McCain’s prepared text eases reporters’ work

The difference in covering political presentations of Mitt Romney, who suspended his White House bid yesterday, vs. John McCain in the GOP presidential race:  notes had to be taken with off-the-cuff Romney remarks, making news persons work harder with pens and pads, while McCain spoke from prepared texts, in many cases, which simplifies reporting, observes Grumpy Editor.

This was evident yesterday when both Romney and McCain spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.  Their afternoon speeches were telecast “live” on cable channels MSNBC, Fox News Network, CNN, CNN Headline News and C-Span.

Romney gave an eloquent presentation without notes or text in front of him to recap his conservative principles, while emphasizing “culture makes all the difference” along with “standing up to family values” and “we love opportunity.”  In bowing out of the race, Romney said, "This isn't an easy decision, I hate to lose…but I entered this race because I love America."

Two hours later McCain faced the same audience, which he snubbed last year, and did a lot of reading.  Teleprompters were set up for his main text while quick updates, following word of Romney’s unexpected suspension, were read from fresh pages on the podium.  Much of the main material was lifted from previous campaign speeches but new emphasis was inserted, such as “I am a mainstream conservative” and “I’m proud to be a conservative,” plus a number of “I intend” pledges.

==================================================

Grumpy Editor’s end-of-week leftover notes:

With hopes of revving up more interest in science and engineering, too bad the broadcast networks didn’t cover four minutes worth of yesterday’s daytime launch of space shuttle Atlantis which achieved a speed of 5,000 miles an hour in that time span.  Cable news networks, however, did follow the live action…Despite all the cries over belt tightening in Washington, there wasn’t much coverage of the Department of Energy’s proposed almost half billion dollar budget, about the same as last year, for Yucca Mountain, a stalled proposed nuclear waste dump northwest of Las Vegas…With deep freezes this week ranging from China, which issued a “red alert” for the most snow in a decade in many places, to a blizzard watch in Minnesota and North Dakota, and a frigid 67 degrees below zero recorded at O'Brien Creek, Alaska, the “global warming” phrase was conspicuously missing in print and on airwaves.