We are now told that the McCain/Palin theme will be reform. All that needs to be done is for them to restore virtue to the White House, root out party politics, and immediately life will be better for all Americans.
Wasn’t that the logic of the Bush 2000 campaign?
Of course it was a fiction in 2000 and is so again now.
Modern government is a complex undertaking that requires competence in policy as well as politics.
A cynic might ask why promoting yourself against your own party, turning on your mentors, is more virtuous than other forms of political self-promotion.
In the Obama lexicon, real change includes mobilizing a base of support. His speech at Invesco was specific enough in pitting the Democratic philosophy against the “you’re on your own” approach of the Republicans so that his election combined with the popular mobilization should bring a real mandate and thus produce real change.
Reform, as offered by McCain and Palin, is a snare and a delusion.