John McCain is undergoing intense training to get him up to speed in making speeches that are read off a teleprompter.
A story typical of the New York Times (it’s hard for McCain, because the Obamessiah is so friggin’ awesome!) details the steps that are being taken to make sure McCain can compete at sounding sincere while reading someone else’s words.
- Greg Jenkins, a former White House official and Fox News producer…will oversee the producing and staging of McCain’s events.
- He is working to limit his verbal tangents and nonverbal tics.
- He is speaking less out of the sides of his mouth.
- [H]e is relying less on his favorite semantic crutch — the phrase “my friends”
- McCain also appears to be trying to exercise restraint, advisers and campaign observers say, when speaking off the cuff, wisecracking in town meetings and criticizing his opponent. In recent weeks, for example, McCain seems to have reined in the sarcasm he has directed at Obama. (In May, for example, he said of his opponent, “With his very, very great lack of experience and knowledge of the issues, he’s been very successful.”)
But with all the hard work being done, you have to wonder if the McCain campaign gets the picture yet. There is a slight indication that they do. After all, McKinnon is a “former consultant.”
“Voters are looking for credibility and are wary of polish,” said Mark McKinnon, a former consultant to McCain’s campaign. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter which candidate can more deftly read a teleprompter.”
It doesn’t matter? McCain’s in a neck and neck race with a guy whose only qualification is that he can deftly read a teleprompter. Glad to see that McCain is moving in the right direction — away from McKinnon’s old-school “qualifications matter” thinking.
This is 2008, the year a holographic image won the Democrat Party nomination.
