Conservative Bloggers Like What McCain Had to Say
He knew it was going to be a tough room to work, but it didn't seem to deter RepublicanSen. John McCain from his task: persuade the conservatives packing the audience at the CPAC convention in Washington that he really was a conservative and that he wanted to work with them.
When McCain was introduced at the convention by Tom Coburn and George Allen, two prominent conservatives, there were some boos scattered in the crowd. The audience was for the most part attentive: while they booed again when he mentioned immigration, they also cheer when he talked about issues like Iraq, Iran and appointing more judges like "Justices Roberts and Alito."
The reaction in the conservative blogosphere, however, was overall more positive.
Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters called it an "excellent speech":
"McCain sounds energized and is commanding the room. It's one of his better speeches, and he's hitting all the right notes for the crowd. A lot of them are his supporters, but Mitt's backers easily outnumbered those at CPAC. At the least, his opponents are giving him a chance to convince them."
They were a bit more skeptical at The Sundries Shack, but still willing to admit it was a strong speech;
"There will need a lot more of that if he really wants conservative support. There are a lot of serious differences between Johnny Mac and conservatism and if he intends to get our support, he's going to have to move closer to us. One of the ways to do that is to be open and honest about how he's going to repair the damage he's done to conservatism."
Hugh Hewitt, one of McCain's most ardent detractors, was gave the speech a thumbs up, calling it "superb": "It was a strong appeal to conservatives' strongest suit --their deep patriotism and their admiration of his sacrifices and service."
Finally, the Campaign Spot at NRO thought it "went pretty well" but left something to be desired: "The speech was well-written and mostly well-delivered. (His voice actually wavered as he said, 'It is a deep and unwavering love.') Patrick Hynes, McCain's web guy, just asked me what I think. I said, good, but I felt like it didn't quite soar. It went well, it did what it needed to do, conservatives are going to walk of the room feeling better about McCain than when they entered, but it wasn't quite a home run... Not sure what it was missing...."
6:10 PM ET | 02- 7-2008 | permalink
