John McCain is an American hero. He was a prisoner during the Vietnam War, and has done some great things in the United States Senate. On the campaign trail when he ran for President in 2000, he offered the Republican Party a leader who I my judgment obviously would have been far more intelligent and visionary than the one eventually nominated.
But John McCain 2008 is off-message and off-key, and seems to be an inferior clone to his 2000 self. His campaign seems badly-exhausted rather than well-tested. He sounds like he's reaching for a message rather than on message.
I watched his announcement speech in Portsmouth on Wednesday, April 25th, with the hope that I would be inspired by a Republican -- not that I expect to be very easily (in the interest of disclosure I'm supporting Hillary Clinton.) But I was expecting the straight talk and clear idealism of McCain 2000 which motivated thousands and thousands in New Hampshire and elsewhere to get excited about this man.
Instead, I saw someone stumbling over his words. Worse, he couldn't seem to go through a sentence without reading it almost word by word. One would expect if you're giving about the most important speech of your campaign -- an announcement speech -- you'd know it fairly well before walking up to the podium. But he didn't.
Whether he was prepared by his campaign consultants or not isn't the point, although it tells us something about the state of his campaign if he wasn't. Either way, he tumbled over some of his words, and his pacing was way off. The audience didn't seem particularly excited or motivated. It was more like they were just being courteous, which if so is the nice and polite thing to do.
His apparent thematic approach, if he had one, was something like "...that's not good enough for America and when I'm President it won't be good enough for me." Those words followed a few statements of things that aren't going well. But the gesturing he used seemed forced, as were his words. I also found that he raced through much of his speech, not waiting for expected applause at appropriate places. Yes, it was overcast but rain was a long time off, so I don't know why he suddenly became the Hurried-Up Express.
And I didn't hear "the vision thing." Maybe he's been talking too much with his friend George W. Bush?
But, this man is an American hero. A genuine one. He fought for us. He defended us. I wasn't a fan of the Vietnam War no more than I am of the Iraq War, but when a man or woman goes to war in answer to a decision of our government -- right or wrong -- he or she deserves respect and appreciation. He went. He fought. He suffered. Many other heroes went, and didn't come back. Fortunately, John McCain did.
One speech does not make a candidate or a campaign -- although one given by Barack Obama in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention certainly got some attention. So, here's hoping we'll see John McCain catch his breath and become a star again in the Republican Party.
Let's hope his campaign reinvigorates and reinvents itself. His party needs him in the debate. And the Democratic candidates need to be challenged by quality opposition as well. The election season of 2007-2008 will be all the better with John McCain as an important player, whether or not he goes all the way.
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