Did the Republicans "Bounce" Back?
Friday, September 05, 2008
So the conventions have ended, we have heard both candidates and their Veeps speak, and the post-convention polls will soon slow their “bouncing”.
Last week we ran a lot of posts and comments on the Obama/Biden speeches and the Democratic convention.
Now it’s the Republican’s turn.
What did you think of the McCain/Palin speeches? Were they effective?
Did the Republicans outline an agenda for America, or did they return to the Rovian/Nixonian approach to campaigning?
Have at it.
Last week we ran a lot of posts and comments on the Obama/Biden speeches and the Democratic convention.
Now it’s the Republican’s turn.
What did you think of the McCain/Palin speeches? Were they effective?
Did the Republicans outline an agenda for America, or did they return to the Rovian/Nixonian approach to campaigning?
Have at it.
UPDATE: I have been looking to find decent coverage of the protests inside the RNC Convention last night. I had to go to the source to find it.
In case you missed it, (because there hasn't been coverage) Iraq Veterans Against the War member, Adam Kokesh protested McCain's lack of support for veterans issues. See more at the IVAW website.
3 comments:
I hadn't really intended on watching the convention, but the lack of much else on and curiosity changed that. As I may have mentioned before I consider myself a right leaning, pragmatic, independent. Over the years I have probably voted Republican more often than Democratic. There are platforms in both parties that I believe have merit.
With that in mind I think the Republicans did ok. The speeches were a mixture of ideas and going after the opposition. In that regard, I can't say they were too different than the ones from the DNC.
Palin seems to have generated a great deal of excitement and interest, much more than any other VP in recent memory. The kind of excitement is totally a matter of perspective. The left leaning blogs and outlets vary from calling her a do-nothing lightweight to some kind of theocratic overlord that will ban science and reason. The right is going the other way. She is the savior of conservatism or what ever other metaphor you want to throw out.
Either way, she is getting a ton of publicity, though it remains to see what effect she has in the end. Neilsen ratings, IIRC, put Obama's speech on the top, but Palin's was pretty close. Overall, I think the RNC was watched by more people, but it was close. Polls put McCain and Obama pretty close.
What was effective?
-McCain tried to emphasize his ability to work with people from both sides of the aisle.
-McCain discussed some of his programs and plans, though probably not as much as he should of.
-He didn't mention Bush.
-The other speakers varied. Fred Thompson displayed his acting ability and spoke well. Guiliani was decent. Lieberman sounded horrible. Palin did well (I'll save this for another blog entry).
Their biggest failure, IMO, was not outlining an exit strategy in Iraq. I still believe this is the biggest weakness in McCain. His foreign policy ideas are not was this country needs at this time, so he did nothing to convince me otherwise.
Their biggest failure, IMO, was not outlining an exit strategy in Iraq.
On the flip side, I thought Obama's biggest wekaness was his failure to provide a solid answer to why voted against funding the surge. The is a good answer, he just has provided it. I almost wroe a post about this. He has since discussed in interviews, but not strongly.
Polls are definitely indicating a bounce, although Rickey suspects it's not the conservative base getting pumped up as much as it is the increased attention from jackass voters who aren't normally interested in politics. Hopefully they'll forget it's election day altogether and forget to go to the polls.
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