Republican conventions are where Conservatives come in sceptical of the presumptive nominee but leave wowed, only to remember why they were sceptical early the next year. I'm feeling the same way I did listening to Bush the Elder's acceptance speech in 1988. As I was walking into the gallery, someone tried to give me a Bush button, and I told him "I'm not ready for that, yet." When I walked out, I was ready.

I'm hearing things that I haven't heard about small government that I haven't heard since Reagan. Did we make the wrong choice in 2000?

Wait a minute, did he say "help bad teachers find another line of work?" I don't think I heard that even during Reagan.

"Stop sending foreign aid to countries that don't like us very much." Wow. Again.

I'm a little leery of the talk about making Washington more efficient. That kind of talk often misses the point that the problem is the intrusiveness of the programs, not just their expense.

OK ,the "working together" talk is too much like the "New Tone". Although it could be read like Reagan's famous saying about what you can accomplish when you don't worry about who gets the credit.

I got so caught up in the speech I lost track of the commentary. OK, I'm wowed now. Where's my McCain button?

vestigia terrent