The American Spectator

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Post-Conventional Wisdom

9.8.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 2 of 10)

Over in the Obama campaign, rumors are circulating that Obama may be regretting his choice of Biden for VP.

Well some of us Republicans are also having buyer's remorse, but of a different sort. Is it too late to switch the ticket? Can McCain be Palin's running mate?? It's clear from this convention who has the energy and the vision to drive the conservative agenda, and it isn't John "The Maverick" McCain.

Only one good thing has emerged from this convention: We know who we need to defeat Obama in the next election.

PALIN 2012!
-- Gavin Valley
Peapack, New Jersey

"If McCain gets a bump in the polls in the coming days, he won't have himself, or his party, to thank -- he'll have his running mate, and no one else."

Duh -- just who picked his running mate? And if you don't think getting his base behind him was huge -- you haven't been paying much attention. Look, I'm not a big McCain fan, but I'm all about this ticket now.
-- Lance Stiles

Some may say that McCain's acceptance speech was all heart and no substance, as if that is a bad thing. It is not.

America didn't need a "substance" speech Thursday night. They needed to sense that the Grand Old Party hadn't faded completely into the sunset. They needed to feel like a second Morning in America might just be around the corner. "Sense"..."Feel"...these aren't words of policy or substance. They are words that associate more with things like inspiration.

McCain and Palin gave America what it needed to hear. Real hope, real change -- these are what were promised by the two candidates in their acceptance speeches. The rest of the speeches -- good and bad -- will probably be little remembered.

Forget the poll bounces. The Republican Party showed that it can still rally people 'round the flag, and around principles of the heart that matter to most Americans.
-- Mark Pettifor
Goshen, Indiana

Reading Mr. Tabin's "A Conventional Flop" and Mr. Klein's "Grand United Party" I began to wonder if there was more than one GOP convention, if the networks coverage was glaringly different, or if people just see what they wish to see.

Mr. Tabin saw the convention as being neither stimulating for the party members nor well run, leaving the party drifting somewhat aimlessly. Mr. Klein saw John McCain's performance as generating a party united behind him and his candidacy. Seeing McCain as having won over the Conservative base.

Strangely, I saw it another way. I saw a convention composed largely of Conservative voters. This was evidenced in Mr. Tabin's observation that McCain's speech was too flat, too low key and too boring. It is unfortunate that he missed Sarah Palin's speech on Thursday. He would have seen, not only an excellent speech, delivered with style and punch, but a crowd who would have stood up and cheered wildly if Palin had been reading her shopping list. Why? I believe because she is seen as a Conservative. McCain is seen as a liberal moderate who is far too chummy with liberal Democrats.

As for McCain drawing the party together behind him, I simply can't agree with Mr. Klein on that. What McCain has done is draw the Conservatives together behind his Vice Presidential candidate. In fact, some Conservatives new election slogan is "One heartbeat away." Hardly indicative of a desire for a McCain Presidency.

As for a post-convention bump for the McCain/Palin ticket, it is irrelevant. In the first place, most, if not all, of the pollsters are suspect. Secondly, the only polls that matter do not open for sixty days. Let's just watch the campaigns and see what happens.
-- Michael Tobias

Letter to the Editor

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