In fact, when you stack them up next to each other, McCain is a lot less like Clinton than Bush. The nostrum that Graham and McCain's widening circle of supporters are hawking is more than a Clinton antidote. It's an integrity elixir, a credibility potion. It seems to be one that no one knew they needed until they heard about it. And historical candidacies sometimes arise from a need that had previously remained unarticulated.
Boomers remain a key demographic.
But unctuousness proved to be a lousy salve and boomers like me reacted with despair as we realized we had not elected Beaver or even Wally Cleaver, but Eddie Haskell. If they were colors you'd find them all living pretty close to each other in a big box of Crayolas, each one a lighter shade of blue. At 64, he is a decade older than his opponents. Foundering somewhere between World War II and Vietnam, his was a true lost generation. Jedediah Purdy must love him.