ROBERT SHRUM: The Republicans’ Lipstick Populism

It was appropriate that the Republicans convened in the city named for Saint Paul. For on the road to the convention, John McCain had a conversion experience worthy of the saint, transforming his lobbyist-run, insider campaign into a full-throated appeal to cultural populism. The combination of purple anti-Washington rhetoric and blue-collar melodrama will henceforth be known as “Palinesque.” The question now is whether this hit show has enough gas to run until November.

The Republican convention’s immediate effect resounded across America and the sea, with the Times of London editorializing that the party had reached out “to the heartland, pitting the people against the powerful. It has worked before.”

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