I am 100% with you on the discussion of race. It was vile, I thought.
Beyond that, I wonder whether many of us have lately set the bar for McCain's public conduct so low that we are easily impressed.
There's perhaps also the fact that for the past eight years, many of us have felt like we've had a president who didn't even think of himself as *our* president -- we've been his scapegoats, not his constituents. So when *anybody* says "national unity" in a way that sounds like it actually means us too, we're desperate to lap it up.
The comparison point is a good one. And in a strange way, seems like the same point as the first one. After all, we're used to it being perfectly acceptable to hand vast amount of power to old white guys with no clue about race. :-)
I absolutely agree on the race part of the speech, although it didn't surprise me one bit.
The rest of it... I must admit I was not entirely paying attention and haven't watched a replay, but I thought he was gracious and I thought I saw a hint of tears in his eyes. The man clearly cares about this country, even if his ideas of what is best for it are, in my opinion, terribly misguided. I thought that other than the really unfortunate beginning it was a decent speech, better than many others I've heard. Certainly classier than his campaign has been.
Linnea felt the same way; she thought the concession speech was rather poor.
I was impressed because the old John McCain had finally returned. Through the entire second half of 2008 he had become an odd uncomfortable character, struggling with saying things that he didn't believe in, and trying to prop up a VP candidate that he wished he hadn't picked. McCain's public speaking skills are not great, so I didn't have high expectations. Plus, from the high of Obama winning, I was willing to give anyone a free pass that night.
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Beyond that, I wonder whether many of us have lately set the bar for McCain's public conduct so low that we are easily impressed.
There's perhaps also the fact that for the past eight years, many of us have felt like we've had a president who didn't even think of himself as *our* president -- we've been his scapegoats, not his constituents. So when *anybody* says "national unity" in a way that sounds like it actually means us too, we're desperate to lap it up.
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The rest of it... I must admit I was not entirely paying attention and haven't watched a replay, but I thought he was gracious and I thought I saw a hint of tears in his eyes. The man clearly cares about this country, even if his ideas of what is best for it are, in my opinion, terribly misguided. I thought that other than the really unfortunate beginning it was a decent speech, better than many others I've heard. Certainly classier than his campaign has been.
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I was impressed because the old John McCain had finally returned. Through the entire second half of 2008 he had become an odd uncomfortable character, struggling with saying things that he didn't believe in, and trying to prop up a VP candidate that he wished he hadn't picked. McCain's public speaking skills are not great, so I didn't have high expectations. Plus, from the high of Obama winning, I was willing to give anyone a free pass that night.
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