Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

John McCain was a "safe" maverick tonight. Which means he was no maverick at all.

-- WILL BUNCH

Political conventions in the modern era are supposed to be partisan lovefests, pre-ordained coronations. There isn’t supposed to be anything like real politics going on there. That’s what the media keeps telling us. But the Republicans, not listening, just broke that rule. Barring unforeseen circumstances, unknown shoes that might drop, or the unlikely event of Democratic strategic brilliance, it is now the Republican Party’s election to lose, and we have just witnessed what might be one of the neatest, most explosive, most dastardly genuine political manuevers of presidential politics in our time.

-- JULES CRITTENDEN

McCain might have extended his indictment of the Bush years to a much longer laundry lists of lies, deceit, incompetence and criminal misjudgment, but he was in the awkward position of talking over the heads of the people who had authorized all that to ask for the votes of Americans who had suffered from it.

. . . In his contortions, McCain tried to look forward as he kept reverting to past Republican nostrums of lower taxes, less government and individual initiative.

Tonight's McCain was not the McCain of 2000, who refused to genuflect to the Religious Right and opposed tax cuts for the richest Americans. He is now papering over all those past differences with his history of devotion and service to his country.

-- ROBERT STEIN

[W]e now know what the major and minor themes of this campaign will be. Not that it was totally unexpected but the Republican trump cards will be the same ones they've employed throughout their last 8 years of power: fear and hate.

-- STEVEN D

Of the four major speeches delivered across the two major conventions, I have the least to say about John McCain's speech, though perhaps that's because it was the speech in which the least was said. In a sense, the digitized backdrop behind McCain was a perfect symbol for the address: It began with a generic American house, moving quickly to a generic American flag, ending with recorded fireworks. Clip art for the nationalistic set, but moving if you've rarely seen such images before. And so too with his speech.

Of course, you must say this much: McCain's recounting of his experiences as a prisoner of war remain powerful. But that was 40 years ago. He has now been campaigning for president for the better part of a decade. He needs more than a story. He needs a vision.

-- EZRA KLEIN

Assuming that it's possible to put aside Sarah Palin for a moment . . . let us remember what constitutes John McCain's chief challenge at his national convention, and beyond:

His urgent need to give a respectful nod to the guy he hopes to succeed in office . . . while nevertheless orchestrating the maximum possible distance from that same guy, who is viewed as a virtual pariah by nearly 70 percent of the American electorate, and who also happens to be one of the worst presidents of the past century.

-- DICK POLMAN

Because she jumbles up so many cultural categories, because she is a feminist not in the Yale Gender Studies sense but the How Do I Reload This Thang way, because she is a woman who in style, history, moxie and femininity is exactly like a normal American feminist and not an Abstract Theory feminist; because she wears makeup and heels and eats mooseburgers and is Alaska Tough, as Time magazine put it; because she is conservative, and pro-2nd Amendment and pro-life; and because conservatives can smell this sort of thing -- who is really one of them and who is not -- and will fight to the death for one of their beleaguered own; because of all of this she is a real and present danger to the American left, and to the Obama candidacy.

-- PEGGY NOONAN

Rumors are slowly crystallizing into confirmed reports when it comes to the dating phase of America’s relationship with Sarah Palin. Following our brief introductions, this particular shiddach will apparently be overseen by Team McCain adhering to ancient traditions – there will be no future dates without strict chaperones in attendance and the conversations will be passed through the mothers. Should we wish to know anything further about the Alaska Governor, the campaign team will define what it is we should know and when we will find out about it.

-- JAZZ SHAW

I've learned through the years that it's very hard to judge political turning points in real time. But my guess is that the last twelve hours will be seen as the moment when McCain pushed all his chips into the pot to bet on a "mobilize the base" strategy. Given the fundamental math in this election year, that would also be the moment when it became very hard for him to win.

-- JAMES FALLOWS

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies. . . . Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it's happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America.

-- DAVID PLOUFFE

For a minute there, I was afraid that Sarie, who is obviously way smarter than Walnuts Depends, might actually use her small-town-on-the-frontier cred to reach out to independents, possibly even put this election back into play. An appeal to heartland values, especially right after Der Rudy's mouth-foamer, might have made an indelible impression.

But she didn't. She went straight for the wingnut freakazoid gut. And made them her willing slaves. They're building shrines to her in their front yards right now, gathering at work to sing her praises, preparing to-do lists for the McCain-Palin administration.

All 14 of them.

The wingnut freakazoid menace remains a clear and present danger to the nation, but while its psychopathic heart beats more insane than ever, the size of its fellow-traveler support is greatly diminished.

-- YELLOW DOG

"Just from what little I've seen of her and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they're a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they're uppity," [Georgia Republican Rep. Lynne] Westmoreland said.

Asked to clarify that he used the word "uppity," Westmoreland said, "Uppity, yeah."

-- MIKE SORAGHAN

Howard [University] was the first place where I got snapped on for pronouncing "carried" as "curried," for calling "Baltimore," "Baldimore," for calling a "pocket-book," a"pockiebook." The point isn't that Howard was a bastion of upper-class condescension--it most assuredly was not. When you black, everyone gets snapped on, for everything, and I've always found great democracy in that. But my point is that I learned what it meant to be "ghetto" at Howard. But what I've never learned, what I've never quite gotten is the white equivalent.

I've been thinking about this all through this Sarah Palin fiasco. I think within days, people were debating over whether she was, essentially, ghetto.

-- TA-NEHISI COATES

Cartoon by Tom Toles/Universal Press Syndicate