NeoCon Central (NRO) is... not impressed.

McCain's Speech
from The Corner by Jonathan Adler
McCain's speech certainly had its moments, but I'm not sure it accomplished all that much. In my opinion, McCain needed to outline an agenda that would appeal to voters disillusioned with the Bush Administration and the existing Republican leadership. A good way to do this would have been to rail against Congress, as Ramesh suggested. Another would have been to outline more specific policy proposals of the sort one would not expect from a third Bush term. Attacking Republican excesses may have helped a little, but not much more. I wouldn't call the speech a failure, but it was not a great success either.not a grand success.


11:38 PM (4 minutes ago)
The Speech
from The Corner by Jonah Goldberg
Ehhhhh...maybe I'm missing some grand strategy or tactics, but I think it was a missed opportunity. Good that he did some policy. I liked that he championed free trade -- something he didn't have to do. I liked the fight, fight, fight stuff. Good that he was specific. I can come up with specific compliments about this or that. But it was flat, forced and basically a free pass for Obama. Again, maybe strategically that was the plan and maybe there was a good reason. Maybe Palin will be the pitbull and he'll be the statesman for the general election. And maybe that will work. But politically and substantively I think there should have been more oomph, more fun, more energy and more contrast. Civics value: B. Political value: Gentlemen's C.

A Peace-Loving Fighter
from The Corner by Ramesh Ponnuru
You can't say this speech was a negative one, designed primarily to tear Obama down. There were of course shots at Obama, and he gave himself the best of things, but there was less of this type of sniping than there was in Obama's speech a week ago. I think in one or two areas he should have been a bit more negative--about the Democrats' position on domestic-security issues, for example. He said nothing about the limits of talk in foreign policy. He had one paragraph contrasting his approach to Obama's on taxes and health care, but he did not develop a theme that he would protect America from higher taxes and bureaucratized health care. His major theme, that he is a non-partisan fighter for the public interest, is a good one--the best one he could adopt, I think, certainly better than running on experience. And there were a lot of good elements to the speech. But I don't think he did anything tonight to shake up the race some more.

Instant React (Though Points to Follow in Due Course)
from The Corner by Jay Nordlinger
He was himself and he said what he believes. That's probably the most you can ask for in a candidate.

Why Is McCain Delivering
from The Corner by Kathryn Jean Lopez
His great rallying section under cheers? No one heard the whole end of his speech.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/