Tuesday Speechifying

I know speechifying isn't a word, but it accurately describes the THREE speeches delivered after Tuesdays Democratic Primaries. John McCain wanted to strike first- speaking before the South Dakota Polls closed. Hillary Clinton was scheduled to speak after South Dakota. Barack Obama spoke after the Montana Polls closed.

The first thing that struck me about McCain's speech was his decision to speak Tuesday Night. The pundits were billing this speech as a prebuttal to Obama's declaration of Democratic nominee. For weeks, Obama and Clinton have been hammering a potential McCain Presidency as a third term of Bush. McCain wanted the opportunity to frame the coming contest between him and Obama- a very smooth move. While listening to McCain, it became very clear, very fast that the McCain event was in a small room. To me, this is an example of the Republicans still not fully accepting and getting energized by a McCain candidacy. McCain seemed stiff. His speech was classic Rove- trying to hang his own weaknesses on Obama. McCain is trying not to repeat Hillary's mistake of trying to fight a message of change. The message of change resonates with voters more than experience- we're all wore out from the last eight years, and instead of seeing things improve, we're seeing increasing bad results of bad policies. McCain accepted change as a message, but his message of change is not all change is good- fear too much change. His message seems to be a perverse message that melds change with the typical Republican message of fear. "That's not change we can believe in," was McCain's mantra as he tried to draw clear distinctions between himself and Obama. What resulted was a speech that was weak, stiff, and must have included notes on when to smile. Overall, the speech was panned by everyone including Fox News.