The very strong appeal to bipartisanship by John McCain made in a very partisan setting is attributable to several factors. First, it plays to his strengths and his record. Second, it signals a departure from the Bush Administration. Third, it highlights an Obama weakness. Fourth, independents apparently love this stuff. Finally, it impinges on Obama’s change theme by offering a more concrete incarnation of the same theme.

Did it work? The media generally liked it. And my ridiculously small sample of Democratic opinion (including sampling some observations of press people in the hall) suggest it may have. But I’m the last person to argue that media coverage is predictive of anything.