Back to the future

"We were elected to change Washington and we let Washington change us.... We lost the trust of the American people...... we lost their trust..... we lost that trust..... We are going to change that..... We are going to get back to basics..... We must catch up to history"— John McCain accepting the nomination of the Republican Party.

And my question is: Shouldn't he have done all that before he started to run? It sounded less like a set of policy proposals than a promise to get a set of policy proposals together sometime in the next two months. After four days I still have very little idea of what he wants to do. Cut back on pork barrel spending and earmarks; help children with special needs and small business owners. Drill. It seemed to be all about going back, recapturing something lost, disavowing what had befallen his party. This was admirably honest, but there was a touch of elegy to the whole thing. It reminded me of that moment in the debates when Hillary started sounding wistful and every thought she was conceding. McCain's gentleness has never come across better, I thought; it made me believe again that he is a decent man; and the courtesy he showed Obama was long overdue. But my God was it boring. People are going to vote for Obama just so they don't have to sit through a speech like that ever again.