The Sarah Palin pick has given John McCain permission to say what he wants in policy terms tonight. The base is fired up and ready to go thank to both the media assault on Palin and her social and fiscal conservative credentials and even if McCain deviates from conservative orthodoxy they aren’t going to stay home in November.
McCain should take this opportunity to present himself to the country at large as a bold reformer interested in what works not what is ideologically correct. Michael Gerson, Bush’s former speechwriters, observation that the test of McCain’s speech is if at the end of it voters can say “I have never heard that from a Republican before” is essentially correct.
There also should be new ideas in the speech. If McCain is going to keep his agenda in the spotlight for more than one night, it is going have to be big enough to demand further discussion.
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