John McCain Call to "End Partisan Rancor" in Acceptance Speech Rings Hollow

First of all, I respect John McCain the man. Let's get that out of the way upfront. But the respect I formerly had for John McCain has eroded quite a bit in recent years. In the last 4 or 5 years, we have seen John McCain go from calling the Jerry Falwells and Pat Robertsons of the World "agents of intolerance" to, how can I put this delicately? Okay, in the spirit of "straight talk", I won't. John McCain has kissed the backsides of George W. Bush and the so-called "religious right" time and time again at least since 2004.

According to good sources, McCain mulled over an offer from 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry to be Kerry's running mate before nixing the offer as political suicide. The man who has been a media darling for so long has had his henchmen, and henchwomen attacking the media all week at the Republican National Convention. According to the Huffington Post, George W. Bush's failure to appear at the convention due to Hurricane Gustav was an answer to John McCain's prayers.

If you'd like evidence of John McCain's lack of judgment, look no further than his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Also according to the Huffington Post, Karl Rove and Peggy Noonan joined David Gergen as Republicans who think the selection of Palin is strictly political. Peggy Noonan, former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and now a columnist for the Wall Street Journal even used a barnyard expletive to describe the selection of Sarah Palin. Is Peggy Noonan now a "sexist" Palin-drones?

On Labor Day, John McCain even hired one of the "political operatives" (a fancy term for thug) who trashed him in the South Carolina primary in 2000, Tucker Eskew, to babysit Sarah Palin on dealing with the press. A rather difficult task, apparently. In another Huffington Post article it was reported that Sarah Palin appeared on a radio show, while Governor, featuring a "shock jock" who repeatedly referred to a political opponent of Palin's as the "B" word to laughter from Palin.

Much has been made of Sarah Palin's speech last night and it's unification of the Republican Party. She "solidified the base" they say. She "hit a home run" according to others. In the 24 hours since Sarah Palin's snarky little diatribe, Barack Obama's campaign reported new contributions of $8 million dollars to the GOP's $1 million. How's that for irony? Sarah Palin's speech has done more to unify the Democrats than Hillary Clinton's speech of last week. The same Hillary Clinton that Palin lauded when announced as McCain's running mate after calling Hillary a "whiner" during the primaries when Ms. Clinton complained about press coverage of her campaign. Food for thought: does that make Sarah Palin a "whiner" now?

In John McCain's acceptance speech one of the points the "straight-talking maverick" made was the need to end partisan bickering and name calling in Washington. Either McCain didn't see the GOP spectacle on wednesday night, or name-calling is okay in St. Paul or anywhere besides Washington. Those words ring especially hollow after the Obama bashing delivered by the heavily made up Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and most of all, Sarah Palin.

Paleontology is the study of fossils, and John McCain is the fossil that Sarah Palin is studying. One of the more interesting things to come out of this week's convention is all the talk of Palin and McCain going after corruption, including Republicans. All these years, we've been told by the GOP that there were no corrupt Republicans. Hmmm.

It's not really relevant, but the first narrator for McCain's video was "Showgirls" actor Robert Davi. In years past, the GOP would have tried to make an issue of even a small detail such as that or the Heart song "Barracuda" blaring at the end of McCain's speech. I don't think the term was meant as a compliment in the song, Senator.

Much was made last week, and in Palin's speech last night, of Barack Obama's stage in Denver. Another interesting thing was the stage in XCEL Center being completely redone for John McCain last night. What's the difference?

McCain's "taking the high road" toward Obama in the speech is the oldest trick in the book, one that only the most naive voters would fall for. Trot out the VP to attack, attack, attack, then extend the olive branch to the opponent. It was a decent speech, however, I don't see it changing many voters' minds. The race is on.