'Bought McCain the space to be himself'
Not surprisingly, the delivery was only OK. But McCain's words and message about his fellow Republicans were on target:

We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.

And:

Let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second crowd: change is coming.

Etc., etc. The amazing thing is that McCain is and has to run against his own party to win -- against the same clowns who think abortion, gun rights, hockey moms, class resentments, the liberal media etc. are the key issues facing the nation. They're not. McCain just told Republicans who and what are the problem: Republicans. Last night McCain did a better job framing the 2008 election than the Democrats -- and, incredibly, he may well win because of it, despite the phony conservatives who sat on their asses over the past eight years as government grew, pork-barrel spending deliberately encouraged as a means of maintaining power, cronyism and corruption tolerated, inept war management defended. No wonder some delegates were "subdued" last night as McCain spoke. They'd much prefer Sarah as president and engage in self-pity about the big bad MSM. Pathetic. ... Enough with national politics. Back to Boston issues tomorrow. Promise. ...

Update -- Mickey thinks McCain screwed up delivery of the anti-GOP passages, which he called "potentially the most effective part of the speech." But if McCain was mad that the passages fell flat, what did he expect? He was basically telling his fellow Republicans they blew it -- and most of them don't want to hear that. They've grown accustomed to being in denial. ...  ¶ 7:46 AM