Oral Exam, Part II

I have seen polling suggesting the key to the election is whether Obama can tag McCain as four more years of Bush's policies. It would seem as if both Obama and McCain have read the same poll.

Finally, I have a qualm about the first-person narrative at the end. John McCain was a heroic POW—did you know that? It takes away nothing from his heroism to say that it was undignified and a little sad for him to go on about it at such length. Sometimes much less is much more. Did FDR dwell on his polio in 1932? Did JFK tell the story of PT-109 in 1960? No. It is an ineluctable sign of the decline of American leadership that candidates feel compelled to endlessly repeat their own life story, over and over. I realize that my old boss Bill Clinton played his role in this trend, but it didn't start with him, and it has gotten much worse. Somehow, I don't expect McCain to stop talking about his POW experience—nor do I expect his campaign to stop huffily insisting that it would never, ever politicize his suffering.

Sarah Palin's Big Night
Posted 1:15 a.m. ET, Sept. 4

MICHAEL GERSON
Tonight, we witnessed something extraordinary - not merely the rhetorical triumph of an embattled candidate, but the emergence of a Republican folk hero.  With her tough, skilled, sophisticated, humorous performance, Sarah Palin has become the symbol of a conservative revolt against an establishment that dismissed her as a rube.  She took on the politicians and pundits, the Washington herd and the good old boys, and seemed more than equal to them all.  Rather than a female Dan Quayle, Palin was Annie Oakley and Joan of Arc wrapped into one. 

In the hall at the Xcel Center, Palin was greeted with wild, whooping cheers - cheers that felt like defiance against every angry leftist and privacy invader in the media. (The CNN booth on the floor, at one point, seemed at risk of assault from the delegates.) But over the course of the speech, defiance was transformed into enthusiasm for Palin herself.  From the first moment, she was assured and comfortable in the spotlight.  She delivers tough lines with the twinkle and skill of a Reagan.  She is a political natural, and will, without doubt, be a major asset for McCain.

And the speech itself was stunningly successful.  Instead of a policy tour du monde, it emphasized an issue - environmental policy - where Palin is fluent.  It hit Obama on a policy issue - taxes - where he is vulnerable.  And the humorous attacks on Obama's pretensions and elitism struck home again and again - the self-designed presidential seal, the Styrofoam Greek columns, the two memoirs but not a single major reform.  All of these were better lines than any line in Obama's acceptance speech.

I watched the speech standing next some 70-something male delegates from Texas.  Their comments started with "She's good."  Then, "She's a keeper." Then, "I hope she is the first woman president."  Near the end, the security guards had started to clap and cheer.