10:04 They got lucky — the game ended. Video tribute just started.
10:05 “Momma’s boy” joke fell flat.
10:06 An extended version of his bio, featuring a few additional tidbits.
10:07 Video says he was tortured. Glad they had the guts to do that.
10:09 Video goes out of its way to highlight his pro-life credentials
10:10 I’d like to see a timer on the Cindy and John videos — I have a hunch that the Cindy video may have run longer.
10:10 Iraq tied to security at home. Again the nationalism that has so predominated this convention.
10:10 Mother Theresa is being mentioned more often tonight than George W. Bush. But wasn’t she a community organizer?
10:12 Quotes from mother frame video
10:12 Voiceover from Fred Thompson while arena is dark.
10:12 Gotta hand it to the Republicans — they do know how to stage a show.
10:13 When McCain came out, they backlighted him like Charlton Heston in Ten Commandments.
10:13 Ovation lasts two minutes.
10:14 Why isn’t Cindy chanting “USA”? Is she un-American?
10:15 He’s using a teleprompter, I think. Looks like he has a speech too.
10:16 Also using a green screen in back. Thought the Republicans learned.
10:16 Why are they throwing out a protester with a sign saying “McCain votes against vets.”
10:17 They didn’t throw him out.
10:17 Amazing. He starts with a shout-out to Dubya, but never mentions him by name. Didn’t see that coming.
10:18 Creepy smile alert. Definitely using a teleprompter. According to Ambinder on twitter he’s been practicing for six weeks.
10:19 Shout out to Cindy, his kids, and his mom. But he needs to stop trying to smile now. Nervous twitch?
10:20 Just noticed: Sarah Palin’s kids are behind her, but I don’t see Trig. Good.
10:20 I think he’s stuck — he keeps saying “I won’t let you down” over and over again.
10:21 Obama “has his respect and his Admiration. We are fellow Americans. That is an association that means more to me than any other.”
10:22 Then says “let there be no doubt my friends, we’re going to win this election.”
10:23 Code Pink protester being attacked and shouted down. McCain trying to stop it.
10:24 McCain: Please don’t be diverted by the ground noise and the static. Didn’t know expressing your first amendment rights was ground noise. Can’t stand code pink but this is ridiculous.
10:25 Shout out to Palin. Her ovation almost as long as his.
10:26 Now doing Sarah Palin bio. Palin nodding. One of her kids yayed.
10:27 Who told Palin to sit down?
10:28 “Change is coming.” Holy meme-theft Batman!
10:28 Blue background is making him look like the edges of his head are throbbing. Don’t think that was the intent.
10:29 Have to say the practice paid off. Much better with the teleprompter.
10:30 Promises to veto pork barrel bills. “I will make them famous and you will know their names.”
10:30 Attacking Abramoff, tobacco, trial lawyers, union bosses (that one gets cheer from crowd).
10:31 I would rather lose an election than see my country lose a war. Took 20 minutes to get there. But he did not suggest Obama did the opposite. He implied it, but did not suggest it.
10:32 Shout out to Petraeus.
10:32 Crowd responds tepidly to need to keep fighting war. That was odd.
10:33 Is this falling flat with the crowd? Certainly not going over like Sarah Palin. Lots of chanting of USA, USA, USA, but other than that no huge, sustained ovations. More perfunctory, as if there was an applause sign.
10:34 Looking at the bracelet of the hero who did not return from Iraq didn’t really come across on TV. Made it look like he was looking at his watch.
10:35 “We were elected to change Washington and we let Washington change us.” Good line, but tepid applause.
10:35 Audience really isn’t responding to criticism of Republicans and Democrats.
10:36 They liked the “back to basics” line, though.
10:37 “We’re all God’s children and we’re all Americans.” Again it feels like the applause is tepid. “Letting peoplle keep the fruits of their labor” gets as much applause and “pro-life” and judges who legislate from bench get huge ovation. Much more than the lines on fixing what’s broken.
10:38 Standard tax, spending, and other conservative shibboleths are being contrasted with Obama and crowd is booing Obama’s alleged positions.
10:39 I don’t think the crowd booing is a good idea — makes them sound really angry and resentful.
10:40 My opponent promises to bring back old jobs… Huh? This is coming from the drill baby drill party?
10:42 I think the community college line was intentional — anti-elitist.
10:42 This is a pretty wonky speech, even if a lot of it is the same as what he says on the stump.
10:43 Spending a lot of time on education. Picks on “bad teachers.” Wasn’t all of this solved by No Child Left Behind? Just gave a shout out to school choice.
10:43 Republicans love “choice” in education, not so much in other areas.
10:44 Unlike Palin, McCain is naming Obama by name.
10:44 “We’re going to stop sending $700 billion to countries that don’t like us very much.” You mean like Iraq?
10:45 He’s stumbled a couple of times in the past few minutes. Not significantly, though.
10:46 Energy section of speech, with emphasis - quel shock! — on drilling.
10:47 “It’s time to show the world again how Amercans lead.” How about starting by abolishing torture?
10:48 This speech is going on too long. He’s not going to sustain audience interest the way Obama and Palin did.
10:49 Audience largely silent as McCain goes through a list of those America is unhappy with — with an emphasis on Russia and Iran. Mention of Georgia gets only perfunctory applause.
10:49 He just said back-to-back that he’d work for better relations with Russia and called them lawless and an empire
10:50 Not afraid of threats, prepared for them. Again tepid response. Not a chant of “USA” in sight. I think he’s losing the audience — not completely, but I bet many of them are thinking of Palin right now. And they’re not on their feet.
10:51 Build the foundations for a stable and enduring speech. Audience stands, but it’s not overly enthusiastic. More like a state of the union speech than a rip-roaring partisan barnburner.
10:52 Shot of some guy looking at his blackberry. Not a good sign.
10:53 You can feel the audience coming down from their Palin 24-hour Palin buzz.
10:53 I have the record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not. Creepy grin again. Crowd chants “zero, zero.” But still not that enthusiastic.
10:55 I am starting to feel sorry for him. This is falling really flat.
10:56 Now talking about his POW experience.
10:56 How is an angry crowd greeting him funny? Nervous laughter?
10:57 His POW story is, as always, moving. But he should have led with it rather than finished with it. He buried his lede.
10:58 Reminding people he turned down the opportunity to go home gets some of the most sustained applause of the night.
10:59 Acknowledges that the Vietnamese broke him. I give him a lot of credit for that.
10:59 You know what’s missing here? Any reference to his faith. No cross in the dirt story.
11:00 I have a very bad feeling that the Nielsen minute-by-minute tracker of the speech audience will see a steady decline.
11:01 Crack about Obama as “blessed” and “annoited.”
11:02 Call to service.
11:02 Defend the rights of the oppressed. But no mention of how this administration has trashed rights.
11:02 Mentioned God, thanking Him that he’s an American. But again, it was just an aside.
11:03 “Fight with me.” Crowd finally goes nuts but he’s talking over them? It really hurt his close — it seemed like he wouldn’t pause to build up audience response.
11:06 Audience cheered louder for Sarah Palin coming out than they did for McCain. This is her party now.
In one way this speech was not unlike Obama’s — a solid, workmanlike speech. But for Obama, that still means pretty amazing rhetoric that keeps his audience rapt. For McCain, it means he lost his audience for much of the speech. And he really has to stop smiling, or learn to smile differently. His rebukes of Republicans really fell flat, while his stump stuff went over better. All in all, pretty flat, except for the part on his POW experience, which was moving. But he buried that, and by the time he got to it, I’m guessing that some of his audience drifted away.
In the end I go back to what I said before. The crowd cheered more loudly for Sarah Palin tonight than they did for John McCain. It’s her party now.
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