My initial thoughts on the evening (open to reform) are as follows:
1. Bush's speech was awful. I don't know how you handle it better than McCain's camp did because you'd have a really tough time denying the sitting Pres a chance to speak. But just a blase speech that left you with the feeling that he really didn't care one way or the other as to what you as a voter did with your ballot.
2. Thompson, on the other hand, was masterful. He honestly had me choked up at one point when he described the other campaign as being built on hope when McCain knew more about hope than most people should ever have to know. I was honestly and pleasantly surprised by his deft touch; and I would have liked to see him close the evening because I think it would have closed on a high note.
3. So that brings me to Lieberman. On the hand, I think allowing Lieberman to speak was actually a master stroke. If you want to talk about change, how about bringing on a woman as your VP and then having the guy who ran with Al Gore eight years ago address your convention. In the game of perceptions, that is some pretty blatant change. On the other hand, Lieberman plays to McCains rep as an outsider who is not afraid to ruffle the feathers of his party - not a bad message for independent voters, but campaigns are typically won or lost based on one's relative success in turning out the base. As much as we love to talk about the hallowed Independent in this country, an electrified base will win far more elections than a tepid base with a bunch of often-ideologically unsound Independents tacked on. So I'm not sure what to think of Lieberman.
In the end, I think they needed one more strong Rep. voice to really pull it off. Then you go with the obligatory Presidential endorsement, follow that with this strong Rep. voice, follow that with a Lieberman, and than close with Thompson.
How about you guys? What did you think of evening? What about Lieberman? Good move? Bad move? What do you think?
1. Bush's speech was awful. I don't know how you handle it better than McCain's camp did because you'd have a really tough time denying the sitting Pres a chance to speak. But just a blase speech that left you with the feeling that he really didn't care one way or the other as to what you as a voter did with your ballot.
2. Thompson, on the other hand, was masterful. He honestly had me choked up at one point when he described the other campaign as being built on hope when McCain knew more about hope than most people should ever have to know. I was honestly and pleasantly surprised by his deft touch; and I would have liked to see him close the evening because I think it would have closed on a high note.
3. So that brings me to Lieberman. On the hand, I think allowing Lieberman to speak was actually a master stroke. If you want to talk about change, how about bringing on a woman as your VP and then having the guy who ran with Al Gore eight years ago address your convention. In the game of perceptions, that is some pretty blatant change. On the other hand, Lieberman plays to McCains rep as an outsider who is not afraid to ruffle the feathers of his party - not a bad message for independent voters, but campaigns are typically won or lost based on one's relative success in turning out the base. As much as we love to talk about the hallowed Independent in this country, an electrified base will win far more elections than a tepid base with a bunch of often-ideologically unsound Independents tacked on. So I'm not sure what to think of Lieberman.
In the end, I think they needed one more strong Rep. voice to really pull it off. Then you go with the obligatory Presidential endorsement, follow that with this strong Rep. voice, follow that with a Lieberman, and than close with Thompson.
How about you guys? What did you think of evening? What about Lieberman? Good move? Bad move? What do you think?
posted by Just a Few Things about Scott ... | 9:53 PM
2 Comments:
I don't watch TV. And I try not to get sucked into the drama of it all.
FT was always my guy though--I think he was the best candidate out of all of them--by far.
Ditto Greg. I mean, I watch TV, but I don't watch any campaign stuff. I'm interested in all the analysis afterwards, but there's just too much hanging on every word... I feel like I'm just waiting for someone to say something stupid. I can't take it.
I can't bring myself to watch Palin's speech tonight, because I know how many people will be picking it apart. But I will certainly read it tomorrow and read what people had to say about it.
And I, too, am still a Fred-head. I wish he'd done as well for himself as he did for McCain last night.
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