I don't always agree with Joe Klein (he's a columnist for Time Magazine), but sometimes his words are precise and worthy of reading. Here are a few words on the RNC from his most recent article.
Click here to read the whole article.
This is yet another McCain gamble: he figures that the only way the country will elect a Republican after eight years of scandal and stupidity is to promise a completely different Republican Party. His essential message was right: Washington does have to catch up to the global economy, shake loose the bonds of the special interests and industrial-age bureaucracies. But there was little in this speech that indicated that he had any idea how to do that besides relying on his fierce sense of righteousness. And the Republican Party is what it is: an overwhelmingly Caucasian group of people — 93% of the delegates were white — who cheer more vociferously for tax cuts than they do for country.
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In the end, the strongest aspect of the speech may have been the awkwardness of the delivery. What we saw tonight was the real John McCain. But his offering was thin for a country in a heap of trouble. Given the admitted failure of his party, he didn't present anything more than his own integrity as an action plan. And given the anger and vitriol of his campaign — given the scurrilous, sarcastic speeches he allowed to be delivered on Wednesday night; given the embarrassing antics and media conspiracies spouted by his staff — McCain's reputation for integrity has been badly damaged.
McCain's presence in our public life has been, on balance, a valuable thing. His speech tonight gave intimations of why that has been so, but it lacked the drive and creativity of a true presidential acceptance. He is the standard bearer of a failed ideology — ironically, a belief in "me first" before country — and tonight the leap between what McCain really cares about, and what his party really believes, proved too great a chasm for an old warrior to bridge.
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