McCain isn’t generally a great speaker, and he was slow to get going tonight, but he ended strong, with a recount not just of the heroic portion of his captivity, but of when he was broken and ashamed, with nothing to fall back on but the counsel of one of his fellow soldiers, and the love of his country. His Churchilian rallying cry at the end of the speech brought the house down. It was delivered with a level of conviction that few others could muster, because he’s lived it. “Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.”
