One thing I thought particularly interesting in John McCain’s speech last night was the fine line he walked on the issue of partisanship. Here he is, nominee of the Republican Party. But he’s been running against the party since the 2000 primary election. So here he is, the maverick, representing the incumbent party and still trying to position himself as the agent of “change.” To be fair, he’s probably 100 percent earnest in his vision of change, and yet it does disrupt our usual narratives about politics. And the media clearly doesn’t know how to handle it. We can’t have two people running on change. If it were anyone else, the incumbent party’s change-rhetoric would be seen as cynical posturing. But not with McCain.

So we somehow have two candidates running on change, both of who represent the status quo in some small way.