The message of Kerry's speech could be summed up like this: "From one flip-flopper who would say anything to get elected to another, Mr. McCain." Kerry was brutal. "I have known and been friends with Senator John McCain for almost 22 years," said John Kerry. "But every day now I learn something new about candidate McCain. To those who still believe in the myth of the maverick instead of the reality of the politician, I say, let's compare Senator McCain to candidate McCain." "Candidate McCain now supports the wartime tax cuts that Senator McCain once denounced as immoral. Candidate McCain criticizes Senator McCain's own climate change bill. Candidate McCain says he would not vote against the immigration bill John McCain wrote. Are you kidding? Talk about being for it before being against it! Before he ever debates Barack Obama, John McCain should finish the debate with himself." The Democratic Party has a tendency to write its losers off. For years after he failed to attain the presidency, Gore was discarded by the very party that nominated him. After Kerry lost to Bush, he was similarly derided: It became impossible, in retrospect, for anyone to explain why Democrats trusted in a wooden windsurfer. Achieving the presidential nomination is not easy, though, and tonight Kerry reminded the convention center of how he did it. Kerry wasn't exactly courageous as a foreign policy voice in 2004, but he was nominated because he had the potential to be one. There was a gravity to him, and a somberness that came of experiencing both war and its manifold betrayals. Hemmed in by a sense of political caution that reacted poorly to an adverse political environment, he never quite rose to the occasion. Tonight, however, he did. He delivered arguably the greatest speech of his career. "When democracy rolled out of Russia," he asked, "and the tanks rolled into Georgia, we saw John McCain respond immediately with the outdated thinking of the Cold War." "When we called for a timetable to make Iraqis stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, John McCain called it 'cut and run.' But today, even President Bush has seen the light. He and Prime Minister Maliki agree on -- guess what? -- a timetable." Kerry was also nominated at a moment when liberals were embattled -- not electorally, but fundamentally. The mental chaos of the country in 2003 is hard to recall, but liberals weren't simply losing elections, they were being written off a forthrightly anti-American. Kerry was nominated, in part, as a hedge against that. He was a war hero, a senator, a member of the establishment and a liberal who could act as ambassador to the mainstream. But soon enough, his patriotism and character were called into question too. Tonight he spoke with the contained fury of a man who has watched his country calm, but still remembers how it felt to face down its irrationality. "Four years ago I said, and I say it again tonight, that the flag doesn't belong to any ideology. It doesn't belong to any political party. It is an enduring symbol of our nation, and it belongs to all the American people. After all, patriotism is not love of power or some cheap trick to win votes; patriotism is love of country." Tonight, that meant doing what was best for his country. And that meant breaking with his old friend John Kerry, and being honest about what candidate McCain has become. Plenty of other politicians this week have had the same charge, but put their own careers or comfort ahead of the task. Kerry did not. He'll be attacked for it, of course. But he's used to it.
