Well, two. First, that bit about hating war was essential. I have had earful after earful of what a hot-headed, lunatic, war-mongerer John McCain would be as president — and all from paleo-cons and libertarians. (I don’t talk to libs about these things.) In my experience, as in the cliche, the military doesn’t start wars. Men and women who have seen war understand the stakes. So I thought that was a necessary and good touch.

The domestic policy specific that was most impressive was his discussion of worker retraining. He was brave, last winter in Michigan to tell workers that no, their jobs were not coming back. Globalization is here to stay, and there are costs. Free trade is the key to longer term prosperity — he argued, correctly, I’d say. Other GOP candidates pandered on that one. The Democrats did worse: Obama told the voters of the Rust Belt that he opposed NAFTA — and free trade — and sent an emissary to Canada to assure their government that he didn’t mean it. Ugly and arrogant. And wrong.

It seems to me that serious worker retraining, precisely like basic education, is what government should do. It is the proverbial ”hand up, not hand out.” It is an opportunity that citizens must seek, take advantage of, and put to use. So that was a very clear signal to his target audience of blue-collar workers that he will send appropriate help.

John McCain was appealing in his way tonight. I believe in the deeper truth of his narrative of coming to selflessness. I can live without soaring rhetoric, which I sometimes find misplaced on these occasions. And I don’t want to be charmed. So I am not asking for McCain to adopt a different persona here. But stumbling through such a long speech is kind of annoying. I’ve seen him in smaller groups, and he does perfectly well. If he can’t read a teleprompter, he will have to figure out a better way to give a speech. Because, while shaking things up, and cutting spending and corruption in Washington is job one — being able to explain it along the way is very important too. Part of the reason for George Bush’s abysmal ratings, even where he has done the right thing staunchly, is his failure to explain his thinking and his actions to the country. We can’t afford more of that.