McCain's Big Speech

I'm curious about other people's opinions about McCain's big speech, because I thought it was great.  I don't know if I'm in the majority or not though.  6 hours of windbags from every cable channel imaginable haven't cleared the fog, so I'm looking elsewhere.  Of course, I didn't have high expectations - McCain's not that good of a "speechificator," so showing up and not devouring the Code Pink demonstrators might have been above expectations for me.  Here, in convinient list form, is what I thought:
The Good

• His personal story.  Certainly it's more compelling than any candidate since Bob Dole (although Dole never really shared his), and perhaps even moreso.  A young punk turned patriot from 5 years in a North Korean gulag?  You can't beat that
• His change message.  Here's why I believe him.  I know he's tacked right on a lot of issues since he's been running, but there are a few things that get me to believe that this is more of the McCain that I know from his years in the Senate.  He didn't just spill Democratic blood out there at the podium, he also tossed knives at the GOP for being big spending, big government, me first morons as well.  I loved that.  I loved it because it's absolutely true.  That's why the Republicans lost in 2006 more than any other issue.  If you've got a Republican and a Democrat and both are Democrats in a lot of the ways that matter, why vote for the Republican?  They promised to sweep Washington with the broom of reform, but instead they got government bigger and spent all our money on ridiculous pet projects.  I think my favorite line was where McCain said that he'd veto the first pork-laden bill to cross his desk, and then he'd let us all know exactly what pork was in there and who it was for.
• His general ideas.  Those are all things that I can get behind.
  

The Bad

• McCain's not a great public speaker.  He did okay, but just okay in that respect.  It was better than expected, but worse than a really good orator.
• The green screen behind him.  Seriously, those screens didn't work too well in my opinion.  Give me a little more visual punch!
• His general ideas.  The key word there is general.  They were somewhat specific, but not really specific.  I'd have liked some more fleshing out and less Clintonesque "I feel your pain."
  

The Ugly

• Code Pink.  All you did was make McCain seem more level-headed and sympathetic.  Bravo, my friends.  Bravo.