From the Screening Room: McCain’s Last Ten Minutes Make Up For the First 35; Networks Ignore What Public Could Not…Demonstrators during Speech
By Matt Towery
Southern Political Report
Copyright © 2008 Creators Syndicate
September 5, 2008 —
Arguably, John McCain delivered a weightier and more detailed acceptance speech than expected Thursday night, but it was the last 10 minutes of the address that fired-up the convention and seemed likely to move viewers. Shortly after he began the speech, protesters sought to disrupt him. Network cameras covered the disruptions, but most commentators gave the episode short shrift in their initial post-speech analysis. One can guess that, like the activist-driven stories earlier this week about Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s family, the Obama campaign cringed as the disruptions took place. Like it or not, the demonstrators’ actions likely struck many average citizens as a Democratic Party tactic. Clearly, the Obama camp would never approve of activities that could only reflect badly on their own campaign. CNN’s Jeffrey Tobin proclaimed McCain’s speech the worst since Jimmy Carter’s acceptance speech in1980. But what Tobin failed to note was that McCain, who struggles as an orator at times, was clearly thrown off pace by the distractions created by the protestors. Too, the effect of his performance was marred by a clear malfunction of the giant digital screen behind the Republican nominee that to me seemed to flash the image of a mansion and then go completely blank. I asked three other viewers watching the convention separately and all three had the impression that the image was that of some sort of stately home - a touchy subject for the McCain camp. But McCain scored more points with his words than his delivery, reaching out to independents and Democrats and issuing an almost unprecedented rebuke of a GOP that he said had lost its way in recent years. The last 10 minutes of the speech not only rescued a rather disjointed early effort, but ignited the GOP as McCain described how his brutal captivity in North Vietnam changed him from a young man concerned about himself to a man who puts “country first.” The moving and obviously passionate story was followed by a series of calls to “stand up and fight” for various causes, bringing McCain’s most unconventional convention to a rousing conclusion.
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