harikari.com

Okay… I want to make one thing clear from the get go.  I am very, very tired of the use of the word “maverick” to describe McCain, and after three days of RNC coverage I am sure all of you are too.  So from here on out I’d like you all to try this:  Every time you hear the word “maverick” in the same sentence as “John McCain,” replace the word “maverick” with the words “old man.”  That will make you feel much better about the upcoming election.

After listening to parts of some very bad speeches by some very poor speakers that preceded John McCain, he finally took center stage to deliver his nomination speech.  I didn’t expect much and I didn’t get much.  He was boring.  After listening to the other listless speakers, his speech looked and sounded like a remake, or even worse, a rerun.  By the time John McCain used “maverick” to describe himself, the wine I was drinking instantly tasted acidic and sour and I wanted to spew it all over my kitchen.  But I choked without spraying and managed to listen to the speech until The Daily Show came on. 

I sat through his account of his time as a POW in Hanoi (not fresh at all since I was hearing it for the eleventh time), and I listened to parts of his speech that reminded me of why I used to like him:

I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.

…

Americans are ambitious by nature, and we’ve faced greater challenges. It’s time for us to show the world again how Americans lead.

(APPLAUSE)

This great national cause will create millions of new jobs, many in industries that will be the engine of our future prosperity, jobs that will be there when your children enter the workforce.

Today — today, the prospect of a better world remains within our reach. But we must see the threats to peace and liberty in our time clearly and face them as Americans before us did: with confidence, wisdom, and resolve.

…

This great national cause will create millions of new jobs, many in industries that will be the engine of our future prosperity, jobs that will be there when your children enter the workforce.

Today — today, the prospect of a better world remains within our reach. But we must see the threats to peace and liberty in our time clearly and face them as Americans before us did: with confidence, wisdom, and resolve.

In America, we change things that need to be changed. Each generation makes its contribution to our greatness. The work that is ours to do is plainly before us; we don’t need to search for it.

We need to change the way government does almost everything: from the way we protect our security to the way we compete in the world economy; from the way we respond to disasters to the way we fuel our transportation network; from the way we train our workers to the way we educate our children.

All these functions of government were designed before the rise of the global economy, the information technology revolution, and the end of the Cold War. We have to catch up to history, and we have to change the way we do business in Washington.

(APPLAUSE)

The — the constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn’t a cause. It’s a symptom. It’s what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not for you.

(APPLAUSE)

Again and again — again and again, I’ve worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That’s how I will govern as president. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again.

Bravo!  I liked that John McCain.  The new “party controlled” McCain?  Not so much… He followed the above section with:

My friends… I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.

Did he listen to what Thompson said two nights ago about how being a POW does not qualify one to be president?  I guess maybe he was having a drink during that speech and never read about it when Wesley Clark said it.

As he went on and on about his time as a POW, and I became more and more bored.  Bored because I’d heard the same story at least ten times before.  rerun.  BORING!

He also grossly misrepresented Obama’s tax plan as Palin did last night, and used some code words to pander to the evangelical wingnuts:  “We believe in … a culture of life” as if the not we, the Democrats, believe in a culture of death. 

At that point, some fifty minutes into his rerun speech, I switched to The Daily Show  so I missed, according to the transcript, when he called on Americans to do something – anything - to serve their country and to ”Stand up, stand up, stand up, and fight!”

So I did my duty and watched as much of the RNC as I could. 

Did you?  If you didn’t, you owe me big time.