Sep. 6--The entrenched Republican establishment has done real damage to America's self-confidence, economic well-being and its once unrestrained optimism.

After eight years in charge of the White House, GOP leaders had little reason to expect they could escape accountability in the fall.

So the party seized on its only hope, employing the one character witness with the integrity and courage to successfully plead for leniency.

That character witness is John McCain.

The Arizona senator has long been a statesmanlike voice of conscience and prudence within the party, even as he fended off stinging attacks from members threatened by his crusades against corruption and ignorance. Americans still inherently trust that man to make difficult decisions about their lives and their nation. They still revere McCain's heroism and bravery.

But in his quest for the presidency, McCain has methodically abandoned his signature positions in order to curry favor with his former adversaries in the most right-wing factions of the GOP.

In his acceptance speech Thursday evening, a restrained McCain attempted to recapture the maverick mantle that had made him so popular with crossover voters in both parties.

What the speech did was highlight how far he has traveled in just a few short months.

"We believe" in tax cuts for corporations, for wealthy investors and on millionaire estates, he told conventioneers, and in vaguely defined spending cuts.

"We believe" in school vouchers and wedge social issues.

"We believe" oil-drilling is essential to solving the energy crisis.

This was the same John McCain who once believed that those tax policies were irresponsible because they would expand the national deficit. He once believed Washington should focus on good-government reform, not culture wars. He believed in renewable energy investments and the need to address global warming.

The references to policy in his speech were bland and predictable, and they created a stark disconnect with his promise to "shake up Washington." He never answered how his administration would transform Washington while accepting a status quo that has given America a 6.1 percent unemployment rate, pushed the economy to the brink of recession and mired the military in an open-ended war that has cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars.

One of the primary goals of the week in St. Paul was to assimilate McCain into a party establishment that has viewed him with suspicion. He was successful, but that focus postponed his day of reckoning with the independents and moderate Republicans and Democrats he will need to win in November.

The GOP utterly failed to engage those important voters this week, instead putting on a tired show of anti-media anger, economic entitlement and us-versus-them retrenchment. Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin stood at the ramparts, sniping sarcastically at her opponents.

Tellingly, the best moment in McCain's speech Thursday evening -- and perhaps of the entire convention -- was an unscripted one. As angry crowds shouted down a protester, the candidate calmed them with a gentle reminder.

"Americans want us to stop yelling at each other," he said.

McCain is absolutely right, which makes the days of rancor preceding his speech so baffling. He gamely attempted to end the gathering gracefully, saying he was not running as a Republican, but that assurance misses the point.

Americans don't expect McCain to disavow his party -- they don't want him to -- but they do worry that he has disavowed his principles. Voters want him to be the maverick they have long known and admired, not the leader of the party that has squandered eight years in Washington.

Americans know McCain is capable of being the kind of president who can renew and restore faith in necessary institutions, but after this week's angry convention, and after the selection of Palin as a running mate, and even after Thursday's speech, they still wonder:

Will he?

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