McCain's Promise to Undo Bush

Those who ran the country into the ground for eight years sent John McCain out last night to ask voters for a do-over.

In a speech wherein the only Bush mentioned was Laura, the candidate Republicans rejected eight years ago rallied them to his cause of repairing the damage.

"I fight," he said, "to restore the pride and principles of our party. We were elected to change Washington, and we let Washington change us.

"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."

McCain might have extended his indictment of the Bush years to a much longer laundry list 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.

"We're going to recover the people's trust by standing up again to the values Americans admire," McCain promised in identifying himself as a "change" candidate.

"The party of Lincoln, Roosevelt and Reagan is going to get back to basics."

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.

But he was speaking for a party he was tempted to leave in disgust at the Bush-Cheney nightmare, and it would be at their own peril if voters forgot all that, as McCain apparently has, and let him bring back the usual suspects for another four years of misusing power.