McCain/Palin: true mavericks

William Safire says it best:

Then came the maverick ticket with its takeover of the change game. Senator Joe Lieberman, avoiding Obama’s error of playing to the multitude of partisans present, looked straight at the camera and spoke effectively to fellow Democrats and independents at home about McCain’s coalition-building work in the Senate. Joe faces heavy punishment for his courage from a vindictive Democratic leader, Senator Harry Reid. Best delivery by a Republican male was by Senator Lindsey Graham, who focused on the wisdom of the “surge” McCain advocated. (Obama was later forced by Fox’s persistent Bill O’Reilly to admit, at long last, that the surge “succeeded.”)

Then the St. Paul convention was hit by Hurricane Sarah and her admirable family. The cliché is that — faced by part of a party long troubled by McCain’s different drumming — the governor of Alaska was able to “energize the base” of social conservatives. The more salient fact is that her skillful speech and joyful demeanor was even more impressive than Obama’s introduction to the Democratic Party four years ago. The establishment-shaking candidate was a happy warrior in the glare of major-league scrutiny. Most of the huge, uncommitted audience at home enjoyed this strong woman’s national audition; the first test of McCain’s gamble paid off.

Though her “lipstick” ad lib got the laugh (and may have offended pit-bull fanciers), she forcefully delivered a Sorensenesque line that crystallized the choice this year’s voters face: “There are those who use change to promote their careers. And then, there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”