Anyone watching the RNC?

[Da_Sperm]

 

[Dr. Mac]

That will be true among independents and swing voters, but as far as the base is concerned, selecting Palin, who they view as a true conservative, did more for him with the base than anything else he's done since he started running. I agree that her inexperience will be an issue with swing voters, but not the base.

Not entirely with all of the base. I noticed that McCain had a lot of concillatory language in his speech (i.e., noting that Obama and Demos love their country, etc.), and, as many have noted, he played a strategy, somewhat, that placed some blame on Republicans also. Many in the crowd didn't like that (based on the look on their faces). Republicans like that "we are on top of everybody in the world, everything we do is right, and we ain't the cause/blame of anything that is is wrong" speech and type of image. That's why W (in part) was so popular with them.

McCain didn't do enough of that. Palin did, I grant you that: but she is not at the top of the ticket. McCain will get a bounce, but we will find out in the course of the next couple of weeks if the Repubs, especially the conversative ones in the small towns and rural areas are energized about his candancy. The conventioneers were going to cheer for everything. I don't think He and Palin are playing as well out in the towns and counties as convention crowd makes it seem. And if those folks aren't energized, they won't vote.

Time will tell.

Regards.

 

[JaguarNation99]

Not entirely with all of the base. I noticed that McCain had a lot of concillatory language in his speech (i.e., noting that Obama and Demos love their country, etc.), and, as many have noted, he played a strategy, somewhat, that placed some blame on Republicans also. Many in the crowd didn't like that (based on the look on their faces). Republicans like that "we are on top of everybody in the world, everything we do is right, and we ain't the cause/blame of anything that is is wrong" speech and type of image. That's why W (in part) was so popular with them.

McCain didn't do enough of that. Palin did, I grant you that: but she is not at the top of the ticket. McCain will get a bounce, but we will find out in the course of the next couple of weeks if the Repubs, especially the conversative ones in the small towns and rural areas are energized about his candancy. The conventioneers were going to cheer for everything. I don't think He and Palin are playing as well out in the towns and counties as convention crowd makes it seem. And if those folks aren't energized, they won't vote.

Time will tell.

Regards.

Well he couldn't appeal to the hardcore base of the party and to the independents and swing voters he'll need to win the election at the same time. Even though pretty much everything he proposed last night is Bush doctrine, he can't sell it the Bush way and win the election. That "we're right all the time" mentality is partly why W is so unpopular now outside of that hardcore base. At the end of the day, McCain is going to have a next to impossible job convincing the base of the party that he's truly one of them, which is why he's spending so much time trying to remodel the party in his own image. He has to be conciliatory to play up his "maverick" image, especially since Palin is going to be a tough sell outside the base once her extreme right views become well known. The only shot he has of winning is to appear as little like Bush as possible.

 

[Dr. Mac]

................At the end of the day, McCain is going to have a next to impossible job convincing the base of the party that he's truly one of them, which is why he's spending so much time trying to remodel the party in his own image. He has to be conciliatory to play up his "maverick" image, especially since Palin is going to be a tough sell outside the base once her extreme right views become well known. The only shot he has of winning is to appear as little like Bush as possible.

Exactly, and that's why when I looked at the crowd reaction, I felt that they were as fired up as their display suggested.

The hardcores really don't want McCain to repudiate Bush because that's a repudiation of their judgment in electing him and the values he and they espouse (i.e., their way of thinking about the country and how it should be run doesn't work - and the current economy, for one, is evidence of that). They want the same old same old. McCain's speech (in some instances, his spoken word did, anyway) suggested he was going against the base, as you noted. To the hardcore, that's betrayal that can't be tolerated.

I'm going to tune in to Fox and Rush (as much as I can stomach it) over the next few days - they will provide a gage on where the Repubs are just by their responses/reactions.

Regards.