McCain RNC speech notes

McCain sticks to his strategy of exuding class from every pore. Very gracious words for Obama and appeals to the center.

I noticed another line about a family with an autistic child, continuing the appeals to families with special needs children that Sarah Palin began last night. Of course, there were no specifics, so I don't know if that is going to go very far into swaying those voters. Unlike single issue voters on issues such as abortion or the war, parents of special needs children have very specific concerns that cannot be addressed with one liners.

A lot of it was a dry recitation of classic talking points, but they are classic for a reason. I would have preferred more specific proposals, but that has always been better suited for the debate format, so we shall see. He got pumped up for his "Fight, fight, fight!" conclusion, which ended it on an energetic note. It kind of made me want to play football for the University of McCain, too.

Sarah Palin speech energy highlight.

Nicely tying energy independence to foreign policy:

With Russia wanting to control a vital pipeline in the Caucasus and to divide and intimidate our European allies by using energy as a weapon, we cannot leave ourselves at the mercy of foreign suppliers.

Russia wants to control the supply of oil and spike prices with militaristic adventures? Well, they can't reap the benefits of such attacks if a large flowing oil supply is safe, far from their reach.

Digging the Rudy speech.

Most of my experience with Giuliani comes from reading and watching debates, where he was a big dud. This is why I'm so pleasantly surprised at his rousing speech right now at the RNC.

My favorite line:

Nearly 130 times, he couldn't make a decision. He couldn't figure out whether to vote "yes" or "no". It was too tough. He voted "present"! I didn't know about this vote "present" when I was mayor of New York City. Sarah Palin didn't have this vote "present" when she was mayor or governor... For President of the United States it's not good enough to be "present". You have to make a decision.