Last night was an odd one. The convention kind of limped close. McCain seemed to change tactics for the speech trying to be Bush, trying to be Obama and trying to be the candidate of change by openly stealing it. The hat of change doesn't fit when the methods of change are George Bush's old campaign pet issue solutions (see school choice and privatized SS as examples.) Although the drumbeat throughout the campaign seemed to be "War" "Fear" and chest beating, McCain came out as a lamb. He added in some of Obama's solutions and made weak attempts to parse Obama as being against things Obama is not against. He also seemed to try and theme himself as Sarah or elevate the duo as a unit that somehow lost him at one point. He played the Sarah experience card with a straight face so his acting skills were intact. All in all it was a little strange. He seemed to have the wind out of his sails and to be truthful while I appreciated the removal of fear mongering perhaps what he replaced it with was just an old man, unsure of himself and his message. Perhaps the massive gap between what appeared to be the theme of this convention and the selection of a far right VP candidate set him up for failure when he brought the convention to a halt by dedicating his speech to the moderate crossover vote attempt. What came across was a man confused about who he wanted to reach and who he wanted to be. When you play with being a chameleon this may be the end results at the exact wrong time.
