John McCain may hold together the GOP's warring factions, but the Democrats' excitement for Obama will be hard to overcome.
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If you wanted to avoid being dragged down to the Bush-Cheney Republican level, you could do worse than avoiding a Bush-Cheney convention. There were no cheers of "Four more years!" in Minnesota this past week.
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In Denver, one couldn't walk more than two blocks without running into people selling Obama T-shirts or buttons. In St Paul, one could walk the same distance from the Xcel Centre and not see any evidence that there was a convention going on. While McCain and Palin were hits, at times the contrast between the conventions was like that between a religious revival and Night of the Living Dead. In fact, the numbers at the Republican convention were comparable and the intensity greater at the rally for Ron Paul, the distant fourth-place finisher in the GOP primaries.
John McCain gave the speech of his life in St Paul last night. Duty, honour, country and a little bit of humour. But whether he gave the speech that will make him the next president of the United States is less clear.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/05/uselections2008.johnmccain4