Change, promised Republican nominee John McCain during his acceptance speech in Minneapolis last evening, is coming. It's a timely message considering this morning's announcement that the economy lost 84,000 jobs last month (the eighth straight month of job losses) and the unemployment rate is at 6.1 percent, the highest since 2003. If you're lucky enough to still have a job, you were probably too busy to watch the candidate's oration; here it is.

A few obvious points: McCain is not a great orator. He didn't seem terribly comfortable up there. It's hard to run as an agent of change when you've spent the last eight years supporting those in control of the levers of government. That said, we're not going to grade the thing too harshly: it did what it had to do, namely, draw down the curtain on convention season and finally usher us into the election proper. And for that, we're all grateful.