Inkless Wells

 Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW
He also offers his thoughtful perspective of Stephen Harper’s last 10 years in his recent eBook, The Harper Decade.

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  • Neil in Ottawa

    I also think that Wells must be out to lunch or thought this up before watching the speech. You can try to argue that Obama might not live up to expectations, but you really can’t argue that based on this speech. It was compelling and clearly spelled out his important policy plans.

  • Paul Wells

    Which is why Zogby this morning has it 47-45 McCain. Convention bounce, while fleeting, is not usually negative. But I’m glad you liked the speech, Neil.

  • http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

    In fairness, a smidge of that bump could be the result of the Chick Veep Gambit, which pretty much devoured the ensuing news cycle that otherwise would’ve been devoted to reactions to The Speech. (Full disclosure: I didn’t actually *see* The Speech, since I was stuck on a plane, although I’ve watched most of it since, albeit not in one sitting.)

  • http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

    Neil

    For those Americans who are undecided, Obama’s speech was anything but what you claim.

    Obama is a mass of contradictions because he knows he’s far-left and that has no appeal to most voters, so he’s trying to sell himself as a typical democrat. So his speech called for individualism/collectivism, free markets/state control and independence/dependence. The guy can’t make up his mind.

    The only people who think that speech clearly laid out anything are his supporters and I will be amazed if he convinced many undecideds to support him.

  • Paul Wells

    Kady, I’m entirely willing to believe that McCain neutralized the effect of Obama’s entire four-day convention, including a speech before 80,000 people in a stadium, simply by naming the least impressive vice-presidential candidate in my lifetime, Dan Quayle very much included. In which case, it cannot have been much of a speech, can it?

  • dB

    http://www.gallup.com/poll/109948/Obama-Acceptance-Speech-Gets-High-Marks-From-Public.aspx

    The race will be close regardless of a speech. However, if it’s the speech you’re trying to evaluate, may I suggest you use evidence that relates directly to the speech? Becoming the Canadian Broder would indeed not be a good look for you.

  • http://www.macleans.ca Kady O’Malley

    Totally fair point, Colleague Wells. Which makes me wonder – is there any kind of tradition, formal or otherwise (and most likely otherwise), of letting the other party hog most of the spotlight during its convention? I’m just wondering if the Democrats are now plotting and scheming over how to upstage McCain on *his* big day.

  • Paul Wells

    I greatly fear there’s a Category 4 hurricane that will distract from the Republicans better than the Dems could hope to, ITQ.

  • http://www.wassim.ca Wassim

    Kady,

    I this Gustav will take care of that.

  • http://www.wassim.ca Wassim

    *think*

  • Sisyphus

    I think it was a very good speech. It would have been especially good if it had been delivered by someone else. Given BHO’s relatively brief history of public oratory we had a right to expect better. Of course,I don’t know how he could have met the high bar of the pre-speech hype.
    We don’t remember them but I’m sure MLK delivered a number of duds in his day.

  • dB

    http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/davidcorn/McCain-Bush%20photo.jpg

    Upstaging has never tasted so delicious.

  • T. Thwim

    You think that’s good, dB?

    Consider: McCain is endorsed by pastor John Hagee, and has said “I am very proud to have Pastor John Hagee’s support.”

    Pastor John Hagee, it should be remembered, is a pastor who claimed: “I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”

    So.. does this mean that Gustav is the judgement of God against the Republican party?

  • KW

    As for the polls, check out fivethirtyeight.com, which seems to be a US version of nodice.ca

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