McCain's disastrous New Orleans speech

Apparently John McCain's handlers thought that since Barack Obama was going to wrap up his control of the Democratic nomination Tuesday night and give a speech, that might be a good time for John McCain to get out a little ahead of him and start the general election with his speech from New Orleans contracting the two candidates.

In retrospect, maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Or maybe McCain wasn't the right person to carry it off. Or maybe his public relations crew who set the speech up should themselves be shaken up.

Here is the speech:



The best review I have seen is the one by James Wolcott.

For all those political science students interested in forensics, Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo posts the dire footage of John McCain's misbegotten speech yesterday ("Frighteningly sad--now on video!"), in which the candidate appears to have been inadequately defrosted before following the dotted line to the lectern. Not only did McCain's performance lack the deep majesterial chords we associate with a veteran starfleet commander, but the color coordination seems to have been done by the former set designer for Three's Company, the Jell-o-green backdrop making McCain's head look like a cottage-cheese football, as Attaturk observed over at Atrios/Eschaton: "The aesthetics of McCain's speech, just mercifully completed before a slightly energized crowd of literally dozens, was awesome in how dreadful it was.

This is the best candidate the Republicans could agree on this Presidential year?

Even the conservatives couldn't say much positive about McCain's effort.

Over at Commentary's blog, trueheart Jennifer Rubin, who writes about McCain with all the detachment and insight of a Barry Manilow fan, offered a faint wave of constructive criticism: "Barack Obama had rhetorical lift and volume tonight. John McCain had neither but quite a bit of substance... So the struggle for McCain will be to get some presentation skills."

Then there is the almost total inability of the FOX talking heads to say anything appropriate to the speech. This UTube composite video is from Talking Points Memo.



The comparison between McCain's speech and the one presented by Barack Obama only a short time later is highly revealing. It's almost as though the general election campaign has begun by Barack taking two steps forward just as McCain takes three steps backwards. The result is that McCain starts the race for the Presidency even deeper in the hole he was already placed in by the unpopular Iraq war, the poor economy and the growing inflation in gasoline and food.

And yet when you consider the other Republican candidates for the nomination (Giuliani, Romney, Ron Paul, Huckabee and the lesser candidates) the "non-Republican" so-called maverick candidate McCain may have been the very best they could field this year.

This is a strange year politically.