The guy next to me during the speech (who wasn’t a delegate, just a guy): “It was… good. Shorter would’ve been better.”

Josh McGrail of Ft. Meyers, Florida on McCain’s tepid style: “Fantastic. A lot of people would say that Obama’s got a great speaking style and a deep voice and John McCain has a more subdued approach. That’s who he is.”

Todd Porter of North Dakota on McCain’s swipes at the Republicans: “It was… very good. He wasn’t swiping at Bush. But there has been failure in the Republican party and failure in Washington.” Really? He wasn’t swiping at Bush? “No.”

Beverly Willard of Nevada on McCain’s swipes at the Republicans: “It was a home run!” Why was McCain criticizing his own party in his acceptance speech? “The leadership hasn’t been listening to the base. There’s been too much spending and we need to get back to basics. They were just trying to get themselves re-elected. Self-serving.”

Wendell Walker of Lynchburg, Virginia on McCain’s attempt to co-opt Obama’s change-and-hope rhetoric: “There may have seemed some similarities to Obama’s speech, but this is politics. We here understand that. The American people are not going to sit around their kitchen tables and talk about speeches. They’re going to talk about issues.”

The balloons on McCain’s age: “Pops! Pops! Pops!”

Everybody, of course, is careful to be supportive of McCain’s speech—too careful. They sound like they’re reading from teleprompters, too.

The protester interruptions, the flubs, the length (nearly 4,000 words to Palin’s 3,000—though it felt 100,000 words longer), and the attacks on the Republican party, which nobody initially clapped for or knew exactly how to react to—this was his speech to nowhere.

And now the hall is almost empty. Nobody’s copping to any good parties. They’re all talking about going back to their hotels to sleep.