I didn't watch any of the speeches on TV. I refused to be suckered into a setting where I would have to listen to a bunch of talking heads of the MSM dissect and interject their personal reactions and biases. I did watch and listen to and read the speeches via the internet, however.
I found the GOP convention to be much more inspiring as it was for something rather than against. I felt it displayed a far greater appreciation, love and belief of/in America and Americans than the Democratic call to nannyism.
In visiting several sites this morning I found a passing note at Instapunditthat Bill Whittle had written his thought on the GOP convention. (I got suckered into seeing what Mr. Whittle had to say and then went on to his web site for another hour's reading. The man is addictive. Thank goodness his essays take time to prepare or I'd never go anywhere else.)
Anyway.
Bill Whittle on John McCain’s Thursday night speech:
. . . what of John McCain? I’ve read many comments about his speech being a disappointment. I don’t know how it looked or played from the floor. But I know how it played from my Los Angeles living room. I believe — and we’ll know soon enough if I’m right — that John McCain did something Thursday night more powerful and astonishing than Sarah Palin did the previous evening. Sarah stole Obama’s glamour. McCain stole his message. (Granted, that may not be a lot, apart from the glamour, but it was all Obama had left.)
…
John McCain got me to believe tonight what I never really believed about him before: he is serious about changing Washington. He is serious about getting the GOP back to basics. John McCain wants to repair the brand. Claiming to want to do something is talk. What I think will cause many to believe him is something more than talk: McCain decided to man up. It’s our fault. We lost the confidence of the American people. We said we’d be true to our principles, and we weren’t. The Democrats didn’t make us do it. We did it to ourselves.
…
When John McCain told me what I and untold millions of Americans have always believed, what others tell me to be ashamed of and mock me for — that I live in the greatest country in the world, a force of goodness and justice in dark places, a land of heroism and sacrifice and opportunity and joy — to me that went right to the mystic chords of memory that ultimately binds this country together. Some people don’t know what it is, but there is such a thing as patriotism — pure, unrefined, unapologetic, unconditional, non-nuanced, non-cosmopolitan, white-hot-burning patriotism. John McCain loves this country. I love it too. Not what it might be made into someday — not its promise, always and only its promise — but what it was and what it is, a nation and an idea worth fighting and dying for.
…
I was lukewarm on McCain Thursday night, but after that close I will follow that man to the ends of the earth with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.
Go over to and read the entire essay for Mr. Whittle’s complete view of what has occurred in the last week not just within the Republican Party, not just within himself, but with millions of Americans across the country. The piece is called: Proud of the GOP
If you haven’t read any of Mr. Whittle’s essays…what the hell’s wrong with you! He has a site called Eject! Eject! Eject! which he has been woefully lax in updating (he claims to be busy on some other projects one of which is velly, velly hush-hush). Luckily his Silent American essays (linked to on the side bar of his site) are ripe for the picking so check them out. Check them ALL out. They are excellent reading. And addictive. The Boyd essay further down the page is also quite fascinating. Be sure to read all of it for the explanation of the OODA loop. (Many are saying the McCain camp has gotten inside the OODA loop of the Obama camp. And judging upon the deer-in-the-head-lights looks and reactions of Obama and his surrogates they may well have succeeded in doing just that.)
(If you prefer hard copy to reading on the web, Bill Whittle has published the Silent American essays as
SILENT AMERICA: ESSAYS FROM A DEMOCRACY AT WAR
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