involved him attacking Republicans rather than Democrats.”
It’s not about policy, it’s about conformity. Reagan could convince himself of the truth and rightness of whatever lines he was expected to deliver, as long as it took him to the top.
McCain is the opposite — the flyboy who wants to be a hero, but not the general. He’s seen plenty of military stiffness, and knows it’s not for him. He’s the anti-Reagan. (It’s to his credit, if you ask me: he’s not a bullshitter.)
That’s fine in the Senate and even in debates, but on the stump, it’s not going to work. He can’t change his spots and become a smooth 100% pro-GOP speaker overnight. Expect him to make some huge gaffes in the next five months. This election may turn out to be easier than expected for Obama.
June 4th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
just as an aside, i’ll point out that in the south dakota primary mccain didn’t get about 30% of the vote.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Horid speech. Bloody awful. I was trying to listen last night, but I kept drifting. I had to watch it over on youtube.
The only change macain has made is to abandon all the things that used to make him a marvrick.
I used to like him in 2000. I was upset at the rove tactic saying he had lost his mind during vietnam.
I think the process of him losing his mind happend much more recently then that.
It is time for this Dino to go extinct.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Thank God that I was unable to watch MSNBC last night – but I did see McCain’s speech.
I was not impressed.
If he cannot read from a teleprompter, then he should just put his speech on note cards and look down at them as needed. His presentation was painful. I was almost nostalgic for George Bush. I know McCain was attempting to leverage some free media on primary night – but he should never, never, never do a speech within 12-hours of an Obama speech.
People are still missing the facts of this election: Obama won Montana – with the support of the independent voters. If we Democrats get over our petty in-fighting and join in with the independents who are already supporting Obama in state after state after state, then we will win the sort of overwhelming majority election that will enable all of the campaign promises to be realized.
Wake up every Democrat you know and tell them to board the train; now is our time; this is our moment.
June 4th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Thank God that I was unable to watch MSNBC last night – but I did see McCain’s speech.
I was not impressed.
If he cannot read from a teleprompter, then he should just put his speech on note cards and look down at them as needed. His presentation was painful. I was almost nostalgic for George Bush. I know McCain was attempting to leverage some free media on primary night – but he should never, never, never do a speech within 12-hours of an Obama speech.
People are still missing the facts of this election: Obama won Montana – with the support of the independent voters. If we Democrats get over our petty in-fighting and join in with the independents who are already supporting Obama in state after state after state, then we will win the sort of overwhelming majority election that will enable all of the campaign promises to be realized.
Wake up every Democrat you know and tell them to board the train; now is our time; this is our moment.
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