Here at TPM HQ we’re watching John McCain’s prebuttal to Sen. Obama’s speech tonight.

And, man, I’m curious to hear what other people think, but I really feel like he would have served himself much better by just going to ground for the evening.

McCain is often very good when he speaks extemporaneously. Even better in 2000. But still good. He’s also good in debates. But giving set piece speeches, let’s face it, he’s simply awful. He finds it impossible to pretend he’s actually thinking what he’s saying. But this whole speech is defensive in character (explaining why he’s not running for Bush’s third term), awkward and just feels old. The slogan seems to be: Am Not McSame!

The crowd of maybe like 200 people is also sort of an unfortunate contrast.

Late Update: Here’s how bad it is. All the Fox commentators are giving competing explanation for why McCain’s speech sucked.

And here it is …