Fight With Me
UPDATES THROUGHOUT:
McCain’s unabashed, unflinching call for service, to renew all Americans’ commitment to a better country and America’s role in making this a better world. Boston Herald:
Urging Americans to “fight with me” for the nation’s future, GOP presidential contender John McCain last night brought thousands of cheering convention delegates to their feet as he declared: “Change is coming.”
“Fight for what’s right for our country,” the Arizona senator roared over applause. “Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.”
Political conventions in the modern era are supposed to be partisan lovefests, preordained coronations. There isn’t supposed to be anything like real politics going on there. That’s what the media keeps telling us. But the Republicans, not listening, just broke that rule. Barring unforeseen circumstances, unknown shoes that might drop, or the unlikely event of Democratic strategic brilliance, it is now the Republican Party’s election to lose, and we have just witnessed what might be one of the neatest, most explosive, most dastardly genuine political manuevers of presidential politics in our time.
John McCain, in his speech tonight, has reclaimed the vast middle ground of American politics, where people may hold a variety of views, but value directness and character above all. His rejection of partisan politics has been the hallmark of his three-decade career, whether you’ve always liked it or not. He doesn’t just talk about it, he’s lived it, and America knows that. Tonight, in speaking in earnest to all Americans, he severely undercut the Democratic line that he is pandering to the right. He had placated the right with the naming of Sarah Palin, no doubt, but she is also likely to bring in a large part of the center. Because America loves a fighter, and Americans like someone who looks like them. They will respect her, even if they don’t agree on every issue or every aspect of her life.
America has been presented with a team that represents genuine accomplishment, character and independence. And America, I suspect, is smart enough to get that and appreciate that.
The inspired choice of Palin prompted a tsunami of slams, from lefty partisans and the media that has only focused on Obama’s negatives when forced to. There is no way the GOP strategists didn’t know that was coming. We have to assume they knew enough about Palin to know she could handle it, and remain cool, as she did. The GOP strategists were no doubt gratified when, as expected, the left and a large part of the media did their work for them, bringing the audience, lowering expectations, and giving the American people an underdog to cheer on. Palin brought the Louisville slugger.
McCain was then supposed to be the anti-climax, and for a while there in his speech, he obligingly droned on. Then he told his war story, without JFK-wannabe photos or phony Benny Hill salutes or slogans. It was an unadorned tale of a tough guy who got humbled in the fire, and learned how to fight, learned it wasn’t about him at all, as he suffered and endured for all of us.
McCain indulged himself by reminding everyone that he is Washington’s original maverick. Then he did something I’m not sure any politician has done since JFK. Without asking for them to support his platform or his party, without offering any election bribes, he asked them simply to serve, each in his or her own way, and with him, to be the best they can for their country.
I don’t think you have to have been tortured, or even to have shown up in dire, mortal circumstances to get that. I think the librarians and nurses and PTA moms and little league coaches all get that, and understand it is the most basic non-partisan political message of all. Give something, expect nothing.
The Democrats have a problem. They’ve got several. Obama’s rock star status has been seriously challenged. In fact, he peaked some time ago. In fairness, the grueling Democratic primary forced it on him. But you can only fool the American people for so long, and sooner or later the charm was bound to wear thin. Going into the final election season, he is no longer the flavor of the month, and voters will find that desperation has a bitter taste.
Image and charm aside, his Iraq war issue has been severely undercut. He miscalculated when he rejected the surge and the counter-insurgency strategy. He was on the wrong side, and Americans prefer to win. The surge has worked, and now Bush and his generals, reacting to conditions on the ground as they said they would, are beginning to do the things Obama said he’d do regardless of conditions on the ground. Meanwhile, the economy is sending mixed messages, with factory orders and house sales up, housing prices stabilizing and foreclosures easing. Then there’s change. With Old Hairplugs beside him, the untested neophyte is going to have a hard time reclaiming that from the veteran maverick and the tough-talking woman from Alaska.
The tragic irony for the Messiah is, by choosing to prop himself up with Biden shoe lifts, he left himself wide open to this. There were a lot of good reasons not to choose Hillary. 1. Hill. 2. Bill. Obie did not want to be outshone on the trail, or end up in a tri-presidency, especially with Bill a little wacked these days and uncontrollable on the stump, let alone whatever might happen … off the stump. The Clintons come with a lot of baggage. Despite that, however, the Messiah-Battleaxe ticket would have been formidable.
The Anointed One instead made a calculated, cautious veep pick, opting for an old guy to sit beside him while he drives with his learner’s permit, instead of the hectoring backseat driver. It sucked the life out of his rock show, unlike McCain’s calculated but risky veep pick, which has had the opposite effect. Now, while the young fella will be up against the maverick warhorse in debates, Old Hairplugs has to face an attractive, wildly popular, smart younger woman with outside-the-beltway chops, and make her small without appearing to beat up or be condescending. Not least because he attempts the latter at his own peril. That means she has to hand him a Quayle-Bentsen moment and he has to be ready to seize it, though as you’ll recall, as gratifying as that was to Dems, that failed to produce a President Dukakis. I suspect, by the way, that as a mother of teenagers who has been a small-town mayor, Palin will be pretty quick on her feet and not inclined to give the hoary old geezer any openings.
The lefties would dispute and disparage all this, probably using a lot of eff words, maybe laughing at it. But then again, the lefties thought they could make Palin withdraw, and still think the ascension of the Obama is preordained, as heralded by hosts of lefty angels.
OK, roundup:
NYT: Hey, no fair, Obama’s the change guy!
WPost: “I work for you” speech aimed at moderates, light on the red meat. (comments good fun as left gags, projectile vomits)
Instapundit: Full text. Worth the read if you didn’t see it, for details of McCain’s four decades of service and fighting from Vietnam to DC … hey, wait a minute, no fair … it’s not Obama’s fault he never got tortured by the Vietnamese while serving as a community organizer or spent three decades working both sides of the aisle in DC!
TPM: projectile liveblogging!
In other business, Malkin dispenses with more fact-challenged Palin bashing … you’d think they would have learned from the last week the inept pummeling just makes people like her more. How do they think she managed to get ratings like this? 37 million tuned to to see Sarah fight back … only 1 million fewer than the rock star pulled at his coronation between the faux Grecian pillars last week. Thank you, Kos, thank you, MSNBC, thank you Us maggie, etal.
Michelle also goes to the blackboard in a game attempt to help the left with its humor issues: Explaining the “community organizer” joke to the outraged left.
I’m sorry, make that 40 million. AP: Palin outdraws the Chosen One.
Gateway delivers the latest polling: Palin now more popular than Jeremiah’s Gift to American Politics. And this art.
Surber: McCain speech OK, but from here on out, McCain’s on his own turf in town meetings and debates.
Gerard Baker at Times of London: More than just a pretty face with a sharp tongue, she’s the face of a new kind of Western conservatism.
The best line I heard about Sarah Palin during the frenzied orgy of chauvinist condescension and gutter-crawling journalistic intrusion that greeted her nomination for vice-president a week ago came from a correspondent who knows a thing or two about Alaska.
“What’s the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama?”
“One is a well turned-out, good-looking, and let’s be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye-candy.
“The other kills her own food.”
Newsweek: Obama’s Kwame problem.
WSJ: How Palin beat Alaska’s establishment. A neat tale for those who think the new girl is light in the loafers.
Gurwitz at San Antonio Express-News: The old warrior is still in the battle. McCain’s unlikely candidacy.
Stark at RCP: The American Idol election.
Benen at Washington Monthly: “It’s the cultural insecurities, stupid.” Watered-down gun-toting religion-clinger argument posits an issues-challenged McCain wants to make it about Paris Hilton and arugula. Neglects to mention the Wright, Ayers and Rezko parts, or the fact that voters may have differences of opinion on the Chosen One’s alleged issues-lock.
With thanks to Memeorandum and Real Clear Politics on the roundup. We’ll close with Howie Carr’s meanspirited remarks about the well-intentioned do-gooders who tried to take out the trailer trash and ended up … looking like garbage.
Welcome Ace, catmeat Blairites, dike-plugging, clog-hopping Brinkerists, Pollardos, et al. So good to see you, come on in. Shout out to the intrepid Jungle Trader, hacking his way undaunted through the underbrush in some unGodly locale to bring you the most exotic arugula, who pegged it as a Top-Gun fighter pilot move a few days ago.
Topics: McCain
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:54 pm on Thursday, September 4, 2008
4 Responses to “Fight With Me”
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September 5th, 2008 at 2:08 am
…you’d think they would have learned from the last week the inept pummeling just makes people like her more.
Naw. The left is in full panic mode right now, and their brains are disengaged at this time.
September 5th, 2008 at 7:29 am
[...] impressed by John McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Jules Crittenden writes that this year’s elections is the Republicans’ to lose. According to Jules [...]
September 5th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
McCain gains supporters simply by reminding people of who he is and what he’s done, while, like John Kerry in 2004, Obama only loses support by doing the same.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
I hate it when my trackbacks don’t track back. Sigh.
Here’s my half cents’ worth:
The New Girl network