McCain catches up to Obama

Inter Lake editorial

The Republican National Convention delivered a series of stirring speeches, reaching a high point with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's race-changing appearance as the vice presidential nominee.

She was a tough act for Sen. John McCain to follow. But McCain took a decidedly different approach - while she spoke as a campaigner with jabs at the Democratic opposition, McCain jumped ahead, aiming to paint a picture of how he would govern as president instead of portraying himself as a candidate.

McCain and Palin framed themselves as authentic agents of change for Washington politics, both citing records of bucking the status quo and corruption, sometimes going up against their own party.

If it works, it will be an effective rebuttal to the Democratic theme that the country cannot afford "four more years" of the Bush administration. The McCain-Palin theme is that there won't be four more years, because they will shake up Washington.

While there were complaints that there wasn't enough detailed discussion of things such as economic policies, Palin framed the ticket's strategy in simple terms: government is too big, and Barack Obama would grow it; taxes are too high and Obama would raise them.

And McCain was equally blunt: "We need to change the way government does almost everything."

McCain got more specific in discussing his view of education, contending that Obama is beholden to education unions and bureaucracies. "I want schools to answer to parents and students," he said.

One area where McCain and the Republicans came up short was in their failure to fully exploit the weakness of a Congress that is controlled by Democrats and will likely have stronger control after the elections.

While McCain did make the case that he will stir things up in Washington, he could have been more direct in attacking a do-nothing Congress in the same manner as "Give 'em Hell" Harry Truman. He could have scored big in raising doubts about just how effective Washington would be with Democrats in control of the House, Senate and White House.

He could argue that an unimpeded, Democratic trifecta is what would truly deliver more of the same: more government, more taxes, more burdens on the American people.

But in the end the Republicans should be more than satisfied with their convention - it has produced a truly competitive race.