2) I think Senator McCain exceeded everybody’s expectations by how gracious he was. I was expecting him to give a weak congratulatory remark for senator Obama but never fully recognizing his acceptance of him as president. However McCain emphasized his support for Obama and his belief of one nation instead of one divided into republicans and democrats. I think if Obama had lost, he would have done the same thing as McCain in trying to show more of an importance on a united America instead of the fact that McCain won the presidency.

3)Obama met my expectations, only because they were very high to begin with. His speech was heart filled and inspiring to the American people much like his speeches during the campaign. He touched on many things, not only the past and present but also the future. I think McCain would have given a speech similar to McCain except he would feel content with his victory for presidency instead of yearning for more to be done in the white house once he was elected.

MacCain’s attitude also changed. Before the election, MacCain differentiated himself from Obama insisting his qualified experiences. He made sure his public commitments such as cutting taxes. He looked more excited with passion. After election, he expressed regret but admitted defeat. He complimented Obama, asked him to lead America, and asked the audience to co-operate with him.

2)MacCain met my expectation for his concession speech. His attitude was humble but this attitude made him more glorious regardless his defeat. Rather than arguing on his political party, he expressed his love toward America. With his patriotism, he embraced not only his supporters but also Obama’s supporters and all citizens in America. Even though he won, I would expect him to exceed a biased attitude because he maintained this attitude when he gave speeches before.

3)Obama met my expectations for his victory speech. He expressed gratefulness to his family, friends, and American citizens. Above all, rather than being proud of himself, he stressed America’s change, social problems, and social issues to solve in the world such as women’s rights and pursuing peace. I would say his speech was for Americans and rather than for his victory. Even though he lost, he would not express deep regret about his defeat and would promise to work for America and world peace.

2. McCain’s concession speech definitely exceeded my expectations. I think most people would agree that this speech was the best speech he has ever delivered in his career. McCain didn’t blame anyone for the loss, but thanked everyone that supported him for a long, hard-working journey. He also congratulated his opponent for their victory and assured the people that he will continue to work hard in Washington by working together with Obama and supporting his new president. I think that if Obama had lost, he would have given a very similar speech. He would go through his “thank you” list and offered his support to McCain as the new president.

3. Obama is such a talented orator and his speeches usually tend to exceed my expectations. Compared to the other speeches on the blog, his victory speech was twice as long and I sighed when I saw that it was nearly 19 minutes long. Once I started listening to the speech, I was so focused on what Obama was saying that the time just flew by. As usual, he made his promises of hope and change to the American people, but what I especially liked, was his story about the 106-year old woman from Georgia. The story became a timeline of all the hardships people had to endure over the last century and that made this historical speech that much more memorable. I think that if McCain would have won, he would have used personal stories as well to illustrate his road to victory. However, I think the overall point of his speech would be that they won the long journey as opposed to we have another long journey ahead of us in Washington.

Senator McCain pointed out his understanding about the problems which New Mexico has and his career on that in Roswell, New Mexico. Whereas he argued on his career and ciriticized his opponent career, he showed his support toward the next president and admitted his loss. He concluded his campaign by appreciating all of the supports he has had and encouraging people to support the next president who was once his opponent as their president.

(2) It exceeded my expectation. I think he showed his great aspect through his concession speech. He displayed his sorry for Obama’s grandmother’s passing away. He admitted his loss and congratulated Obama, stopping ‘boo’ noise from the audience. He tried to comfort his supporters and remarked he would not regret this election. What I liked most in his concession speech was that he admitted the differences between Obama and him and encourage people to support him as the next president, saying ‘my’ president. I don’t think it was easy to say his opponent his president right after the election because he must have been disappointed at his loss. But in doing so, I think he showed the aspect that he is a great man who knows how to accept the failure and to look at the future with it. He also mentioned America in the future, the next four years, which made him seem like he is an honest politician. I felt like he is a person who can embrace either win or loss and also an indispensable politician in this country.

(3) I was pretty impressed with Obama’s speech because he showed various aspects. I think he showed his faith in the next four years, his humanity as a person and his love for the country as a leader and one of the people. When he mentioned that the hard work of McCain and Palin and he was looking forward to working with them, I could feel his passion and embracement as a leader. (I’m not sure it soundes make sense.) and When he thank his families and appreciated people who support him, naming each name, I felt like he was humane. I felt like he is a person who can give credit. Also I liked the last part that he asked people to think of the future for the next generation, your very children, ‘my’ daughters. For very that future what ‘we’ have to do? The last part reminded people of their lovely families and gave an impression that he must work on for the change and also encourage people work on for their future and the nation. As I watch him embracing all people in the country, I think I could see him as a real leader of one nation.

2) McCain exceeded my expectations with his concession speech. I believe his graciousness of his defeat really relfect well on his character. While we saw glimpses of this in his campaign I felt McCain really showed this aspect of his character in this speech. He attempts to heal party lines drawn during the campaign, which is extremely important, especially after a campaign which at times got fairly heated. I would hope Obama would have a similar speech if he had won. However with the expectations Obama had going into the election I’m sure he would be devastated had he lost.

3) Obama exceeded my expectations as well. I felt it was nice that both campaigns talked about how well the concession phone call went. Obama did a good job trying to bring people together as well, and I thought his speech complemented McCain’s. I feel the specificity Obama went into in his plan for the country was important for Obama to outline as he did. With the current problems we currently have, it is important to get to work as soon as possible, and by outlining his plan hopefully Obama can hit the ground running when he takes the office. I would expect McCain to do the same with the current situation of the country I would hope he would focus on the future as well.

2) Considering the all the events taken place in the past eight years and how divided the country has become over that time, I was hoping for a candidate to preach about the importance of a unified nation during its most difficult times. I’m not sure whether I expected this from either candidate, but I was thoroughly happy to hear McCain speak about this. He seemed honest and genuine in his support for Obama and his promise to continue serving America.

3) Obama’s speech was very powerful, and as talked about in class, he seemed “presidential.” I did not know what to expect, considering that Obama’s victory was a historic one. His speech resonated with every one of his supporters, taking advantage and acknowledging the fact that he was making history. He went through his thank yous as he should have, and then spent the rest of his speech re-assuring his supporters that they made the right choice, and reaching out to the other party and saying that he would be committed to working cohesively with them. McCain’s victory speech would carry different weight, though. He obviously wouldn’t have the “history-in-the-making” expectation, but since McCain was considered the underdog to Obama, he would have to gear his speech towards reaching out to a larger population of people. Either way, both candidates gave effective speeches, and the expectations for each of them were plentiful and exceeded.

I do agree with those who’ve said that McCain had to make a more significant shift, because he had to promise to support Obama and ask everyone else to band together to do the same.

2) I believe that John McCain definitely met my expectations for his concession speech. He seemed sincere and and gracious, and his promise to support his opponent and continue to serve his country came across as both genuine and respectful, and he didn’t say anything bitter or underhanded about how he should have won instead, even trying to quell the booing from his disappointed supporters. I also believe it was a very honorable statement when he chose to take all the blame for his defeat, which made him look honest and rather brave for owning up, so to speak. I think this was especially important in McCain’s case, because it is very unlikely that he will run for President again, so this was probably the last highly televised speech he would give and he knew to cast himself in the best light possible through what he said.

I would have had the same expectations for Obama in terms of the sentiment offered, but at the same time, it would have possible for him to hint at or promise to run again, because had he lost, he would have still had a chance to run again in the future.

3) Obama did indeed meet my expectations for the speech, sounding rousing and patriotic. This inspired people to support him in his new position. He also even started on hinting at his goals while he’s in office, which made him look as though he could support the sentiment of his speech with actions while being President. Significantly for Obama, he also had to acknowledge the historical nature of his election, which he did very effectively, thereby adding even more to the aforementioned rousing patriotism of his speech.

On some level, I expect McCain would have done the same, by expressing how great the country is and how he plans to serve it while in office, but at the same time, he wouldn’t have had the same sort of historical significance to his victory that Obama had, so that element would very likely have been absent.

2. John McCain exceeded my expectations for his final speech. He handled the lose with grace and refused to let the audience boo Barack Obama. He talked about how the country needed to come together, rather than separate the the country by political party. He talked highly of Obama and encouraged his many proposals that he had. All in all his speech was probably one of his bests, that showed him as a true gentleman will to accept defeat.
If Obama had lost and had to give this speech, i would suspect that he would have given it the same way. He would have been support John McCain and his new policies. I believe both candidates realize that to ensure themselves with political power, they need to be supportive of the new President Elect.

3. After such a long and close race, i found that Obama did not exceed or meet my expectations. For the number of people there and the stress put on his speech i found it to be anti-climatic. Although he talked well, and it was an over all good speech, but i believe that he has had better speeches. He covered all of his point by thanking everyone who helped out and told the country that he was going to began the task of turning the economy around and put the country back into a positive light, however there was something missing. I feel that the excitement at which he gave the speech was lack luster. For just winning the Presidency, i was expecting more emotion and charisma.

Senator Obama’s speeches also differed. In both speeches he used anecdotes. On Monday he didn’t talk about his opponent, his policies, or his plans. Instead, he engaged the audience and used humor to make his last appeal. On Tuesday, his tone was more solemn, though personable, and he did actually speak of his opponents, plans, etc.

2) Senator John McCain exceeded my expectations in delivering a gracious and pivotal concession speech on Tuesday night. I expected him to be humble, respectful, and thankful in his speech, which he was, but he went above and beyond. He looked uncomfortable when the crowd booed Obama, and motioned for them to stop. He commended Obama for his victory, which I am sure must have been difficult to do after such a long, hard race. His body language and tone of voice conveyed genuine gratitude for the opportunity to represent the Republican party in the bid for presidency. For me, the most powerful part of his speech was his statement that the loss was his, not anyone else’s. McCain carried himself as a truly patriotic ’servant’ as he has called himself, and conceded with dignity and honor.

3) Senator Barack Obama failed to meet my expectations, as I was not very impressed with his speech. Everyone’s hopes were high for the speech, in part due to his charisma and eloquence, but also due to the historic significance of his victory. He was humble and spoke very kindly of Senator McCain, which was of course expected of him. He said his ‘thank you’s’ and even reached out to those who did not support him. His emphasis for unity was crucial in light of the current economic crisis and the two wars in the Middle East. Though his delivery was probably superior to McCain’s, the speech itself was pretty standard. All in all, I think that after such a long race, his speech was anti-climatic.

John McCain had an even more noticeable shift in his speeches before and his concession speech after the announcement that he would not be America’s next president. During the campaign, McCain focused heavily on HIS strengths, HIS readiness to lead, and HIS ability to make the right choices for the country. He often played up his military experience and his understanding of what average Americans really wanted. His tone was completely different on November 4th, where he spoke in a solemn, respectful way and rarely discussed himself. The center of attention was on coming to the realization that he was going to move on and do all that he could to support Barack Obama and unite the different sides together. He directed this statement primarily at all of his supporters, but encouraged the world to rally behind the president-elect. He accepts defeat honorably and proves to the world that he is able to move on.

2) Both gentlemen recognized that their tones and audiences were changing and that they needed to develop a culminating speech that would exceed all possibilities. I think Senator McCain far exceeded expectations in his concession speech. I expected him to be honorable and respectful, but to also sneak into his statement that he should have won and would have been the better man for the job. His past speeches have taught me that he (or his speech writer) was capable of making snide comments or getting very defensive when anything bad was said about him. On Tuesday evening, he simply accepted the fact that as hard as they worked, it wasn’t enough. I respect him a lot more for not blaming anyone but himself for the loss, but feel Obama would have had a similar reaction had he lost the race. Obama seems to be humble and accepting of criticism by nature, so I can assume that he would also have only blamed himself and been very quick to rally support behind the winner.

3) Obama’s acceptance speech also exceeded my expectations. He is a spectacular orator and I was fully expecting a powerful and rallying speech. What he did do to impress me was to turn all of the night’s victory onto the people. He often would mention the historical nature of this election, but on Tuesday he really hit home how influential his election in the eyes of the world will be. I loved the story of the 106-year-old voter from Georgia and the way he used that story to go through the landmarks that got us here today. McCain would have similarly used stories and experiences from along the campaign trail to connect to the audience and validate his victory, but I think he would have spent more time on the “we did it,” not “here’s what we do now” discussion like Obama did. We are lucky to be living in this time of change, and while the changes won’t all happen at once, Obama has been chosen as the man for the job.

John McCain exceeded my expectations in his concession speech. During the campaign, the Republican Party attacked Obama for his lack of experience, his religion, and his character. However, McCain was not solely responsible for these attacks and did not want to use malicious campaign ads. Still, because of this, I half expected his speech to come across more bitter in his defeat. McCain graciously accepts the loss, and genuinely thanks his family, friends, and all of his supporters for fighting for him throughout the campaign. I thought it was extremely powerful that McCain called this campaign the honor of his life and committed himself to continuing his servitude to the country. He offers hope to his supporters for a brighter future, and promises an even stronger Republican party in years to come. I think that I would have had higher expectations for Obama’s concession speech if he had lost simply because he is a more eloquent speaker. However, during the last few weeks leading up to election day, Obama was the clear front-runner. I think that Obama’s concession speech would have sounded a bit more surprised in his defeat, and possibly even bitter at the loss because it was unexpected. Even though he never gave up throughout the election, I don’t think the loss came as a surprise to McCain and he seemed very prepared and composed during his concession speech.

Obama also exceeded my expectations in his victory speech. Rather than alienate the Republican party for losing, Obama reaches out to those who do not fully support him and asks for their support over the next four years so that we can all face the country’s problems together. Obama’s and McCain’s platforms obviously differ, but Obama sincerely congratulates and thanks McCain for all of his hard work during the election and reaches out to him and Gov. Palin for their help in facing the issues in the coming years. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think that the win came as a huge shock to Obama, so while he was obviously thrilled that he won the election, he appears very poised in the delivery of his speech. While I mainly expected Obama to thank his supporters, and he did, I was also impressed that he reached out to all Americans in a call to action for change in America. I would not have expected more from McCain, but based on his concession speech, I would have expected a similar speech because both candidates fully understand the importance of a united government and people in this country in order to move forward in the future.

McCain’s most important argument was the same as his opponent’s: the economy. He was able to respond to and criticize some of Obama’s economic reforms, claiming that they will do more damage than good to the average American. McCain’s plan emphasizes fiscal responsibility: lowering taxes, cutting “failed” programs, keeping health care privatized.

Senator Obama could respond that some of McCain’s economic proposals sound like President Bush’s. He could also criticize McCain’s energy plans, which involve offshore drilling and increased nuclear power.

Sen. McCain’s speech was far less effective than Sen. Obama’s. Although he reached out to middle class Americans, McCain’s previous gaffes (how many houses does he own?) continue to plague him. After all, his running mate ACTUALLY knows what it’s like to struggle to make mortgage payments; does Sen. McCain? On a more positive note, McCain’s emphasis of his battle on corruption in Washington and campaign finance reform give credence to his claims of bipartisan work. This could sway some independents watching his speech.

In order to respond to this, Senator Obama must take an offensive approach. He should attack McCain and point out the opinions of those who think he is a crook. Obama should show that putting McCain in office will be no different than the presidency of the past two terms. He should then share his plans to get rid of the corruption and support it with examples of how he has already started to do so.

This speech was far less effective than that of Senator Obama’s. America knew before the event that McCain was not a good formal speaker to a large audience. While he may have presented himself professionally and kept his composure during the distractions of some of the audience members, he still did not impress me. I believe what really hurt Senator McCain were all the clichés and all the comments that sounded like they originated from Hallmark cards. Senator McCain will have to show his strength during the debates because his speech the other night was far from impressive.

I found the most important argument he laid out to be about taxes and the new economy. I find this to be most important because I think the economy is the biggest concern of most Americans. He outlined what he will do about lowering taxes and cutting government spending, while contrasting himself against Obama. This was effective because it not only informed Americans of McCain’s own plans, but it showed how his plans are different from Obama’s. Then he continued to expand on his economic plan saying he will help workers find new jobs and keep them, rather than trying to get back their old jobs that no longer exist. His plan will allow the unemployed to keep a lower paid job while training to learn a new trade or skill that will help them find new employment at a decent wage. I felt that his knowledge about the economy was especially important since he has been criticized throughout his campaign and even in Obama’s speech about not “getting” the economy.

I think Obama could respond by outlining his economic plan even further by showing where he needs to raise taxes to achieve his overall goals, and where he will cut taxes to keep money in Americans’ pockets. In McCain’s speech, he simply said Obama will raise taxes and government spending, which is probably true in some cases, so I think Obama needs to respond with a better detailed economic plan so Americans can see the differences more clearly.

Just like Obama, I think that McCain was targeting the middle-class with his arguments because the middle class workers are most people losing their jobs right now. Also, he identified specific people and families, not just areas where people are struggling like Obama did, that are losing their jobs, or children to the war in Iraq. I think this was effective because it personalized McCain and helped Americans relate to him.

As I mentioned earlier, although McCain may not be as poised and naturally a speaker like Obama, I felt that his acceptance speech was effective. I thought it was important that McCain made a point to show that he stands for change as well because Obama’s camp is trying to label him as another 4 years of Bush, and I think that Americans fear there will be no change in the next 4 years should McCain be elected. I think he did a good job of distancing himself from the politics in Washington in general by saying he fights for us, not for a party or platform, and that he has the history to prove it.