Republican Convention speeches: 2008 Archives

John McCain had a hard act to follow coming after Sarah Palin. But he did a masterful job of expressing his commitment to serving America, fighting waste, earmarks and special interests while making sure America is safe.

His personal story of imprisonment and torture in Vietnam was told to a quiet, teary crowd. He confessed he had been broken by torture, but credited his cell mates with raising him from despondency to determination. It was in that Hanoi prison cell that he came to realize how much he loved America and dedicated his life to serving his country. All of this was delivered in a matter of fact manner, but his emotion broke forth as he called for all Americans to fight with him to make a great America even better than it is.

The audience responsed with a rising crescendo of yes, yes, we are with you, John and Sarah. We will stand up and fight with you for an even better America for our children and grandchildren. As you have, John McCain, we will put Country First.

Rudy Giuliani was the keynote speaker of the Republican National Convention, but his excellent speech got overlooked in the excitement over Governor Palin's address. It's worth a look and a read.

The transcript is here.

For those who may have missed it or want to read it now or download it, here is the text of Senator John McCain's speech accepting the mandate to shake up Washington and protect the nation from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The video is courtesy of C-Span.

Power Line notes:

40 Million?!

The Associated Press reports that, counting PBS, over 40 million Americans watched Sarah Palin on television last night--more, by around two million, than saw Barack Obama in Denver.

I suppose we should say a word of thanks to the Daily Kos cesspool [a vicious far left blog that was universally condemned when it said "Screw them" about four American contractors tortured and killed in Iraq] and the mainstream media who, together, tried to destroy Governor Palin but instead created for her a virtually unprecedented audience.

The wild-eyed accusation that Governor Palin's new baby was actually the baby of her 17-year old daughter Bristol, which the family was covering up, first appeared on the foul left wing website Daily Kos. Unverified though it was, the mainstream media immediately picked it up and ran with it. That forced the Palin family to disclose the fact that Bristol was pregnant, thus destroying any semblance of privacy the teenager would have had.

While the Obama campaign said the right thing about leaving famiily members alone, it did little or nothing to halt the hysterical attacks that Obama supporters in and out of the media immediately began leveling at Governor Palin, making headlines around the world.

The sexist attack contnued -- how can a mother of five with a pregnant daughter be vice president -- led to the enormous audience for Governor Palin's debut on the national political stage, which can only be described as a triumph. As even Wolf Blitzer of CNN said (as did Chris Wallace of Fox News), "A star is born."

Palin and her family acted with courage and grace with instant support and love for Bristol. And viewers also saw John McCain, who entered the stage after Sarah's speech, give Bristol a big hug.

Most vitriolic of the elite women sneering at Sarah Palin was perhaps Sally Quinn of the Washington Post, whose eminence derives from her marriage to her boss at the Post, executive editor Ben Bradlee, 20 years her senior. Most recently, Quinn, a non-Catholic, was criticized by taking communion at Tim Russert's funeral. Quinn oversees a Post column entitled "On Faith," so she was fully aware what she was doing was a deliberate insult to the Catholic Church.

Support for the Palin family poured in from all other the country. Average Americans felt they had been attacked. The mean, politically driven attacks on the Palin famiily had backfired.

Sarah Palin entered history last night at the Republican National Convention with a stirring address that filled the auditorium with applause time and time again. Poised, witty, down-to-earth, Sarah told her all-American story and began the election contest in earnest. Unshaken by the liberal media's onslaught of lies and innuendo and the suggestion that a woman in her position couldn't do the job, she showed that she was ready to take on the elite naysayers. As one worried leftwinger noted, her performance was "alarmingly strong."

This is the full video of her address, thanks to C-Span.

The highlights of the evening were speeches by former Senator Fred Thompson and Senator Joe Lieberman. Just eight years ago Lieberman was the vice presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, but last night he was urging Democrats and Independents to vote for America, not for a party, and to vote for McCain/Palin.

Lieberman in one reference contrasted McCain and Obama very well:

Senator Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead. But eloquence is no substitute for a record -- not in these tough times.

In the Senate he has not reached across party lines to get anything significant done, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party.

Contrast that to John McCain's record, or the record of the last Democratic President, Bill Clinton, who stood up to some of those same Democratic interest groups and worked with Republicans to get important things done like welfare reform, free trade agreements, and a balanced budget.

Click here for Lieberman's speech (video and transcript).

Click here for Fred Thompson's remarks (video and transcript).

Thompson made many fine observations, but this is an unanswerable one:

It’s pretty clear there are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves: ‘Who is this man?’ and ‘Can we trust this man with the presidency?’