The Economist, I believe, had this headline on its last cover: "Bring back the real McCain." As I write this, I am listening to McCain's speech, and it is clear that is his endgame. He is presenting himself as what he has always been: a Republican who challenges own his party. It this, more than anything else I suspect, that led him to choose Governor Palin as his running mate. Palin is, I understand, the most popular governor in the nation; but she is not so popular with Alaska Republicans just as McCain began the race with a lot of resistance from the national party. It's not a bad pitch.
Obama responded to Governor Palin's speech today by saying "she talked a lot about me, but she didn't talk about you." Good jab. McCain is making sure to cover that point. He is also talking a lot about specific policies, economic and otherwise. He hit the Democrats on oil and nuclear power.
Just now he is talking above foreign policy. He has the problem that Republicans always face: how to look tougher than the Democrats (easy), but not look trigger happy (hard). It's hard not to err on one side or the other. My impression as I listen is that he is pushing the toughness point hard, while shoring up against the latter problem by emphasizing that peace is the goal.
He is also emphasizing the "I will reach across the aisle" idea.
Now he is bringing up his war story. I had thought it was better to let others do that, but it is obviously part of the strategy to contrast his experience with Obama's. I still think so, but he hit the right note. The experience, he tells us, made him a better person by showing him how dependent he was on the support of others. The argument here is that he once was a hothead, but this hard experience made him sober. Again, not a bad pitch.
Now he contrasts his sales' pitch with Obama's: I am not running because I have been anointed to save the world. That's a paraphrase.
Okay, it's over now. I would say that, for better or worse, this is what McCain has got. We'll soon see whether it was enough.
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