Rah Rah, Sis Boom Bah!

I watched John McCain's acceptance speech last night. Many, if not most, of the pundits are claiming it wasn't that great of a speech, and that Palin's speech was better. Of course many of those same people felt that Obama's speech was overshadowed by Bill Clinton's.

For me, I think I can sum them both up thusly: Obama spoke to his base. McCain spoke to the moderates.

I think he was speaking to me. I'm the guy who hates the amount of hate in politics these days. I'm the guy who despises the lack of cooperation and progress. So when McCain doesn't even mention his opposition for over half his speech, and doesn't mention him that much in total, I like that. I want to know why I should vote for him, not why I shouldn't vote for his opponent. I have a friend who won't vote for either, and I sympathize.

And it made a difference to me when he essentially said there's plenty of blame to go around. I agree. Both parties have been complete and total idiots lately. They've been insisting on holding a water fight on the Titanic. And while I doubt it can happen very much, I still like to hear someone call for bi-partisan cooperation. That it comes from someone who, for good or bad, has done that just makes it more credible.

I also was pleased to see him call his own party to repentance. One thing that was missing from Obama's speech was an admission that he even has a party, let alone that they're doing anything wrong. HE is going to do everything--as if his own party won't try and stop him on some of it. McCain was right to say "Hey, we've screwed up as a party, and it's time we fixed it". I hope he can do it, whether he becomes president or not.

I was already planning to vote for McCain. I doubt there's much he could do short of total reversal of who he is or what he believes that could change that (though I've learned to never say never where politics is concerned). But after last night I feel that much better about my decision. I'm hoping to be able to look back one day and say "Yes, I voted for him, and I'm proud of it."