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Brief thoughts on McCain's speech: The delivery was horrid. Bush on his worst day is better than this. But ignoring the juvenile 'gotcha' games so beloved by uneducated opponents of President Bush, which are given occasion by his well-known verbal inacuity, I'd say it was pretty good speech by McCain. Though he demonstrated he is no movement conservative, he will find plenty of opportunity to punch holes in Obama's statist dreams. He gave an able defense of non-withdrawal in Iraq (whether persuasive or not) and gave a decent critique of "big government" and our attendant loss of freedom. I must be a genius, because McCain pointedly emphasized the oldness of the proposals coming from the young Senator. I am skeptical of McCain's commitment to lower tariffs, taxes, and regulations, but at least we know that Obama will either ruin our economy, or lie to his own base (if he has any sense, that is).

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