Gloss may wear off Republicans’ ‘lipstick-on-a-pitbull’ convention moment

Source: Times Online

John McCain’s speech was thin gruel after the raw red meat of his running-mate, and the party may yet run out of impetus.

On Wednesday evening, as Sarah Palin was preparing to take the stage at the Republican convention, a knot of teenagers was standing on a footbridge over the highway leading into MinneapolisSt Paul with a homemade sign that read: “Obama ’08”.

Had they nothing better to do? “It’s the first time that I’ve felt like this,” explained Ligeia Baumhofer. “Barack Obama has got us excited about politics.” A policeman told them to move their sign inside the railings and advised them to leave but they stayed to wave at car drivers honking support.

John McCain even had nice words for Mr Obama, the target of Mrs Palin’s sharpest arrows on Wednesday, saying “much more unites us than divides us” and that the Democrat bidding to be America’s first black President had “my respect and admiration”.

But it was a clunky, double-decker of a speech. Here was Mr McCain arguing he was more experienced and ready to heal “partisan rancour” – when he had, by necessity, chosen a stridently right-wing running-mate with a record of just 18 months in state-wide office.

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