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.
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 you.
A good solid solid speech. McCain will not be elected for his public speaking skills. But he hit the right notes I think. What the American people have now is the starkest choice they have had since World War II in candidates. One with amazing and very inspiring oratorical abilities, coupled with a largely blank resume and on the other hand a man with a level of experience and character that leaves me somewhat awed. And then of course their is the choice in terms of the vision for our country.
My mind is made up. I prefer substance over style and character over great speeches, no matter how soaring the rhetoric.
ICXC NIKA
[url=http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/]John[/url]
God. He makes me feel ashamed. And proud. But mostly ashamed. Why am I sitting around blogging and whining when I have to be the luckiest person in the US?
McCain/Palin! And now, I think I will get back to work.
It is so disappointing to me. We want to charge into problems of our own makings with solutions not unlike the actions that got us into the problem in the first place. For instance. We bemoan the effect of money’s bad influence on government and yet we absolutely refuse to even acknowlege our founding father’s brilliance in dealing with what they knew would occur. Their plan was to deny those who have monied interests in Washington by denying them the right to vote; those in Washington DC do not vote in national elections. The great modern problem, however, is that lobbyists and money are no longer limited by distance. What we need today, in the wisdom of our founding fathers, is to deny those the vote who have financial gain from Federal policies (including military and teachers and miscellaneous bureaucrats) no matter where they lived. Believe me, this would rip money away from policy quicker than anything else the next president could possibly do.
It’s not my idea.
Don
Don,
Before I write something that might require an apology later, let me be sure I have read your comment correctly. You want to strip the vote from our men and women in the armed forces and from teachers?
ICXC NIKA
[url=http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/]John[/url]
I’ve not been a McCain/Palin fan, nor an Obama/Biden fan. However, having read both candidates acceptance speeches, I find that the distance between the two couldn’t be greater. One is filled with blame and ego, the other is humble and progressive. I now know for whom I will vote.
4. Ad Orientem:
I’m tired and the treatise is too short. Yes, I did say that. Please consider the history of the military and the pains that great men in the military have taken to keep our civilian CINC independant. Our military has done it right – why should I point them out? Duno.:-) But even there I hope that you see the wisdom.
Yes, teachers and their representantives have a tremendous effect on our Federal government. Surely you don’t doubt this. I of course don’t mean all teachers – just those who get substantual support from government. Personally, I think that there should be a wall of separation between government and education – not exactly another story.
Take a breath – don’t lose the forest for a couple of trees.
Don
Re # 6 above
New recruiting slogan for the military and teachers:
“Serve your country & Forfeit your citizenship!”
This idea is so repugnant and odious that I am going to refrain from any further comment lest I have recourse to language I picked up in my ten years in the Navy.
ICXC NIKA
[url=http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/]John[/url]
Don,
Please have a good night’s sleep.
Fr. Craig Reed, LCDR USN CHC
(American Citizen, Combat Veteran, Voter)
I don’t want anyone to lose their citizenship. I disparage no veteran. I’m related to some of the best of them.
Don
Stripping someone of their vote strips them of representation. That’s a pretty good definition for loss of citizenship. Most states don’t even do that to felons anymore.
Disparage? Yes you do!
I would agree with you if those who are denied their vote are also exempt from taxes. Seems like that was one of the big issues concerning our independence.
I honestly don’t know how to grade this speech.
From the beginning I hated it, loathed it. It was the same anti-ideological bipartisan crap that has made me despise him as a politician and candidate. He sounded much more like a Democrat than a Republican. He talked about wanting to help individual Americans like Joe so and so, and blah, blah, blah, the standard Clinton tack that only gives rise to laundry lists of programs even though he claims to be wanting to clean up the bureaucratic mess in Washington. I don’t think he ever laid out what difference there might be between Democrats and Republicans. It makes me wonder what reason of integrity he could have for accepting the party’s nomination.
But then, in the middle, he began to lay out some concrete policy objectives: Education reform, School Choice; Energy, drilling, nuclear and the other stuff; Judicial reform, judges who actually care what the Consitutions says rather than rewiting it; and of course defense in a dangerous world. That was good stuff, but it only barely balanced out the “I don’t need a political philosophy or a strong party that backs it up because I’m the indomitable maverick come to clean Washington up” hubris that is starting to give me a rash when I hear it.
Then he went into his war story, and I thought “Crap, are we going to watch the last vestige of an inspiring story be squandered through endless repetition and in first person, which is the worst way to impart an inspiring biography?” But he didn’t really dwell on what he suffered so much as how he was broken, in a good way, by that suffering. He talked about the death of a self-centered man and the birth of something greater, a conversion to something greater than himself. I began to see into his heart, and I liked it.
That was a real plus.
However, I’m afraid the old man, spiritually speaking, isn’t dispensed with so easily. This is my real problem with Mccain and his maverick bipartisanship. It is so easy, even for redeemed sinners, to let our purity become a back door for pride and vanity. I see McCain making this election about the purity of his trustworthiness, even his ability, to clean up Washington, based primarily upon his call to service. He knows he is noble of intention and thinks that that nobility is both all he needs and is superior to that of those who rely upon ideologies.
You see, for me ideology is another word for Principle. It is a set of ideas that stands apart from us, or actually stands between us and our ego. We hold to it, but as something we can look at objectively, and argue about it with others objectively. At least we have a better chance of doing so than arguing objectively about ourselves. Ideologies are less susceptable to the corruption of our whims and egos than our independent nobility is.
I think McCain is a good and honest man. I think so more now after the speech than before. But I don’t trust good and honorable men, any more than I trust myself. I trust ideas, because these most resemble Truth, with a captital T. Ideas should be promoted and fought over. This is what parties are for. And the parties choose candidates, when the parties are working properly, who will effectively promote those ideas, those principles of social governance, in a campaign and in governance.
McCain doesn’t sound like he cares if the Republican party defeats the Democrats. He doesn’t sound like he wants to grow the party, which makes me wonder whether he wants to spread any kind of political philosophy. Maybe Mccain will drain the swamp. But what will he put in its place. What foundation will he lay that will keep in clean when he is gone? Without a strong philosophical movement reform is ephemeral.
I have major policy issues with McCain, but I found this speech much more moving emotionally than I did that of Palin (I know… I am out of step here with most of y’all). I was especially moved by his testimony at the end of how he found his strength in a time of profound and total weakness. To answer Chris #12, I suspect that if you got McCain off the stage of the RNC, you would find him attributing the glory to God.
I think Senator McCain, whom I am proud to call a fellow veteran and DAV comrade, made an excellent speech. As I said on a previous thread, I am a registered Democrat, but I will vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.
In reading other comments on Mr. McCain’s speech, those who support Mr. Obama speak of him as boring, inarticulate, uninspiring and those are the kinder things. Someone made the comment that it sounded like a state of the union speech with the work “pedestrian” on close proximity.
No, it wasn’t high rhetoric, no list of great promises to solve every difficulty I have, nor was it a speech that made me jump up and cheer.
It was an hour of a man who has lived a life that few can begin to understand. He showed his soul and, as with most of us, that isn’t always pretty. He didn’t rely on what he said, rather on who he is.
That is a leader that I can support.
Mr. Obama is a fine orator and I have no doubt that he is a good man, but he (so far) hasn’t done much more than talk. He needs to mature, and that is not a comment on his experience. He could learn from Mr. McCain when it comes to the qualities of leadership.
An honest man? Yes and no. For a maverick, the most striking thing was the failure to speak honestly and forthrightly to the Bush failures and scandals. It shows at bottom he is a company man.
The Convention was the most militaristic I’ve heard in my lifetime. It went beyond “strong national security” and to a pandering to the baser instincts of nationalism and VFW sentimentality. It was hard to find a point where the gun came off the Bible.
I respect and like the man. I respect and like his running mate. But this Convention scared the pants off me. This is not my tribe. As for change in Washington, he said little that did not pander to the very mentality that has characterized the mistakes of the past 8 years.
Moreover, and this is perhaps the big point, he’s been in Washington a long time. Little has changed. He’s not a miracle worker. Not even close. Tax cuts for comfort, debt to pay for the war — by another generation. Like our children. Yet not an honest word about it.
I thought McCain’s speech was solid. I thought it started off kind of slow, and he invoked, much to my chagrin, the “bumpkin sob story” method in the middle. As a former political speech writer, I never cared for that rhetorical device where you invoke something like, “I running for Jim Bob Bumpus in West Virginia who lost his job after being diagnosed with bubonic plague and ebola virus after having his legs bitten off by rabid sharks that were paid for the special interests of the other party” (or something along those lines).
I never cared for that device as is its largely completely unverifible and the stories keep getting more graphic as the campaign goes along. As that’s a fact of life in contemporary American political rhetoric, I suppose that’s neither here nor there. I guess it just brings back memories of that hilarious SNL skit in 2000 on the Bush-Gore Debates. I can’t hear that rhetorical ploy anymore without thinking of that.
Despite to hohum start, I thought the ending of McCain’s speech was actually quite good. I’m interested to see what the reaction will be to the “fight for…fight for…fight for” litany at the end. I thought that section was delivered well, which was a gamble, as it could have come off looking complete fake, given McCain’s somewhat deliberately placid speaking style.
I could also tell he had copious notes in his script reminding him to smile at regularly scheduled intervals, but most public speakers do that. To be fair, if I had spent 5 years in a North Vietnamese prison camp, I’d have to be reminded to smile once in a while too.
Speaking of which, I thought, personally, the part of his speech on his experiences in Vietnam were probably the most powerful part and best part of the speech. I could tell he was more comfortable going off script for that section.
I still don’t know if I am completely sold on voting for McCain, but between his and Palin’s speeches, I am certainly more inclined now than I was before the Convention.
#5, I’m curious as to which you subscribe your adjectives, if you are willing to share.
The speech was about what I expected, so I wasn’t inspired or disappointed. My main thought, the whole talk about “change” and how he’s going to fix things the GOP has changed to when they showed up DC. But isn’t he one of those guys? I mean he’s voted for the policies advocated by the Pres and the party he says has lost it’s way 90% of the time. So based on his track record and his recent flipping and flopping on positions, I don’t see how change is going to happen or even why he has this “maverick” image.
I guess I’m still waiting for one of the two rather poor choices we have to do something to make me think they deserve my vote.
Right Mike, and Obama voted — um, let’s see, he voted …. oh, yeah, “Present” over 100 times and never even met with his sub-committee. Nor introduced any legislation.
Plus he’s chosen one of the most entrenched Washington insiders for his running mate.
He’s definately going to continue to fight against the corrupt system. NOT.
The commentary on the speech by Sen McCain misses what I heard.
For a change, Sen McCain acted as the leader of the Republican party. He laid forth what happened between 1994 and 2008, and specified the path which the Republican party must follow in order to regain public confidence.
His speech had little to do with partisan politics. He spoke to those in the leadership of the Republican Party: those who mouth platitudes about freedom but work tirelessly for more government programs. His selection of Gov Palin was a shot across the bow: should he be elected, the reign of terror of Sen Stevens and his ilk will come to an end.
Sen McCain laid forth a philosophical view solidly based on the founding fathers, freedom, capitalism, and individual initiative. He specified the reasons why a National government is powerless to achieve any of the goals which Sen Obama sets forth.
Do not forget: it was the Federal Government which brought forth the Great Depression. It was the Federal Government which, under Ford and Carter, brought forth the Misery Index. It was the Federal Government which lost the war in Vietnam. It is the Federal Government which has brought forth the energy crisis.
You had to listen with hearing ears to hear what Sen McCain said. He referred to his work in ending corruption in various sectors of the Federal Government. Earmarks have not ended. The abuse of political power for personal advancement has not ended. The very notion of an individual serving in the United States Senate for 36 years is laughable. Can one imagine the Constitution being adopted if lifetime peers (excuse me, legislators) would rule?
That’s why there was a revolution in the first place, to get rid of irrelevant lifetime Lords. And Sen Biden is not the Senator with the longest service.
Please go back and read his address again.
Even the protestors (not allowed into the Democratic Convention due to high security precautions) could not long throw him off his stride. I thought he handled them very well:
“Pay no attention to the ground noise and static!”
Brilliant!