Though conservatives nationwide continued to doubt the wisdom of selecting Senator McCain as the standard-bearer for the GOP until approximately eleven-o'clock last Friday, over the last week he has proven conclusively that he is the right man for this time to take the reins of the presidency.
For those who doubt, consider the evidence. Prior to the convention, the political buzz was that Obama was going to go to his convention, hit it out of the park, and get a big statistical bounce, after which, the Republicans would put on a lackluster, dispirited convention (assuming the hurricane didn't wipe them out), and eventually lose the election.
What a difference a week makes.
It began the day after the Democrats' overblown finale of their "history-making" convention. Playing up the unity image, Hillary's people were allowed to keep their votes, but Hillary herself, acting as a New York delegate, put Barack over the top and gave him the nomination. Hillary and Bill gave what were considered wonderful, unifying speeches, and the media was in hog-heaven. Chris Matthews' leg was, no-doubt, positively vibrating.
Then, in an astonishing moment of hubris, the One chose to accept his nomination like a rock star--in a stadium, to a cheering throng, at a ticketed event, featuring too many Hollywood big-wigs and high-profile entertainers to count (Oprah, I understand, cried her false eyelashes off.)
John McCain chose to leave the event alone, filming a quick congratulatory video lauding Obama for his historic nomination. At the end of his statement, he said:
"Tomorrow we'll be back at it. But, tonight, Senator--job well done."
Boy, he wasn't kidding.
McCain got "back at it" so fast and so furiously, Obama never knew what hit him (or, rather "who" hit him.)
The first glimmer of his genius came the next morning, as we all awoke not to glowing reminiscences of the past four days of Democratic politics--but breathless anticipation of who John McCain was going to pick for his vice-president.
It would have been a small story, but as clues began to come out that it might be the female governor of Alaska, it became a news tsunami.
Thus, the Democrats' convention quickly disappeared down the memory hole, flushed even further into the sea when Governor Palin opened her mouth and revealed herself to be an unexpected star.
While Hurricane Gustav threatened to both destroy New Orleans (again) and divert the attention of the media from day one of the Republican convention (scheduled to feature keynoter Joe Lieberman, originally), McCain demonstrated his superlative political instincts by insisting that the convention be scaled back to only the legal requirements, to allow the GOP to pay close attention to the oncoming storm. President Bush and Governor Bobby Jindal (Republican) were graciously granted the spotlight for the duration of the danger, and Laura Bush and Cindy McCain used their personal speeches to appeal to the delegates to raise money for Hurricane Relief.
As if that weren't brilliant enough, he had already--without controversy--permitted the writing of the most conservative Republican platform in decades, which pumped up the delegates quite a bit. It is unclear (at least to me) how much McCain had to do with the selection of speakers, but whoever was, demonstrated sheer political mastery. Knowing when the networks would join the broadcast (not until 10 p.m.--a ridiculously late hour, but the trend in recent elections), the convention planners set up the second night to have Laura and George Bush address the convention delegates. The President appeared via satellite, since he was busy dealing with the Gulf Coast), and was not seen on the network broadcasts--perfectly allowing those in the hall to see the president they still love, while sending the symbolic message that the era of Bush is over, and the new era of Republican reform under McCain is about to begin.
In prime time, Senator Fred Thompson gave a rip-roaring barn-burner of a speech, demonstrating why he had been dragged into the primary in the first place. Some wags and pundits that night even suggested that McCain might not be able to meet expectations in his speech, leading Republicans to wish they had picked Thompson.
Then, for the second time in two elections, a Democrat spoke to the Republican National Convention. And not just any Democrat, but the Democratic party's vice-presidential candidate in 2000! In a convention where political and personal courage were major themes, Senator Joseph Lieberman took his political life in his hands to fulfill his friend John McCain's request to appear and cast partisanship aside, urging all Americans to put country first and elect John McCain. It brought the house down.
Mark this: John McCain, by this point, with the selection of Sarah Palin and the promise to bring the Republican party back to its roots, had brought his base so far back to the fold that they were unabashedly cheering a man they vilified a mere eight years ago.
And he wasn't done yet.
The next night, after revelations of Palin's daughter's pregnancy had ignited a firestorm of attacks and counter-attacks, the also-rans of the primary lined up, one by one, to endorse their former rival, the vice-presidential nominee they didn't turn out to be, and the newly reform-oriented Republican party. One at a time, Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani delivered the kind of speeches they should have given during the primary season if they really wanted to be president.
And then came Sarah.
To thunderous applause, the self-described "hockey mom" introduced herself to the nation, demonstrated her unabashed love for her family--no matter how "challenging" they may be--pledged her fealty to John McCain and the reformist Republican party, and took withering shots--not at Joe Biden, but at Barack Obama, continuing the narrative begun when she first appeared, that she herself is more qualified to be president than Obama (though not nearly as qualified as McCain.)
When McCain appeared faux-unexpectedly (Obama did the same thing at his convention), the screams of the crowd were more likely gratitude to him for picking Palin than expressions of love for McCain, but the delegates were certainly well on their way to fully embracing McCain--moderate reform and all.
On Thursday night, Cindy McCain made her first major speech before a national audience and proved conclusively that she would be a far better First Lady than Michelle Obama, though she said not a word about it. Her speech was about John and her family, the country, and the Palins. But her introductory bio and the details of her personal narrative revealed to the nation for the first time that she has already been essentially doing the work of first ladies for decades--visiting foreign countries, working with the poor, being one of many charity-minded people who serve as the American face of compassion around the world.
It's a powerful image. Who would be a better first lady? The woman who adopted a baby from Mother Theresa's orphanage? Or the woman who makes $100,000 working part-time at the University of Chicago Hospitals, and complains about the price of piano and ballet lessons?
Then, introduced by a biographical video and a stark, dark stage piece voiced-over by Fred Thompson, McCain appeared, again to thunderous applause.
I won't go into the speech here. Suffice it to say, by the end of the convention, McCain had done two things that had seemed impossible only a few weeks ago:
He had unified the base of the Republican Party behind his own reformist agenda, and he had re-established the Republican party as a conservative party, with conservative principles, intending to govern from the right, for the good of the entire nation. And to do so in a bipartisan spirit, reaching across the aisle to likeminded people, working together to put country first.
The full impact of this can only be understood when one looks at the world of talk radio. Today, even Rush Limbaugh (who has in his archives, parodying songs ridiculing "Maverick John McCain" for not being a real conservative) is enthusiastically supporting the Republican ticket. And so is the base of the Republican party, who will go home, call someone at party headquarters, and sign up to work their hearts out to get this "change" and "reform" ticket elected to the White House.
If he can do this with the Republican party, I can only imagine what he can do with the nation.
And the clearest sign that his strategy has totally succeeded came this morning, the day after the convention. While last Friday the Democrats' good-buzz aftermath was marred for them by the selection of Sarah Palin, today all the news is about the last night of the Republican National Convention, the newness and freshness of Sarah Palin, and the surprising new fighting spirit of the GOP.
Last Friday, I may have seen a snippet of the Obama megaspeech about six times--and only because it was part of top-of-the-hour news.
Today, the political narrative is all about Republicans, and I have seen many, many repeats of different parts of the McCain speech all day long.
According to the most recent polling, Obama's 8-point lead after his convention has either dwindled to two or disappeared entirely. Add to that the Nielsen overnights that show that McCain pulled even more viewers than Obama's record-breaking acceptance speech (and even though Obama had an 80K headstart) and that Palin's speech drew only a few million less than Obama's--and more than Hillary's or Biden's--and you cannot help but conclude:
John McCain may have the best political instincts we've seen in the Republican party since Ronald Reagan.
Job well done, Senator. Job well done.
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