CNN carping all day about length of Kerry' speech, either 50 or 55 mins...

[flpoljunkie]

at least, that is what they are hearing from "campaign sources."

And how long was Bush's acceptance speech four years ago?

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0008/04/wt.01.html

MORET: It was intended to be George W. Bush's finest hour, and his acceptance speech was just minutes short of being an hour long. He began with a tribute to the members of his family, especially his father. Then Governor Bush focused on his own generation, the prosperous baby boomers. After promising to seize this moment of American promise, Bushed move in for an attack on the Clinton-Gore administration.

The actual transcript follows the talking heads' ruminations. Moret is the last comment before the transcript begins.

[donco6]

1. They want details, they want emoting, they want . . .

personal anecdotes, they want assurances . . .

And they all want it in under an hour, because they have to fit in commercials somewhere.

[blm]

2. The public is being told by the media to be bored before it starts.

They are evil and I am truly disappointed in those on the left who help them further their Rovefed memes.

[bluestateguy]

3. What can you do?

Too short and they bitch about the speech lacking substance and the whiny swing voters in Frank Luntz' focus group piss and moan about not knowing what Kerry will do if he wins.

Too long and they bitch about the speech being boring, too detailed, too policy wonkish and uninspiring. What can you do?

[WI_DEM]

4. Bush on Bill Clinton in his acceptance speech

"Our current president embodied the potential of a generation. So many talents, so much charm, such great skill, but in the end, to what end? So much promise to no great purpose."

And so Mr. Bush what was your great purpose? To reverse the surplus? to kill three million jobs? to start a war against a country which was not involved in 9/11? for what? to allow the big oil companies to profit? But then unlike Bill Clinton, you have no discernable talent, zero charm and no skill at performing your duties. No promise equals disastrous results.

[WiseMen]

5. A 1-2 hour Presidential speach in not unusual elsewhere in the World

[LiberalFighter]

10. How long were Saddam's speeches?

I remember 5-6 hours

[Gloria]

6. Frankly, I wish it were shorter...I just don't want him to slip into

the "drone." I hope Schrum or whoever is writing uses short sentences.
My well-connected friend emailed someone to tell them to keep sentences to 10 words or so in length, to liven the pace.......

[tridim]

7. Let's add up all the time CNN has spent saying it's too long

I'll bet it's MUCH more than 55 minutes.

It's like Faux complaining that people never hear the "good" news from Iraq. They spend countless hours complaining about it, yet they don't report any "good" news because there isn't any, other than a few freshly painted classrooms.

[tritsofme]

8. An hour seems fairly long, especially seeing as the public has a such a

short attention span throughout this convention with record low ratings.

I just hope folks don't get bored and start flipping it off at the half hour mark.

[LiberalFighter]

11. How could it be record low ratings...

when it hasn't been televised that much compared to previous conventions?

Somewhere... USAToday?? the ratings were high on C-Span and higher on PBS.

Could it be because C-Span and PBS are televising THE convention and NOT the idiotic talking heads?

[wishlist]

9. After such a huge buildup all week, Kerry needs a substantial speech

longer than anyone else's so I am glad that he plans to do a substantial speech filling up most of the hour. I guess the film bio will be during the hour of network coverage also.

[gmoney]

12. 20 minute speech with 30 minutes of applause

Remember, they'd bitch if it was a SHORT speech, too.