What was your reaction to Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain’s speech at the National Republican Convention?

“Well except for the very end it was somewhat low key. He has an emotional and powerful story to tell and wanted to use that for his speech. It was perhaps a little more respectful of Obama than I expected. It was more about who he was and what he intended to do. I think he chose the slightly lowered lectern with the thrust runway out into the audience. He wanted a more town hall feel and he got that by being closer to his audience. He wanted to represent that with the stage setting. He is certainly not the orator that Obama is and I don’t think he will try to do that, but he wants his own perspective to come through in his own story and his own narrative.”

– Ferald Bryan, associate professor of communications

“I’d say it was a fine inspirational speech. I think the bottom line is he’s a tough ornery old bird who has learned tough lessons in life and is prepared to lead the country in difficult times. I thought on more specific issues he seemed to want to have his cake and eat it too. He praised George Bush but simultaneously he proposed himself as the cure all to the vast evils in Washington D.C. He also promised to reduce the size of government and yet he proposed, what seemed to me, a much larger role of government in public education. Then he went on to propose a huge government program in energy dependence. I thought he was perhaps more effective on the inspirational side in dealing with broad themes rather than dealing with policy issues. We saw a number of very good speeches this year. I think political speeches are making something of a comeback. Politicians now have broader themes and try to reach out to a TV audience. I give McCain and the Republicans a lot of credit. They had to hold their convention after the Democrats had a very successful convention. I think people thought they would be demoralized and they weren’t. I wasn’t sure what to expect. He could give a very bad speech, but with a good speech writer and good preparation, we saw tonight that he can give a very good and rousing speech.”

– Mikel Wyckoff, associate professor of political science