Don't Tell a Soul

Hearing last night's repeated (and, I think, politically successful) defenses of the Surge as a watershed judgment call separating the man (John McCain) from the boy (Barack Obama), it reminded me of something I noticed at the Democratic convention: The word "surge" was almost as rare as the name "John Edwards."

So what's the Republican no-fly-zone equivalent? My early vote has been for "campaign finance reform," which remains deeply unpopular among many Republicans, and deservedly so. Fred Thompson last night did a gandy-dance around the term in this section of his speech:

What I remember most about those years is sitting next to John on the Senate floor as he led battle after battle to change the acrimonious, pork barreling, self serving ways of Washington.

The Senate has always had more than its share of smooth talkers.

And big talkers.

It still has.

But while others were talking reform, John McCain led the effort to make reform happen—always pressing, always moving for what he believed was right and necessary to restore the people's faith in their government.

Confronting when necessary, reaching across the aisle when possible, John personified why we came to Washington in the first place.

It didn't always set too well with some of his colleagues.

Some of those fights were losing efforts.

Some were not.

But a man who never quits is never defeated.

Tonight is "Reform" night here, so we'll see. Considering that I doubted we'd hear much about Michael Moore, and then Joe Lieberman smacked that pinata right out of the gate, I'll probably turn out wrong.