Ace of Spades HQ

September 05, 2008

What? McCain's Speech Also Outdraws Obama's
— Ace

What?

When I saw Allah's post, I thought he was covering the old, old news (so old even I already got to it) that Palin had actually outdrawn Obama.

That the New Hotness, with all the media attention (good, bad, and very, very ugly) swirling around her, I figured, sure, I get that.

But Old and Busted McCain also out-drawing The One?

Good news? The public isn't just interested in the McCain/Palin ticket out of tabloidish curiosity.

Bad news? McCain's speech, while ending quite well, was, to be charitable, mediocre. Unless it played well with squishy, dumb-ass "undecided voters," which is possible, but we'll have to wait for the polling on that.

Mitigating the bad news: No one expected a soaring speech from McCain, and no one, therefore, was greatly disappointed. However, everyone was told to expect an epiphanous orgasm from The One, and what he delivered was a servicable speech that was neither convincing nor fresh on the policy side nor inspiring and soaring on the thematic or biographical side. He said it would be "workmanike," and for once, that wasn't spin. It was a bland speech.

Note well that while liberals lost their shit after Palin spoke, conservatives greeted Obama's with a collective meh. It wasn't awful and we didn't claim it was. But none of us were exactly shaking in our boots, thinking Oh shit, we have our work cut out for us now! It didn't inspire us -- we didn't expect it to, of course -- but it also didn't frighten us.

Our reaction: Relief. The emperor has no clothes -- or, to be fair, he has clothes. They're just not particularly great clothes, and we have little fears that all the kids will be wearing them this season.

Advantage: McCain.

Posted by: Ace at 12:34 PM | Comments (60)
Post contains 307 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I think a lot of people tuned in for Palin, and liked it. They came back again to find out more. This "extended interest" is good news.

Posted by: erik at September 05, 2008 12:37 PM (hblvb)

2 What was even more amazing about the viewing numbers is that there were fewer outlets showing the RNC . People had to LOOK for it to watch it rather than just have it pop up everywhere .

Posted by: mbruce at September 05, 2008 12:38 PM (h/5U0)

McCain had the NFL lead-in.

Just spinning where the spin will inevitably spin from the spinners.

Posted by: Circa (Insert Year Here) at September 05, 2008 12:39 PM (B+qrE)

4 Obama had a speech? Did anyone notice after the announcement on Friday morning? The timing of the Palin pick couldn't have been better. Any earlier and he'd be a douche for stepping on The One's big speech, any later and people would've been busy talking about it. Perfect.

Posted by: MMW at September 05, 2008 12:40 PM (C3kMa)

5 Frankly 23 million of us watched last night because we thought Paris Hilton would speak. Is she on tonight?

Posted by: uninterested citizen at September 05, 2008 12:41 PM (1OMSg)

6 >>>I think a lot of people tuned in for Palin, and liked it. They came back again to find out more. This "extended interest" is good news.

That occurred to me but I didn't want to say so to give mccain his due, and also because, as exciting as Palin is, she is just the veep. She can't win the election, that's on McCain.

Posted by: ace at September 05, 2008 12:44 PM (1WR4H)

7 either way, it's good, though.

Posted by: ace at September 05, 2008 12:44 PM (1WR4H)

8 wow, even though I don't rely on the MSM, I still can't believe how they invade the atmosphere, I was under the impression that blah blah blah no one is watching the GOP convention, Obama is teh bestest president-elect evar.

oops, seems that that was wrong.

Yeah, the cocoon is a deadly thing. For the media. and the democrats.

Posted by: joeindc44 at September 05, 2008 12:47 PM (QxSug)

9 I'd guess Skins at the Giants is a pretty good lead in to a convention speech, but it also takes away a whole portion of the country that really likes their football.

Are we to presume that after 3 hours of garbage football the NY and Washington fans were going to stay tuned to another 1:15 minutes of television?

Hopefully Nielson can make me sound stupid.

Posted by: Gabriel Sutherland at September 05, 2008 12:48 PM (AHrTm)

10 "undecided voters" at this point are - by definition - squishy dumb-asses.

Posted by: profligatewaste at September 05, 2008 12:49 PM (s65nF)

11 Never underestimate the power of something that falls flat with political junkies to really resonate with the mildly interested.

Posted by: a4g at September 05, 2008 12:49 PM (qnlQ3)

12 >>She can't win the election, that's on McCain. Florida 2000 proved that a few thousand votes can win the election. That was unsual, but its not as improbable as you might think. There are a dozen battleground states, and if the electoral college is close, just one of them has to be nearly tied to have a recount type cliffhanger.. And of course, if they were not close already they would not be called battleground states. I think that the number of votes brought in by Palin (As opposed to Romney/Pawlenty/etc) will be in the multiple millions.

Posted by: erik at September 05, 2008 12:50 PM (hblvb)

I heard from... oh, somewhere... that Palin didn't write her own speech. I bet that McCain didn't either.

Posted by: Neil Kinnock, I mean Joe Biden at September 05, 2008 12:51 PM (WHO5Q)

14 Unless it played well with squishy, dumb-ass "undecided voters," which is possible, but we'll have to wait for the polling on that. Jeff B. seemed to like it. So I guess it did.

Posted by: Jack M. at September 05, 2008 12:52 PM (eOEgY)

15 >>The timing of the Palin pick couldn't have been better. I noticed that Obama tried to do the same thing by appearing on Fox that night. Except it turned out to be a non event. I hate to say it, but it was stupid of him to admit the surge worked. He already looked like a dummy to most of us. Now he looks like a traitor to much of his base as well.

Posted by: erik at September 05, 2008 12:52 PM (hblvb)

>>be fair, he has clothes. They're just not particularly great clothes, and we have little fears that all the kids will be wearing them this season.

Commentators were already spotting Palin Hairdos at the convention. Expect the style to make a comeback.

Posted by: Tushar at September 05, 2008 12:53 PM (ZqHH5)

Clarification: I am not a dumbass to think we were talking about appearances when I picked the clothes thread and talked about hair. I just wanted to get that in somewhere.

I am a different kind of dumbass

Posted by: Tushar at September 05, 2008 12:57 PM (ZqHH5)

18 Is this "Read my lipstick" line a good t-shirt or what?

Obama can have a "Read my tobacco trails" and Biden can have a "Write my lines for me so I can copy them" shirt.

Posted by: Gabriel Sutherland at September 05, 2008 12:57 PM (AHrTm)

My wife watched the McCain speech, and said it was pretty good, for the most part.

I watched The Office on DVD with my son. That Dwight, what a scamp!

Posted by: PaleoMedic at September 05, 2008 01:01 PM (xirX/)

20 Also, a T-shirt for Biden:

"Hair You Can Believe In"

(it's an Ann Coulter line from a couple of columns ago...)

Posted by: OregonMuse at September 05, 2008 01:01 PM (FO+YO)

21 Re: Sterling Heights. I used to live in Rochester Hills. Our gal Sarah has a very Upper-ish accent.

Posted by: Jayne Cobb at September 05, 2008 01:01 PM (+MtXg)

22 or is that Yupper? I am not a native Michigander.

Posted by: Jayne Cobb at September 05, 2008 01:02 PM (+MtXg)

23 Outdrew Obama and it was broadcast on fewer networks.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at September 05, 2008 01:05 PM (pzen5)

" Unless it played well with squishy, dumb-ass "undecided voters,""

I fricking well hope so - it certainly didn't do sh*t for this conservative - but I was still buzzing on the Saracuda, do I didn't mind.

Posted by: Holdfast at September 05, 2008 01:07 PM (Gzb30)

25 Ya know, come to think of it this shit sandwich doesn't taste too bad at all now. Must be the ground moose they added to the blend.

Posted by: Andy at September 05, 2008 01:07 PM (C3mTI)

26 The best thing about Blunderdome was the overblown pageantry, oversized venue, and major muss-and-fuss for Obambi to come out and do the equivalent of humming 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' on a comb and tissue paper.

Posted by: Stinky Esposito at September 05, 2008 01:07 PM (MMC8r)

27 McCain's speech was mediocre but he had 2 things going for him which will sell his speech better than Obama's. One his speaking is well known to all so few would fault him anymore. Second, it's the best prepared speech of a not specifically military nature that I have ever heard him give.

Overall Obama was better but only average for himself. McCain was average too but he exceeded himself. People remember the exceptional performances.
The Miracle hockey team did not play the best hockey I ever saw, but they played one of the best games.

Posted by: Rocks at September 05, 2008 01:08 PM (7rbe9)

28 The bad news is that those people tuning in to watch the convention mostly saw reporters dispensing DNC talking points, instead of the convention itself. Only the main speeches were actually broadcast. (In many cases, that was a good thing.)

Does C-SPAN get counted in the ratings? A few times I gave up on FNC and went directly to C-SPAN to hear the second tier speakers.

Posted by: lmg at September 05, 2008 01:09 PM (A/vgC)

29 >>An estimated 6,000 people crowded into the covered amphitheater.. Only counts as one TV!

Posted by: erik at September 05, 2008 01:09 PM (hblvb)

30 Well, McCain's speech played well with this already-decided voter. I liked it; it energized me. *shrug*

Good news, I think.

Posted by: Amy at September 05, 2008 01:10 PM (U0dI+)

31 Jack M. -

As you well know, I'm the farthest thing from a "squishy undecided voter" out there. Though I am a proud acknowledged pussy in my manner of expression on this blog, I am a dead-eyed throat-slitting Anton Chigurh partisan when it comes time to pull the lever - and when arguing for others to do so in real life.

And honestly, the more I reflect on McCain's speech, the more I really do like it. I think, to be fair, it was the final ten minutes - the biography section - that really did it for me. Can I tell you how Joe & Jane Blow will take it? No, I can't. I'm far too much of an inside-the-beltway wonk to divorce myself from my partisanship in that particular respect. I can think of reasons why it might have played very well -- as a perhaps-relevant aside, remember how poorly the pundits always judged Bill Clinton's speeches to be? And how well they were recieved by the nation nonetheless? -- but I can't be certain I'm not just whistling in the dark.

The massive ratings can't hurt, though. They just can't. I'm laffing my ass off at the fact that The One couldn't pull the same ratings as either our V-P candidate or our boring ol' white dude on the top of the ticket. Jeebus Christ, could we actually win this?

Posted by: Jeff B. at September 05, 2008 01:14 PM (BWTSB)

32 Jayne Cobb -

Just spoke to my ex-law school roommate about Palin. His family is 100% Upper Peninsula in origin and he agreed that it sounded exactly like that accent.

P.S. I prefer Adam Baldwin on The X-Files to Adam Baldwin on Firefly.

Posted by: Jeff B. at September 05, 2008 01:16 PM (BWTSB)

33 The more I think about McCain's speech, the more I like it.

"And they broke me."

"COME FIGHT WITH ME!"" WE MAKE HISTORY!"

That is still running around in my mind. I think that it really does position himself well for the next two months. Try to remember, the election is in November and not tomorrow. I know I forget that sometimes.

Posted by: JAFKIAC at September 05, 2008 01:19 PM (HqtPo)

34 Let's see Obama, Palin and McCain all got about the same ratings.
You know who this doesn't help? Joe Biden.

Posted by: Rocks at September 05, 2008 01:21 PM (7rbe9)

quote 19 Is this "Read my lipstick" line a good t-shirt or what?

Yes. For college age females too.

(WF? Ace has a girl friend? Is there proof?)

Posted by: ArandomPerson at September 05, 2008 01:21 PM (2PwTK)

36 I was hoping the balloons would crush Andrea Mitchell. How do you think Hillary is enjoying all this. In her heart of hearts she wants to see sarah be the cause of Zeus's fall.

Posted by: Bob T at September 05, 2008 01:25 PM (sx6M7)

37 Finally, I have a reason to steal this.

Karl Rove --- you Magnificent Bastard.

Posted by: prairiemain at September 05, 2008 01:26 PM (uDqa7)

38 >> The more I think about McCain's speech, the more I like it. Same here. I could barely sit through most of it, but I finished it think a lot more of him than when I started. I remember a lot of it today, and am pretty sure I''ll remember the conclusion in 10 years.

Posted by: erik at September 05, 2008 01:30 PM (hblvb)

39 Question about networks: Is it really okay for a network to cover one convention, but not the other? I seem to recall that when Arnold was running for Governor here is California, the networks were warned not to show an Schwarzenegger movies in the run up to the special election, lest the violate campaign laws. I hear the same thing mentioned about "Teh Fred" and Law&Order. It seems that covering an entire convention is a much, much bigger thing than playing a 20 year old B grade action film. (I'm talking about Red Heat, of course. Commando is clearly A grade.)

Posted by: erik at September 05, 2008 01:33 PM (hblvb)

I think Palin set it up for him. She had sucha huge draw (largely women) that the viewers decided they had to watch McCain just to see if it was going to be as horrible as they thought after Palin.

His best lines were at the end. It would be great if most of the viewers stayed through the speech to the end.

that would have caught them.

Fight! Fight! STand up and fight!

Posted by: kat-missouri at September 05, 2008 01:44 PM (YLs4U)

41 >>>Commentators were already spotting Palin Hairdos at the convention. Expect the style to make a comeback.

I don't know why it ever went out of style. She looks like Yvonne DeCarlo as Bat-Girl. Rrrrraaaaaaaarrrrr.

Posted by: ace at September 05, 2008 02:03 PM (1WR4H)

42 "Ya know, come to think of it this shit sandwich doesn't taste too bad at all now. Must be the ground moose they added to the blend."

I want to be you, Andy.

Posted by: fredras at September 05, 2008 02:07 PM (1OMSg)

43 Better a turd sandwich than a giant douche.

Posted by: Johanna Lapp at September 05, 2008 02:29 PM (E9Jrr)

44 I have to admit, I really enjoyed the John Edwards/Piper Palin Hair Style Tips Compared and Contrasted.

Posted by: grc at September 05, 2008 02:41 PM (3h8sn)

45 #43 - Ace, I think you meant Yvonne Craig as Batgirl. Yvonne DeCarlo was Lily Munster.

Posted by: butch at September 05, 2008 03:00 PM (2Cchq)

46 Aren't all football fans conservative anyhow? I can't imagine them watching such an American grounded sport.

Posted by: Lincoln at September 05, 2008 03:03 PM (GYHOH)

I WORSHIP OPRAH!!!!1111

ABOUT TIME SOMEONE ACTUALLY FOUGHT MCPOW AND MCCUNT INSTEAD OF KISSING THEIR FACIST, RASCIST NAZI ASSES!!!!1111

Palin is sending out subtle code identifying her to the skinhead types.

EVERYONE I know knows that shes a mole for skinheads and the Illuminattie! We WILL send her to The Hague along with Bush, Chainey, Aunt Thomasina Rice, KKKarl Rove, Ashcroft and all of Blackwater!!!!111

Posted by: KayInMaine at September 05, 2008 03:06 PM (qvhgr)

Our reaction: Relief. The emperor has no clothes -- or, to be fair, he has clothes. They're just not particularly great clothes

Something along the lines of tapered, acid washed jeans and a sleeveless, mesh half-shirt?

Posted by: Warden at September 05, 2008 03:09 PM (/zdaQ)

49 Well, KayinMaine certainly enjoys hanging lobsters from her tits.

Posted by: eman at September 05, 2008 03:10 PM (6VBMO)

50 Oh Kay , please don't leave . That was fuckin' awesome !!!!

I can't help it . That kind of insanity just cracks me up.

Lady, you're crazier than a shithouse rat.

Y'all think she's kidding , don't you ? Check out her site. Dayum !

Posted by: aubrey at September 05, 2008 03:48 PM (q/Z0+)

51 I liked McCain's speech. When I reflect on it, I think it was maybe better than Palin's, which benefited from bucking the expectations of the MSM shitstorm.

It wasn't any kind of soaring or searing rhetoric, but it was earnest and down to earth. It came across more like he was trying to appeal to people by talking to them rather than grandly speechifying in front of them. He said big-hearted things and meant them, and his biography bit bought tears to my eyes, and I'm no goddam sap.

I'm a bit more of an independent than most of you guys, and I don't think you guys were the main target audience, but it definitely worked for me.

Posted by: morbo at September 05, 2008 04:09 PM (DDKPv)

52 "everyone was told to expect an epiphanous orgasm from The One, and what he delivered was a servicable speech that was neither convincing nor fresh on the policy side nor inspiring and soaring on the thematic or biographical side."

You know what else worked against that speech? He was following Bill effin' Clinton to the podium, with only one day's lag time. Not enough.
Memo to Capt. Bullshit:
If your main claim to fame is your allegedly "soaring oratory," then you need to not try to work a room that Arkansas Pigboy was working the previous evening, especially when it's the exact same crowd. Word, it takes at least 48 hours for the oxygen levels to even get back to normal, let alone the acoustics.

Posted by: Stoop Davy Dave at September 05, 2008 04:26 PM (hFY+e)

53 Yes, the Emperor has clothes -- and actually, they're very fine clothes, elegant bespoke suits! Unfortunately, they are "worn" by a transparent plastic "invisible-man" mannekin.

Posted by: JCPennylegion at September 05, 2008 04:36 PM (NkIf1)

54 It had to sell to the squishy folks. We got our big hunks of red meat Wednesday which made folks more interested, and McCain <gulp> does well enough to keep folks around.

Boom. 37 million, then 40 million.

I'm just glad I didn't have any comments in the February thread.

I am enjoying my Moose Tracks ice cream tonight, though. Can't imagine why I would have bought that....

Posted by: Francase at September 05, 2008 04:49 PM (I1/Lp)

55 There's a new disease going around -- it's called "Woodstock Baby Syndrome" -- all those thousands of bong-addled hippies who didn't attend Woodstock but claim they did had babies after all. KayinMaine is one and she is a sad, sad case, too.

Do not overly fret, Kay. McCain and Sarah will address your peculiar needs soon. There is help over the horizon. The nice nurse will be around shortly. Soon, you'll be in a nice happy-happy-joy-joy state with the rest of the whining assholes WBS sufferers.

Posted by: prairiemain at September 05, 2008 04:51 PM (uDqa7)

56 McCain spoke last night? I was watching "Hobos Caught Unaware" on Bravo. I swear there was this guy who looked vaguely like someone we know beating a hobo senseless in an alley.

Posted by: mikeyslaw at September 05, 2008 04:58 PM (QMGr1)

57 It is a shame that you didn't get the import of McCain's speech. The emotion of it, the challenge of it, and the promise of it. Calling it mediocre saddens and angers me, not just because it shows a lack of understanding, but because it isn't true.

I am not a "squishy, dumb-ass undecided voter," and yet somehow I found myself cheering and in tears both.

If you believe these words are mediocre, God help America:
I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s.

I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here.

I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people.

I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for.

I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.

I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it.

And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God."

Posted by: Sara at September 05, 2008 06:26 PM (Wi/N0)

The TRULY good news about those numbers?

Most of the viewers, being typically stupid and not paying attention Americans, probably watched the video at the beginning and then stopped listening

And the video tells you everything you need to know

Posted by: Mr. Happy at September 05, 2008 06:28 PM (/YM8H)

Keeping in mind also- believe it or not- there are alot of folks, ALOT of folks out there only vaguely aware of Jonny Macs biography

"he was in vietnam, or something, right?"

Now they know

Posted by: Mr. Happy at September 05, 2008 06:31 PM (/YM8H)

60 ipod to mac

Posted by: ipod to mac at April 04, 2011 09:04 AM (AIGD4)

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