The Devaluation of Change

Tom Friedman has this about right:

How, you ask, can two people running with the exact same policies as the party that has been in power for eight years, claim to be the agents of “change?” That’s politics. There’s no shame. But what this has done is to make the word “change” as a campaign slogan meaningless. Obama will need to find another way to connect his ideas — clearly, crisply and passionately.

Because, while the pollsters tell us it is still really close, my own totally unscientific, seat of the pants poll tells me this: When you say Obama’s name today and ask people for their first impression — a quick, flash, gut, first impression — no single word or phrase or policy comes to mind. His opponents will fill that vacuum if he doesn’t. They already are.

I like a lot of Obama's policy initiatives. But I hate the idea of change for change's sake, and I truly fear the combination of a President and a Congress both enabling each other to change everything, all at once. So if McCain has managed to make a mockery of the idea of change, I'm happy. Maybe we'll get a real policy debate in the last month of the campaign.

Right. When lipstick-wearing pigs fly.