AP:

"McCain never seemed truly comfortable with the TelePrompter, and his physical moves were stiff and awkward due to his war injuries. He would smile broadly at odd junctures.

Yet the speech had many "stark, simple and eloquent" lines, said ABC's George Stephanopoulos, one of Palin's few critics the night before. CNN's Anderson Cooper said he heard more specifics from McCain than from Obama.

Some of McCain's toughest critics in punditry came from what you'd expect to be friendly territory. "John McCain has proved that he's not going to win this election with oratory," said Alex Castellanos, a Republican consultant working for CNN.

Fox analyst Karl Rove called his speech "workmanlike" and "not all that great."

"It was a strange speech, a strange week, a strange convention," analyst Charles Krauthammer said on Fox, "and yet I think it was effective."

David Gregory and Chris Matthews on MSNBC, a network Republicans have criticized for giving big roles to personalities like Keith Olbermann who back Barack Obama, said the convention had given some hope to Republicans.

"