Watching John McCain's acceptance speech last night, it occurred to me that the Republican convention played out like a week-long good cop-bad cop routine. After days of failed candidates, party insiders and a vice-presidential hopeful softening up the Democrats with vicious body blows - including several of the below-the-belt variety - McCain took the stage last night to play the caring nurse with the soothing, bedside manner. If the previous speeches were meant to rile up the Republican base, McCain's was an appeal to common-sense independents. It wasn't particularly graceful and it certainly didn't make me feel any better about his policy positions, but at least it was better than the childish pissing and dissing contest that preceded it.
Generally speaking, I think it was an effective speech for McCain. It made him less frightening to non-Republicans, and even if the GOP base doesn't agree with all of his politics, they never get tired of hearing about his war stories. Which are, you have to admit, pretty astonishing - especially the fact that he condemned himself to four extra years of torture in a POW camp in order to let a fellow soldier go free. Kind of hard to be cynical about that one.
The final lap of this endless race commences now. For many reasons, from the justifiable to the reprehensible, it'll be closer than it has any right to be.
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