McCain Still Sucks At Giving Speeches

As the NY Times told us yesterday, and as anyone who has followed the campaign knows, John McCain sucks at reading a speech from a teleprompter.

“His rhetorical style can best be described as ‘tired mayonnaise,’ ” the comedian Stephen Colbert declared on “The Colbert Report” before inviting viewers to enter the “Make McCain Exciting Challenge.”

Peter Spaulding, the chairman of Mr. McCain’s campaign in New Hampshire, said he recently saw a McCain speech on television that was “just atrocious.”

Dan Schnur, Mr. McCain’s communications chief during his 2000 presidential campaign, said, “Besides his convention speech, the only time I would even put him behind a podium at all between now and the end of the campaign is when he’s announcing a policy position.”

Mr. McCain’s advisers, who bristle at the idea that they are trying to transform the candidate, say that his lack of smoothness merely reinforces his reputation for authenticity.

McCain has been working with speech coaches to improve his podium mannerisms and facial expressions. But today, during a speech on his economic plans, McCain demonstrates that he still has a long ways to go:



Obama is giving his acceptance speech on August 28th before a crowd of 75,000 in Denver. McCain will give his "speech" before a crowd half that size one week later. I'll say it right now: McCain's gonna look like a doddering old fool on the verge of croaking no matter how many times he practices his speech. The blaring lights, huge crowd, and pressure will get to him, and the contrast with Obama's speech just won't look good.

Yes, I know, the media pundits such as Chris Matthews will applaud McCain's speech no matter how bad it is. But the American people are smarter than them, and have been for a while now. If I was McCain's advisors I'd want to scrap the speech altogether, but having a town hall type unscripted Q&A on the final night of the convention just doesn't seem viable.

Sorry, John. It sucks to be you.