Politico has a great piece today on the recent John McCain speech Tuesday night and how the Republicans are flipping out over it, in a bad way.

“They were appalled at the environment the candidate was standing in and his performance,” said this strategist. “It’s a serious problem — the contrast is so clear that it’s demoralizing. And it deflated our balloon last night. When the guys on Fox are trash-talking, you know it’s bad.”

Everyone knows that McCain is going to have a huge problem facing up against Obama on stage and it appears as though the talk is already happening.

McCain often has trouble giving speeches, even when reading from a prompter. He often looks as though it pains him in some way. There is never any fire, or passion, just the same old monotone voice as he tries to lay out whatever he can to distance himself for the Bush administration.

This is really going to hurt McCain in this election, as more and more people tune it to listen to him and then it gets contrasted with the vibrant, eloquent speeches of Obama.