grins and false chuckling whenever the rhetoric device came around

grins and false chuckling whenever the rhetoric device came around were totally distracting and they were very much unlike John McCain, when he plays to his great oratorical strength, which is speaking off the cuff in town meeting settings.
Having said that, I think McCain made a strong argument to independents about his version of reform no doubt, he s going to try to saddle Obama with those dreadful votes in favor of the Farm Bill and on what McCain actually called the Bush-Cheney Energy bill. Given the fact that exports are a major, growing sector of the economy, Obama s anti-free trade positions, vehemently taken in the rust belt, also may be a significant area of weakness in those car diagnostic scanner areas of the country that are airbag reset seeing export-led economic development.
At the same time, McCain s contention that Obama is looking to the past because he favors greater federal activism seems an ancient argument after 28 years of Reaganism. My sense is the public, scared to death by the rising price of everything and the growing gaps in the social safety net, has grown tired of that old rant.
McCain made his same old foreign policy arguments and even if he s right about progress in Iraq (quite possibly, he is), it s easy for Obama to argue back: then why don t you want to leave, John? And, no doubt, Obama will continue to nail McCain as a Bush foreign policy clone. My guess, is, the candidate who seems more likely to focus on the Middle West than the Middle East will have an advantage.
In all, though, this was a fascinating, substantive speech. Let s hope that McCain sticks to debating Obama on the issues as he goes forward.
Clinton s Speech: A terrific, but utterly ungracious speech. It showed the remarkable progress she s made as a candidate and public speaker but what are the priorities here? Having a Democrat win in November or aggrandizing Hillary Clinton? As I wrote yesterday, Clinton s best course of action now is to demonstrate a whole-hearted support for Obama I suspect her least likely path to the vice presidency, if