Check out what the pundits had to say about McCain’s convention speech:
MSNBC Former Republican Speechwriter for President Bush Michael Gerson – “The policy was the problem, the policy in the speech was rather typical for a Republican, pretty disappointing. It didn’t do a lot of outreach to moderates and independents on the issues that they care about. It talked about issues like drilling and school choice, which was really speaking to the converted. I think that was a missed opportunity. Many Americans needed to hear from this speech something they’ve never heard from Republicans before and in reality a lot of the policy they’ve heard from Republicans before.”
CNN David Gergen – “I did not think that the substantive part of the speech worked very well. It was mostly a rerun, retread of a lot of old Republican ideas that have brought us to where we are now. I think the country is looking for fresh answers. It’s hard to separate yourself out from President Bush when you essentially have the same economic policies as President Bush. I thought that the policy presentation was a little thin.”
MSNBC Rachel Maddow – “Honestly it was sort of like a long term paper about Bush Republican economics…But people aren’t mad at Barack Obama about the economy people are mad at George Bush about the economy and he just proposed a lot of Bush’s economic ideas. I think he really missed that.”
MSNBC Howard Fineman – “Sarah Palin is the ideological heir – heiress of George W. Bush”
MSNBC David Gregory – “I am however surprised and this goes to the Mike Gerson point, that there is not more of a blueprint of an appeal to independent and swing voters on policy issues that they will work off of…When he talks about education he talks about it being a civil right for the new century that is a George W. Bush line from the year 2000 when he called education the new civil right. It’s a carbon copy.”
MSNBC Tom Ridge – “Because John Bush – because John McCain is very much his own man”
FOX Chris Wallace – “It was a green backdrop behind him, it was a big lawn in front of a big house. You thought what the heck was that? It looked like it could have been one of the McCain mansions”
FOX Juan Williams – “Juan Williams: But when he tried to draw a contrast with President Bush, which is absolutely essential in order for him to win this election, he just mentioned President Bush once and then I think went on. And by saying I’ll work for you I’m not going to work for party again trying to draw himself apart from the GOP and the Bush brand.
Brit Hume: How well do you think that worked by the way?
Juan Williams: I don’t it worked very well at all.”
CNN Carl Bernstein – “Tonight was very gauzy and unspecific”
CNN Jeffrey Toobin – “I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I’ve heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980. I thought it was disorganized, I thought it was it was theme-less, I thought it was very, very boring…I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad.”
