The NY Times editorial nails it:

Thursday night, Americans mainly saw the old John McCain. He spoke in a moving way about the horrors he endured in Vietnam. He talked with quiet civility about fighting corruption. He said the Republicans “had lost the trust” of the American people and promised to regain it. He decried “the constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving” problems.

But there were also chilling glimpses of the new John McCain, who questioned the patriotism of his opponents as the “me first, country second” crowd and threw out a list of false claims about Barack Obama’s record, saying, for example, that Mr. Obama opposed nuclear power. There was no mention of immigration reform or global warming, Mr. McCain’s signature issues before he decided to veer right to win the nomination.

In the end, we couldn’t explain the huge difference between the John McCain of Thursday night and the one who ran such an angry and derisive campaign and convention — other than to conclude that he has decided he can have it both ways. He can talk loftily of bipartisanship and allow his team to savage his opponent.

What makes that so vexing — and so cynical — is that this is precisely how Mr. Bush destroyed Mr. McCain’s candidacy in the 2000 primaries, with the help of the Karl Rovian team that now runs Mr. McCain’s campaign.

The parts that were good were really pretty good, and it showed why McCain has attracted such a following in the past. In those places, he came across as sincere and dedicated. 

But the occasional, awkward slams at Obama spoiled the mood, and the lack of policy particulars ("cleaning up Washington" is not a full policy) was irritating.

The depressing (or at least sad) aspect of the speech, and the convention, was the sense that McCain was not nowhere near in control of his party or the event. Compared to Obama, who was clearly the key person and coordinator of the message in Denver (Clinton drama notwithstanding), McCain's claims to bipartisanship and reach-out to all people who love their country was drowned out in the speeches of the previous nights, most of which seemed to focus on bashing, mocking, and villifying Obama and the Democrats. 

Indeed, McCain was in the difficult position of being less popular with the crowd, based on reaction, than his VP pick, and the way the audience reacted to his bipartisan, clean-up-Washington, here's-how-we've-failed efforts (polite clapping with straight faces) showed an attitude that was more "Yeah, yeah, John, we get it, but tell us again how community organizers are busywork goofballs and Obama's a baby-killer and Sarah Palin is hawt!" That was the convention that the attendees had enjoyed to date and what they wanted more of.

It was, in short, a gathering devoted almost entirely to the culture war refined by Mr. Rove in Mr. Bush’s two campaigns.

On Thursday, Mr. McCain said he would reach out to “any willing patriot, make this government start working for you again.” Mr. Bush, too, promised the same bipartisanship in his campaigns, and then governed in the most divisive, partisan way.

Americans have a right to ask which John McCain would be president. We hope Mr. McCain starts to answer that by halting the attacks on Mr. Obama’s patriotism and beginning a serious, civil debate.

 

And not just his own, but his proxies and supporters. To the extent he can do that, we can see not only what he's really all about, but how much of a leader he can be.

Filed under :: Elections 2008
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