Preaching to the Corner

A couple of times last night McCain seemed to forget that he was making a pitch to 60 million viewers and began to talk in conservative jargon (some of it about 30 years old). I'm not sure that calling someone a "redistributionist" has the same punch now that it had in the 60s. I also have a hard time seeing how mocking "the health of the mother" is useful when McCain's trying to make up ground with independents. I realize that he's following a conservative argument that the "health of the mother" exception has been broadened to cover things like mental health, but that's a dispute raised in the comments section of FreeRepublic.com, not in your last chance to talk to a broad audience of voters.