Sure. If you're a Republican, words don't mean anything anyway.

Who cares if humility and confidence are almost antonyms?

That's the White House Lawn, innit? So not only is McCain inviting another green screen challenge, he's being a little, what's the word, presumptuous.

I haven't been able to stomach this convention. Thanks for covering it, Ezra. Just reading about it has been hard enough.

She works with her nose? Dis he say with her nose?

I think the deafening "U-S-A" chant is in response to the Iraq Vets against McCain holding up signs inside the EXcel center

U.S.A chant was in response to a heckler, she was shown on MSNBC I don't know about the other networks, I saw something "pro-choice" on the back of her shirt

"10:28 "I've been proud to introduce the next vice president to America, but I'll be even prouder to introduce her to Washington." Which will be easy seeing as how McCain is a 30-year veteran and know everyone there. He also says "change is coming," and takes a brave stance against the "country second" crowd.

10:26 Deafening "U-S-A" chant in response to "many of you are struggling to put food on your table and keep your home." Definitely makes me feel patriotic!"

Haven't we seen this historical trajectory before?

"A culture of life" *winks*

Seriously?

Colbert will have a field day with the green and blue screens. Roman columns looking better now eh, Republicans?

i couldn't make out the woman in the pink dress as she was getting kicked out, but there was also a protester from a veterans group. I was surprised he managed to stay there as long as he did.

McCain dismissed the protesters as "static" and made a joke of them. Maybe this is wishful thinking, but Obama would have co-opted them. He would have worked it into that part of his speech about how both he and McCain love America, they just have different ideas about how to help it, whether pro-life or pro-choice everyone can agree on reducing unwanted pregnancies, whether pro or anti gay marriage everyone can agree on letting people visit their loved ones in the hospital (a nice bit of maneuvering, BTW), etc. But McCain just joked about the protester, called her static.

Incompetent.

Maybe because I'm a liberal Democrat, I am just predisposed to dislike Republican speeches, but this really seems pretty bad. And they green/blue background was a terrible choice. It's sleep-inducing. Someone should be fired over that.

It seems that McCain isn't familiar with the words "school vouchers." Why else wouldn't he have used them when spending two minutes talking about them?

McCain dismissed the protesters as "static" and made a joke of them. Maybe this is wishful thinking, but Obama would have co-opted them.

Yeah, well, Sarah Palin would've shot 'em, field dressed 'em, and eventually had 'em mounted over her fire place.

Palin/McCain, 08!

Not to change the subject, [then don't change the subject. and if you don't change the subject, I won't delete your posts!

Kisses,
Ezra]

I'm glad the protestors were able to produce John McCain's impression of Mr. Burns. That weird teethy grin (which someone obviously told him to stop doing) couldn't be held back once the commotion started.

And I can't believe he accused Obama of putting country second and politics over war, again. Ugh.

Wow, he is really stinking up the joint.

Seriously, in technical skills, it is slightly better than the 6/3 green screen speech, but given the audience and stakes, this is much worse.

This is nothing short of a trainwreck, and any pundit who says otherwise is clearly a hack.

Wait, Adam Kokesh? The Iraqi war veteran that's the darling of Wonkette's eye?

Well, I guess everything is circular.

I'd call it a collection of one liners, but it's more a string of lonely clauses. There's no overarching theme or message. The speech doesn't build, and thus the applause doesn't carry it along. Instead, it punctuates it, exhausting the force of McCain's words and forcing him to start all over on the next sentence.

Bingo Ezra. I was trying to put my finger on why the applause seemed so disruptive to this speech.

Feed a hungry child!

I can't believe a protester managed to get in there. I just assumed they knew how to keep them out of these things.

I also am genuinely sad that he sounds so scripted and awkward when talking about his own captivity. How did a genuine hero let his own experience become the property of his speechwriters and handlers? That in itself is sad. I'm a very enthusiastic Obama supporter who finds much to admire in McCain's POW story that I even understand why they deploy it so much, because I see how its power is undeniable. But this is cheapening and just plain lame. It's painful to watch a guy who once braved so much turn that story into cynical, manipulative, and prepackaged theater.

"Stand up and say 'yes, we can!"

I'm feeling like I'm a really bad American. I've never lived in a box.

Holy shit, the Mavrick!!!

My god and would it kill them to teach him how to interact with applause? I'm past the point of thinking about how this stinker helps Dems and now just wondering how his team let him deliver this stink bomb on national television.

that finish could not have been more awkward.

he finished and then just stood there lookin like a 5 year old lost in the mall like what am i supposed to do now.

and then the aimless wander back waiting for someone to congratulate him. 5 minutes later cindy rolls up.

he musta finished early cuz they weren't ready for it to end

I figured out the reason for the green/blue screen:

After watching the speech for a few minutes, I turned away for a moment and glanced at the white wall of my apartment and noticed that the green/blue had burned into my retinas, leaving a McCain outline.

Did anyone see Andrea Mitchell get attacked by a horde of angry Republican balloons?

You know, I'd be more comfortable with Palin at the top of the ticket than in the #2 slot-- I still wouldn't vote for her, but if you can persuade Americans that you're the most qualified person for the Presidency, you're probably reasonably capable as an executive. Here, she's not making that case at all-- she's a prop used to burnish the guy with the resume.

Instant YouTube classic: Andrea Mitchell and the balloons. Even Brokaw and Williams are ROFL.

The protester got in because he was in the military, of course. You know, the same military that supports Obama 6-1 in fund raising.

Speaking of which, send this information about Palin to everyone you can find:

http://www.crosscut.com/politics-government/17341

It's a comprehensive review of her leadership skills by someone who knew her long before she was famous and who isn't selling anything politically. But it has lots of interesting tidbits about her.

Why are they dragging that infant around the stage like a stuffed animal prop in the midst of very high sound levels, flashing lights, and screaming crowds? Is that a family values thing?

Total snoozer. Even as someone in the opposition, I'm completely dissatisfied.

It seemed like a chore -- something he had to get through rather than a pivotal moment in the campaign to elect the next president of the United States.

If it were a movie, we'd all be asking for our money back.

On the bright side, as least we won't be hearing from the RNC for another four years!

Ezra, you're not quite correct in stating that McCain has never been without government health care. He had the same health care as 46 million Americans today when he was a POW.

CNN cut from the balloons and confetti to announce that McCain had given a speech "full of specifics, arguably more than Barack Obama last week?"

HUH??!??!!

I guess playing the refs is worth it. Unbelievable

It's going to payback time by the MSM tommorow. McCain's campaign threatened a holy war on them for making fun of Palin and they ran in fear; they now only speak of her like she's the second coming of William Jennings Bryan.

McCain never said anything about trashing him however and I'd imagine there are some reporters who had to write fawning tributes to Palin who ready to destroy a pretty mediocre speech.

Hey am:
...and how many Presidential elections did William Jennings Bryan lose for his party?

McCain accepts the nomination with "gratitude, humility, and confidence." Can you do that?

Manlitude. Unadulterated manlitude.

I am glad this shenanigans is all over for one reason and one reason only: No more of that Terrible Duo that is Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer, and their fake love-fest or whatever the hell it is they were doing over there! OMG! Talk about painful. But obviously not as painful having to sit through that awful speech. Now that was torture (pun may or may not be intended - entirely up to you) I don't know if the old timer was trying to bore us into submission or ..... bore us into further submission. Like i said, glad its over!!

I wonder if Palin will ever give an interview (FOX doesn't count) or if they will just wheel her out in front of the non-aborted zealots with rock music blaring, non-aborted child in tow.

Anyway, I'm glad the GOP in Washington is finally going to bring change to that damn GOP in Washington.

The fight/fought litany is shit, and it's the hallmark of a congressman/senator running for president. It's pretty Shrumulous.

(Congresspeople fight. Presidents LEAD. Note that Obama didn't use that formulation in his speech. He wasn't going to fight, he was going to DO.)

Is Obama still married to his opposition to the surge in Iraq? Or does he now approve of the surge? Why's he praising the surge now on the teevee?

What view of the surge will obama hold tomorrow? Or the next day, which is a Saturday? My poor little head is spinning like a top out here in the boonies.

You are quite the buffoon. You really care not a whit about solving America's problems and can only see the argument in front of you. Win the battle, loose the war... that's your motto, isn't it?

First of all, show me a war where even the experts agree the details. One hundred and fifty years later and we're still debating the American Civil War.

So when your side changes their mind, it's an evolution of policy. When the other side changes their mind, it's flip-flopping.

Knee jerk arguing for the sake of arguing. You ignore everything outside the sphere of the immediate discussion, and feel no conflict in constantly contradicting yourself. You might want to look up Matt 7:3 or Luke 6:42.

But to your point:

Explain to me in terms of the proposed purpose of the Surge (hint: it wasn't reduced violence) how the Surge was a success.

But to do that, you need to first define "Surge." Because if something outside of the Surge contributed to your definition of success, then you're not being honest with yourself. (Hint: FM 3-24, widely available for all to read. McCain said the Surge was a classic counterinsurgency strategy, and FM 3-24 is our Counterinsurgency manual, so it must be in there, one would think.)

Second, what was the cost of this alleged success? Every soldier in Iraq is a soldier that's not in Afghanistan. So why is success in Iraq non-negotiable and yet Afghanistan isn't even worth discussing? Why do you right wingers feel it's okay to lose in Afghanistan? Why do you hate our soldiers sent there? Why do you want them to come home without honor? Why do you really hate America?

Gen Petreaus will not say that the Surge has been a success. What do you know that he's missing?

Fact check: Obama never said the Surge was a success. He said that it's success exceeded his expectations, but that it still did not meet its political objectives.

Someone please explain to me the GOP obsession with Obama's "greek" columns?

It was the anniversary of "I Have a Dream."

Have none of these people ever been to the Lincoln Memorial?

I know McCain voted against MLK day about fifty times, but I thought he and his people would at least remember a couple of the key dates and the major DC landmarks.

Or, is that how they show that they're Washington outsiders? "See, we don't even know where the Lincoln Memorial is? And what's the big phallic thing in the center of the park?"

that finish could not have been more awkward.

he finished and then just stood there lookin like a 5 year old lost in the mall like what am i supposed to do now.

and then the aimless wander back waiting for someone to congratulate him. 5 minutes later cindy rolls up.

Then he's qualified to be President!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SHjIb6trxBI

Re: "10:40 "My opponent's health care plan will put a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor!" Spoken like a man who, on the one hand, has never used an HMO, and on the other, has never been off government health care a day in his life, and is healthy enough to run for president at 72." -

Brilliant rebuttal!

I love you, Ezra.

Seems like Barracuda might have been a bad choice.

Seems like Barracuda might have been a bad choice.

The game is too early for any player to really develop any guide that can contain that valuable of information that another can offer considering the game has yet to even be released. Why pay for information when many sites even provide that information for free. Majority of the information these paid for guides are scraped off other sites, blogs and forums and combined, compacted and reworded to become their own guide.