I'm watching Sen. John McCain give what amounts to his nomination acceptance speech. He is talking about service, about America as the last best hope of mankind, about fighting the Taliban and his pride in the decision to destroy the regime of Saddam Hussein. He wants to win the battle for the hearts and minds of Islam. He wants to defend free-trade treaties and improve education. He promises lower taxes and regulation. He promises an energy policy that relies on alternative sources. "We don't hide from history, we make history," McCain said.
There was no talk of a 100-year war in Iraq, but a challenge to the Democrats to explain how they would end it without producing a genocidal ethnic cleansing. In short, he sounds presidential, impressively so.
He says how he will run: travel the country and hold town halls everywhere. It is who he is and what he does. He even manages to portray himself as a man who eschews ambition, even though he has been running for president of the United States.
I have to admit--I am duty bound to admit--that I have underestimated McCain time and again. I didn’t think he had the muscle or the message to defeat then-Gov. George W. Bush in 2000, but McCain nearly pulled off a miracle. I thought he was yesterday's news last fall, when his 2008 campaign was going nowhere. Even after his repeat miracle in New Hampshire, I was not convinced that he could get from there to here.
McCain is no angel, God knows. But he is a fighter, and a winner, and he is going to be harder for the Democrats to beat than they may think. Don't let his age distract you. He has more zest for battle in him then men half his age. And he has a message: I am a soldier at heart, not a politician.
Let's see who salutes.
