I watched the McCain convention speech last night and thought it was a big load of crap.

McCain has tried to adopt the Obama campaign's theme of "change" and rebrand himself as an agent of change, but it doesn't work at all.

First of all, he offered a good number of policy points, which is pretty good for a convention speech, but it was pretty much the same Republican policy points that have been circulating for 30 years. (This is where Joe Biden should pop in and say, "That's not change -- that's more of the same!")

For example, his economic plan is less spending, lower taxes, and free trade. I think he needs to offer something a little more innovative than that if he is going to claim to be an agent of change. It's the same thing Republicans have always offered and is the same thing George Bush ran on. Almost all of his policy solutions across the board on every issue were things you have heard for 30 years from Republicans, and it ignores that fact that Republicans have been in the White house for the past 8 years and controlled Congress for 12 of the last 14 years. They controlled all branches of governemnt for 6 years! They had their shot! If this same old shit was going to work, it would have worked by now!

So the twist is that he basically said that the reason it hasn't worked is that Republicans have failed to deliver their own policies, despite being in power! He said, "We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us." You heard crickets when he delivered that line! Conventioneers cheered every single freakin' sentence in the speech, but you could have heard a pin drop after that one!

And then he went on to list the Republican failures where the country has lost trust in Republicans --- corruption, failure to reform government, failure to free us from dependence on foreign oil, valuing power over principles. Well, he is absolutely right about that --- these are major Republican failures. I don't think the convention was too happy about it.

So then he moved on from the list of major Republican failures and said that he plans to change Washington by changing the Republican party. Ha ha ha ha ha! Here's an idea --- how about you go change the party FIRST and get back to me when you've got your shit sorted out! Like Palin said the night before, this isn't a voyage of self discovery. Honestly, this call to change the Republican party fell totally flat with the convention --- the actual people who are going to have to change. If he can't convince them, then it is not going to happen.

He also called for changing to a more bipartisan style. He said we should use all good ideas, no matter where they come from, even if they come from Democrats. I might have believed this if maybe he had offered an example. Name one Democratic idea he thinks is a good idea, and maybe I'll believe him. I think it was a lie.

The past three days have been one long bash-fest with one Republican speaker after another blaming Democrats and "liberalism" for every problem in the country, even though it has been Republicans and conservatives in power for a decade. And after that he thinks he can make us believe he wants to share credit with the same people his party has been blaming for their own failures? Are you kidding me? If you can't even change your own convention, how are you going to change an entire party and the whole Washington dynamic?

On one level, McCain is right on most of this stuff. The Republicans SHOULD change their party and get back to their principles, and Washington SHOULD change and be more bipartisan. But the "change" that people want is a change in the way things are going in the country. Not a change in the way the Republican party and Washington works. He's offering the wrong change, and I don't think he can even deliver that.
dragonrider Reviewed by dragonrider on . McCain Speech = Big Load of Crap I watched the McCain convention speech last night and thought it was a big load of crap. McCain has tried to adopt the Obama campaign's theme of "change" and rebrand himself as an agent of change, but it doesn't work at all. First of all, he offered a good number of policy points, which is pretty good for a convention speech, but it was pretty much the same Republican policy points that have been circulating for 30 years. (This is where Joe Biden should pop in and say, "That's not Rating: 5