McCain's Fair To Middling Acceptance Address Had Moving Moments But Simply Rehashed Old Policy, Pundits Say

St. Paul, MN (AHN) - Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) Thursday night address was final proof of the kind of character Republicans had touted in the last four days - he was respectful of his rival, honest about his war experience and was the calmest man in the room when protesters tried to disrupt him. But he also failed to address economic and social issues, according to pundits, and gave only a "thin" offering on policy to a nation in dire need of good leadership.

"One cannot leave that speech without having enormous respect for him as a war hero and patriot. His retelling of his story tonight was extremely moving," CNN's David Gergen said. "In terms of addressing America's big challenges, however, I found the speech much less compelling. It was a very general recitation of fairly standard Republican approaches (how is he really different from Bush on policy?)... that part of the speech was thin."

"Kudos to McCain for leaving personal partisan rancor out of the speech," he added.

NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy noted, "Much of McCain's speech is old material. The newest part of the speech and the only part that didn't appear to be lifted from McCain's stump speech was the last part about his experience as a POW."

McCain "attempted to fight for the mantle of change," mentioning the word "change" at 10 times, according to fellow NBC analyst Mark Murray. In spite of this, he "delivered several lines that could have been given by George W. Bush,"Aigner-Treworgy said, citing the Arizona senator's quip about "impartial" judges who "don't legislate from the bench" and about giving parents the last say on the education of their children.

The speech felt "flat after the full-throttle bilge and vitriol of Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani the night before," TIME's Joe Klein added. "It also seemed more a valedictory than an acceptance speech - more the end of a career than the beginning of a presidency."

Klein called McCain's retelling of his suffering as a POW "remarkable" and "bracing," and applauded the 72-year-old senator's attempt to offer up a new kind of Republican leadership in his term by admitting the failure of the last eight years.

"I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us. We lost the trust of the American people," McCain had said.

But Klein also said that "there was little in this speech that indicated [McCain] had any idea how" to regain that trust. "His offering was thin for a country in a heap of trouble."

Political Wire's Taegan Goddard praised McCain for not echoing the hostile attacks by his Republican colleagues in previous days, and "reinforcing a calmer image" when anti-war protesters entered the convention hall.

But he also cited the Republican nominee's "lack of specifics of what he wants to do as president" and disjointed delivery, concluding, "It was a very mediocre performance. I'm not sure it got the job done."

CBS stated the obvious, "McCain didn't electrify the crowd as [Alaska Gov. Sarah] Palin had the night before," while the Los Angeles Times seemed to stop short of saying McCain was out of touch with his Republican base, "gloss[ing] over social issues and focused on values such as honesty and selflessness" and "appear[ing] to float above the culture wars... in a nomination acceptance speech that criticized 'partisan rancor.'"