The Year of Speaking Conventionally

Other choices on Thursday night were also questionable. Was it really necessary for a candidate of his years to remind young voters that he actually remembers Pearl Harbor? As in Obama's speech, McCain's applause lines showed little craft or care -- "We're going to change that!" "Americans know better than that!" (The contrast to the memorable, original and refined phrasing of the Sarah Palin speech was stark.) Portions of the speech -- "I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. ... I will cut government spending. He will increase it." -- were intended to be simple and plain spoken. They came across as simplistic rather than simple. And with apologies to Bill and Sue Nebe from Farmington Hills, Mich. -- no doubt fine people -- the use of swing state sympathy stories is clearly more of a Democratic skill than a Republican one.

But as McCain's speech neared its end and became more personal, its ambitions finally rose, its tone shifted and the whole effort was very nearly salvaged. Thursday's retelling of McCain's personal story had a moving and creative twist, emphasizing the lessons McCain took from his brokenness instead of his defiance and fortitude. He had been "blessed by misfortune" and reclaimed from selfishness by the strange grace of his own suffering and failures. "My country saved me," he explained with genuine simplicity. And we believed him, in awe and in tears.

In this campaign, McCain's story is an epic novel while Obama's personal experience is an inspiring article from Reader's Digest. But the strength of the personal parts of McCain's speech, and the weakness of its policy, illustrate a larger challenge to the McCain campaign. Bob Dole was a candidate of biography and careless about policy. Bill Clinton the New Democrat and George W. Bush the compassionate conservative had more typical biographies, but challenged the ideological conventions of their times and their parties in serious and appealing ways.

John McCain is a hero who has laid claim to the mantle of reform. Some actual and unexpected reform would help his case.