Thoughts on McCain's speech

1) He spent far more time telling us what he went through 35 years ago than he did addressing what we went through in the last 7 and a half years. It stands to reason: his party was responsible for much of it.

2) McCain's speech, and much of the GOP convention, was just red meat rhetoric. There wasn't much substantive, which was surprising. Given how harshly they (incorrectly, IMO) criticized Obama for a lack of substance in his speech, I expected a plan from McCain. It didn't come.

3) The desperation of the Republican party is showing in the outright lies they're telling. Both candidates tax policies will increase after-tax income - though Obama's will yield about 2% more for those making under a quarter of a million a year. And yet they trot out the same old trope about Obama raising your taxes.

4) Given that Sarah Palin so derisively mocked Obama's community organizing past, it was odd to hear McCain call for people to get up and dosomething to help their communities. Wouldn't that be ADVOCATING community organizing?

5) Maverick? Maybe a decade ago. Voting in near lockstep with the Bush administration doesn't make you a maverick, it makes you a lapdog. Appointing a right-wingnut like Sarah "creationist" Palin says that you'll perform whatever quasi-sexual favors are necessary to stimulate the Christian right. Outright lies and attacks while making promises to keep the campaign civil isn't maverick, it's lying.

6) Again, the constant reliance on his POW past is now tarnishing a record that is truly honorable. His "I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not” line was really.... sad. We know he is a legitimate hero. He is diminishing his own legacy. Being a prisoner 35 years ago doesn't answer the complex questions that exist about Iraq, Iran, Russia, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He told us nothing.

We deserve better.