HAS THE WORLD GONE CRAZY?... WHAT WERE THE NETWORKS WATCHING?
John Kerry was Stiff and Disconnected... Low Hurdle for Bush

As I watched and listened to Kerry's acceptance speech tonight, I cringed a few times. Not at the content, but at his delivery. You could tell he was reading through his lines. A bit nervous as he skipped his pauses and spoke through the applause, which mainly came when he Bush-bashed, it was lesson in public speaking. It was amusing to watch as NBC and ABC panned through some of the crowd as they came across blank stares during his speech. I was guessing some of them were thinking, "Crap. He sucks, but anybody is better than Bush."

Kerry was stiff and rushed... wanting to be Clintonesque. When he was trying to build up momentum through the several lines ending with "help is on the way" I started to laugh. He was boilerplating Clinton's "send me" format from a couple days before, but it just wasn't working. I felt like I was watching the scene from Swingers when Mikey kept calling the girl's answer machine.

"Stop! Stop it, Johnny! It's not going to work!"

I started to channel surf to listen to the media's reactions. After his speech, I was not surprised by some of the glowing reviews from the broadcast journalists. NBC's Tom Brokaw and some of their journalists were talking about how great he did and how he deliver the speech he needed to. Same with ABC News. At this point, I was talking to myself, "What speech were they watching? Are they trying to push the perception of a "great speech" onto the American public? Can someone please be objective?"

It was like a parade of the naked emperor's court saying, "Oh! He suit is so well crafted! His tie is beautiful! His shoes are from the best leather!" Being objective and not criticizing the content of each speech, I would say that Clinton's speech kicked ass. He nailed it on all counts from connecting with the people to pitching (or spinning) his points for the Democratic ticket. I would grade him an A+. Edwards was okay. Not a great speech, but solid... B-. Kerry... C-.

I flipped through a few more channels (e.g. CNN, Fox) and caught CBS's John Roberts give a seemingly objective view as he questioned whether Kerry connected with the people and then punted by stating only the individuals themselves could answer that.

Anyway, I can see the majority of media outlets presenting a positive spin on Kerry's speech that was clearly mediocre over the next few days. He set the bar low for Bush to jump over. I hope President Bush really nails it in New York.

Here's some blogs that covered it live through their blogs... from Power Line and OxBlog.

UPDATE. A fair review from the Washington Post the day after.