St. Paul – Last January, on the night of John McCain’s back-from-the-dead victory in the New Hampshire primary, I asked a longtime adviser how McCain had survived the collapse of his campaign a few months earlier. “You know, in the darkest days, I think there were a lot of us who just respected him so much we just wanted to band together to make sure to restore his dignity,” the adviser told me. “But the chance of this actually happening was pretty remote.”

And yet it did happen. After McCain won New Hampshire, he kept on winning until there he was, onstage last night at the Xcel Center here in St. Paul, accepting the Republican nomination that nobody thought would be his. It was a deeply satisfying moment for McCain, not only because of his campaign meltdown last year but also his bitter loss to George W. Bush in 2000. Now, finally, he is the leader of the Republican party.

Except that he can barely bring himself to say its name. In his acceptance address, McCain used the word “Republican” all of three times: once to describe vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s ability to work with both Republicans and Democrats, once to make the point that corruption exists in both parties, and once to lay special blame on Republicans who “gave in to the temptations of corruption.” McCain also stayed completely away from the word “conservative.”

All that stands in stark contrast to the rhetoric McCain used to win the Republican nomination. “I am a proud, reliable, consistent conservative Republican,” he declared at a GOP debate in Florida last October. “I stand on my record [as] a conservative.” At many other appearances throughout the primary race, McCain said much the same thing.

The shift is no surprise. With the Republican party out of public favor these days, everyone knew McCain would use the convention to emphasize his bipartisan credentials. But the striking thing about McCain’s speech at Xcel Center was the consistency of his conservative message and Republican principles. Speaking to the delegates, and to the national television audience, McCain delivered a solidly conservative Republican message, just without the R-word. He was the opposite of a Republican In Name Only; in St. Paul Thursday night, John McCain was a Republican in everything but name.

McCain’s speech, while overly long and often uninspiring, laid out a solid list of principles by which he promised to govern. “We believe in low taxes; spending discipline, and open markets,” he said. “We believe in rewarding hard work and risk takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor.”

“I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can,” McCain continued. “My opponent will raise them. I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them. I will cut government spending. He will increase it.”

After a statement of general conservative principle — “We believe in a government that doesn’t make your choices for you, but works to make sure you have more choices to make for yourself.” — McCain delivered his core creed: “We believe in a strong defense, work, faith, service, a culture of life, personal responsibility, the rule of law, and judges who dispense justice impartially and don’t legislate from the bench.” Tossing in a strong endorsement of school choice made the list complete.

On national defense, McCain offered his life experience to support a set of basic principles: “We face many threats in this dangerous world, but I’m not afraid of them,” he said. “I’m prepared for them. I know how the military works, what it can do, what it can do better, and what it should not do. I know how the world works. I know the good and the evil in it. I know how to work with leaders who share our dreams of a freer, safer and more prosperous world, and how to stand up to those who don’t. I know how to secure the peace.”

Of course, there was a lot of other stuff in McCain’s speech. There were pledges to fight corruption, to achieve energy independence, to create new jobs. There were the standard Reaganesque mentions of individual Americans who face particular problems or who have shown particular courage.

But at the core of McCain’s address lay a set of principles that could fit on a single note card. Limited government. Lower taxes. Free trade. A strict constructionist judiciary. A strong defense and a sober view of what America should and should not do in the world. These are what McCain promised Thursday night. It’s no wonder he was so well-received in the hall, despite his sometimes flat delivery. After all, he sounded very much like — shhhhh — a Republican.