John McCain

I know you all have been waiting on pins and needles for my take on John McCain's acceptance speech. So I will keep you waiting no longer.

Senator John McCain is certainly no Barack Obama when it comes to speaking. In fact if you were to try to compare the two speeches, I would throw a yellow flag at you and declare a fifteen yard penalty. It seriously would be like trying to compare a blog written by Shakespeare and a blog written by me.

None the less, I believe that Sen. McCain delivered a great speech. He didn't receive as long of a round of applause at the beginning that Sen. Obama did, but that's just because Republicans are more orderly then Democrats. Plus most of them wanted to get out of there before Minnesota winter started.

McCain received several rounds of applause during the speech, especially when a code pink protester, who some how made it through GOP security, tried to protest. McCain made an off the cuff remark about static and once the protester was taken out, he continued on.

One of the most interesting parts of the speech was when he talked about his POW experience. I was a little weary as I don't have much love for the 'Vote for me, I'm a war hero!' shtick, but it was good. McCain explained how the experience caused him to go from him being McCain for McCain to McCain for America. How when he returned he wanted to serve his country and his people.

I've seen people criticize it, but I don't see the difference in that story and Obama's story about growing up with his grandmother and seeing her plight and feeling the need to serve the community. Different circumstances, same story.

McCain didn't spend much time talking about the issues, as I wouldn't expect him to in his acceptance speech. One thing he said confused me...

Government assistance for the unemployed workers was designed for the economy of the 1950s. That's going to change on my watch.

I am unsure if that means he's going to eliminate unemployment or increase it. I do support safety nets to keep people afloat during circumstances that are out of their control, assuming these nets are not abused. So I would not support an elimination or reduction in unemployment.

When a public school fails to meet its obligations to students, parent -- when it fails to meet its obligations to students, parents deserve a choice in the education of their children. And I intend to give it to them.

Oh that part made all gooey. I am a HUGE supporter of vouchers or tax credits that allow parents to send their children to private or charter schools. One of the things that has always bugged me about the democrats is their desire to throw more money at a failed system, rather than allow parents a choice in which school to send their kids to. Of course with a democratic controlled congress, legislation for vouchers and tax credits will never pass, but we'll see.

McCain's statement on energy is more in line with my beliefs and I would love to see a system of power plants and cars that relied less and less on foreign oil. (Of course we get MOST of our oil from Canada and Mexico, a pair of countries that would never backstab us, but still, with it produced domestically, maybe it wouldn't be on the open market and the price wouldn't be controlled by speculation.)

McCain, in his typical maverick style, said he would take ideas from both sides and implement them, if they were good. I do like the idea of a president that will not tow the party lines.

One thing that does concern me about a McCain presidency is the stacking of the Supreme Court with judges that will decide based on their own political beliefs (i.e. Roe v. Wade), rather than the constitution and the rule of law. That bothers me with both sides, but with the republicans, it's far more worrisome.

As well, McCain mentioned 'global economy' more than once, which leads me to believe that he will not necessarily choose policies that will discourage American companies from moving operations overseas. While he did mention lowering the business tax rates (calling ours the second highest in the world), that is also legislation that will never pass a democratic controlled congress.

All in all, I thought the speech was good. Not as good as Obama's, but then again, you cannot compare the public speaking ability of the two. Am I going to vote for McCain? I don't know yet. I am PROBABLY going to vote for Bob Barr, since my vote will help get the Libertarian party to 5% so they can get matching funds in the next election (even though I do not think they will get 5% nationally). But I am still up in the air.

While I have decided that I will not vote for Sen. Obama, I have not yet decided that that I will or will not vote for Barr or McCain. We still have a couple of months to decide, which may end up being moot if I continue to put off registering.