McCain's Speech: A Sampling Of Media Reaction

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The New York Times’ lead editorial:
In the end, we couldn’t explain the huge difference between the John McCain of Thursday night and the one who ran such an angry and derisive campaign and convention — other than to conclude that he has decided he can have it both ways. He can talk loftily of bipartisanship and allow his team to savage his opponent.
What makes that so vexing — and so cynical — is that this is precisely how Mr. Bush destroyed Mr. McCain’s candidacy in the 2000 primaries, with the help of the Karl Rovian team that now runs Mr. McCain’s campaign.

On Thursday, Mr. McCain said he would reach out to “any willing patriot, make this government start working for you again.” Mr. Bush, too, promised the same bipartisanship in his campaigns, and then governed in the most divisive, partisan way.
Americans have a right to ask which John McCain would be president. We hope Mr. McCain starts to answer that by halting the attacks on Mr. Obama’s patriotism and beginning a serious, civil debate.


Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times:
There has been much talk about the new energy the naming of vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin brought to the Republican National Convention. So why did the final night play so flat?
Maybe it was a case of convention fatigue, or the vacuum left by the windstorm that surrounded Palin. But none of the speakers, including McCain, seemed to catch fire Thursday night. Cindy McCain even finished early, leaving the Republicans with 10 minutes of dead air just when they needed it least.

The Post’s Tom Shales:
He used the word "change" at least 10 times in his bombastic speech -- the convention's emotional climax -- but since the Republicans have controlled the White House for the past eight years, what does McCain want to change from? And to? It really is an audacious ploy, to tell people that the country's got to correct the mistakes made by a political party when that's the very party you represent.
It's like staging a revolution against yourself -- saying that the Republicans have got to go so the Republicans can move in and clean up the mess.

CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin:
"I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I've heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980. I thought it was disorganized, I thought it was it was theme-less, I thought it was very, very boring…I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad."

Tom Ridge:
"Because John Bush – because John McCain is very much his own man"


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