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McCain Speech Receives Polite Applause Online

John McCain received a remarkably tepid response online Thursday night when he officially accepted the Republican party’s nomination to be president of the United States. "McCain seemed almost to be going through the motions when he talked specifics (sort of) on domestic policy," wrote Paul Mirengoff, a blog at the influential conservative site Powerline. "His […]

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John McCain received a remarkably tepid response online Thursday night when he officially accepted the Republican party's nomination to be president of the United States.

"McCain seemed almost to be going through the motions when he talked specifics (sort of) on domestic policy," wrote Paul Mirengoff, a blog at the influential conservative site Powerline. "His recition of specific hardships cases in various swing states struck me as lame, and he didn't really make it clear what he was going to do to "fight for" these individuals."

Mirengoff notes in the post that he's seen McCain stay in touch with the families he discussed Thursday night while on the campiagn trail, but nevertheless, he notes that even on foreign policy, McCain wasn't "as compelling as I expected."

In contrast to Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's dry and humorous, yet fiery and partisan vice presidential nomination speech Wednesday night, McCain's tone was moving, and heartfelt. That tone had more in common with Hillary Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention than anything else in that it appealed to Americans' fighting spirit and a spirit of perserverence.

While offering some intriguing ideas,the speech was remarkably devoid of details, something that McCain's Democratic opponent Barack Obama has been accused of while on the campaign trail. It also differed from Obama's address in its lack of acknowledgment that both making changes to the governing process and and coming to some level of compromise between competing interests on specific issues is going to be hard.

Even the Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page made the observation, which called for more policy specifics from McCain.

Mr. McCain will have to resist the temptation to fight this election mainly on character and experience. His own campaign manager suggested this week that this election will be about "character" more than issues. But that is a losing strategy in a year when the electorate is also looking for change at home, especially a stronger economy and rising after-tax, after-inflation incomes. Mr. McCain can only win if his character advantage is applied to an agenda of genuine change.

McCain was also on the receiving end from some sarcasm from bloggers at*The Economist, *who wondered how he could criticize Russia for invading Georgia.

"Wait. Is he really attacking hegemons that attack other nations in order to gain more control of their oil supply?" one of them wondered.

"Definitely looking to drink Obamas postpartisan milkshake," they later noted.

The bloggers concluded that it was a good speech, but noted that "[the pundits] aren't gushing like they did after Mr Obama's."

Perhaps blogger, army veteran and political scientist James Joyner summarized it bestin his blog post on the Thursday evening speech:

He’s not selling himself as an orator, though. He did what he had to do: Delivered a competent speech, contrasting his service and experience with that of his opponent, while emphasizing that he understands the need to deal with the country’s problems. The speech won’t generate a groundswell of support but will likely both steady the base and appeal to moderates.

While McCain's speech didn't inspire the torrent of online enthusiasm that Palin's did Wednesday night, it's difficult to judge how indicative of anything the online response is in this case, since many of his supporters appear to be older television-watchers and not as active online -- much like the Clinton demographic.

Nevertheless, the online reaction is worth noting since some studies have shown that bloggers can be influence brokers and opinion shapers among their realm of friends and associates who are not as passionate or involved in politics.

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