Following in the footsteps of Dubya’s “compassionate conservatism,” the supposedly principled maverick McCain is going to shamelessly mimic as much of Obama’s message as he can get away with.

But I did think there would be one exception:

Even though his actual philosophy is one of embracing failure, he’ll try to embrace the rhetoric of hope and change, so most voters people who aren’t paying attention think there’s no difference between the two candidates save for Obama wanting to leave Iraq (which, of course, may be enough to hand him the election anyway).Â

The joke’s on me, I guess. Â A Washington Post story tonight includes this line toward the bottom in discussing a McCain fundraiser:

His speech to the donors also gave him a chance to test a new theme for his stump speech. He said his campaign would focus on “reform, prosperity and peace,” a phrase he hadn’t used before to describe his top priorities as president.

Obviously Mr. Double-Talk Express has been taking tips from his good friend Joe Lieberman… who apparently got the idea from Richard Nixon:

I wasn’t inclined to agree with dday at Hullabaloo on Saturday when he wrote that McCain was stealing the “peace with honor” strategy, but it looks like he was on target.