When I saw that Obama had 40 million viewers last Thursday watch his speech, I was not alone in thinking that was a remarkable feet that probably would not be matched by McCain.
Well, we were wrong. This past Wednesday, Sarah Palin's speech was watched by the same 40 million viewers, about 20 million more than watcher her rival Joe Biden's speech last week.
Then, it was said that the excitement was not to be outdone by John McCain. It was said by many political analysts that a VP pick has never out shined the presidential candidate, and that this year the expectations were, after Palin's speech, that it would happen this year.
Well, those analysts were wrong. Yes, it is true that expectations were low for McCains speech, and he met those low expectations and more. As McCain too had an estimated 40 million viewers watch him. People were more than eager to hear what the republican had to say.
That is nothing short of amazing. That's 80 million people who watched the RNC committee speeches in two days. And that resulted in the republican national committee being the most watched convention on television EVER.
This goes to show that not only did McCain his a bulls eye with the pick of Sarah Palin as his VP pick, many Americans are skeptical about Barack Obama.
I would guess that the same number of people are skeptical about because of his lack of experience as those skeptical of Palin for her lack of experience. But, as the victories of Carter, Reagan, Clinton and Bush II show us, the American people are not concerned about lack of experience when voting.
However, they are concerned about character. Obama's character has been in question over the past year. Who you associate with is important, because that shapes who you are and how you make decisions. Obama has hung out with some pretty shady characters in his day.
Likewise, Obama has had issues with wearing lapel pins with the American flag on it, with putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem, and his support for things like a world court that would supersede the law in America and take away our sovereignty.
Yes, it is true that many Americans are excited about the first black presidential nomination. Even I personally think it is a great feat. However, like me, many Americans question his character. Which is why I think the democrats, and America, would have been far better off if Hillary Clinton were their candidate.
Palin's large audience can be explained away by the fact that she is the first female to accept the VP nomination for the republican party. That in itself is a great feat. Yet McCain's audience can only be explained by the fact that not only are republicans excited about him now after his great VP pick, but all of America has a renewed interest in what he has to offer.
Likewise, Obama skeptics tuned in, whether they be independents or democrats teetering on the brink of annoyance.
We'll find out on Monday what kind of bounce McCain gets, but I don't think it will matter even if he doesn't get a bounce. Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakas and John Kerry all received a bigger bounce following their conventions as their republican counterparts, and they all lost.
I'm not making a prediction here, I would never make a prediction, I'm just saying.
1 comment:
McCain should be commended. This race is not over by any means. A lot of people are still shopping around, and maybe Palin made a few people reconsider McCain.
He got a tremendous crowd. But did he take advantage of the opportunity? We shall see. My guess is that both candidates will stay within 4 points of each other until the first debate.
I think both campaigns are nervous.
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