Tonight

After McCain's speech, I like him more but my expectations of him are less (when he gets to the Oval Office, and I think he will). I wrote before that the self-justification of the McCain candidacy is that he survived the Hanoi Hilton and you didn't, and I stand by that.

Obviously that is a substantial achievement that speaks impressively to steadfastness in character, but it isn't enough. Even though McCain has largely been doing what I suggested in the post I mentioned before I am not particularly optimistic about the upcoming McCain Administration. We've got very substantial problems in America that require real expertise to get through. More expertise than any one person has of course but in McCain's case I fear his tendency to view the world through his "public service" lens will keep him from getting the best out of others too.

Notwithstanding that, McCain vs. Obama is an easy call and at the moment most of the intelligent people who are sitting this one out are motivated by the need to indulge their own spite, which is their prerogative of course. I suspect when push comes to shove Palin is the real game-changer anyway. We need a broader base of political renewal than the Establishment has on offer. And now we have a chance of getting it.