I have to get up really early for work so I'm running a huge sleep deficit this week, so I can't flesh this out fully now but wanted to put this out there.
John McCain absolutely blasted the Republican party for its' failure of not just the last 8 years, but really the last 14 years going all the way back to Newt and the Contract with America takeover of congress. The silence in the arena was deafening. How is this going to play in the morning when when the republicans have slept on this?
I think there is a possibility that this could split the party into two factions. The neocon / religious right faction who have always held McCain suspect and only got excited about the McCain candidacy in the last couple of days with the addition of the uber conservative Palin. And the older Goldwater, mainstream conservatives who have been quietly stewing for the last decade or longer while the neocons and theocrats completely hijacked their party.
And as the nominal "leader" of the party, should McCain actually reach out to democrats on some first issue (should he get elected), who in his party will he bring with him, or will he turn around and see all of the republican leaders he just condemned standing on the other side of the room thumbing their noses at him? This could be the McCain of the Immigration Reform bill who was nearly burned in effigy by his own party.
Is there room for Obama & team to exploit this line, noting McCain's willingness to work together, but the general Republican preference to obstruct? Has he just pulled a pin on a hand grenade and dropped into the room?
Any more coherent thoughts along this line? Or am I seriously missing on this?