GODAWFUL UNTIL THE TEARJERKER PART

Did somebody actually get paid to write the non-POW parts of John McCain's speech tonight? It was dreadful -- an endless series of what seemed like wedding toasts followed by the kind of speech he'd give if he were Sarah Palin's VP choice (which, to the crazy base, I guess he is) followed by platitudes, platitudes, platitudes ... and then this riff:

We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us. We lost -- we lost the trust of the American people when some Republicans gave in to the temptations of corruption. We lost their trust when rather than reform government, both parties made it bigger. We lost their trust when instead of freeing ourselves from a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, both parties -- and Senator Obama -- passed another corporate welfare bill for oil companies. We lost their trust when we valued our power over our principles. We're going to change that.

(APPLAUSE)

We're going to recover the people's trust by standing up again to the values Americans admire. The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics.

Chris Matthews thought this was McCain breaking with Bush, but it's just GOP-base boilerplate -- as I've said many times, base Republicans refuse to entertain the possibility that the war had anything to do with the party's loss of Congress in '06, so they blame the loss on not being Republican enough (as they see it). Problem is, the base hears it that way, Chris Matthews hears it (or had it soun to him as) a break with Bush -- and ordinary voters hear it as "Vote for me! I failed!"

And the speech droned on until "Drill here, drill now," and then the POW story -- but I do think the big finish was enough to make up for 35 or 40 crappy, shakily delivered minutes, and he'll get some kind of bounce. But it wasn't much -- not poetry for the most part and not particularly red meat.