In which Republican pundits hear Obama for the first time

A hard-baking meme in the commentary following the Democratic convention is that the Democrats stole traditional Republican thunder  -- projecting American exceptionalism, support of the military, economic optimism.

Granting that the speaker selection and crowd chants may have been a bit more rah-rah than the Democratic norm, this meme has its root in Republican reaction to Obama's speech on Wednesday night that says more about them than him.  The Times' Nick Confessore cites this example:

“What is Obama talking about? He’s talking about the Constitution. He’s talking about personal freedom,” said Craig Shirley, a conservative author and Reagan biographer, referring to the Wednesday speech in which President Obama invoked his Scotch-Irish roots and the homespun values of humility and hard work.

“Moving out several paragraphs, Reagan could have given that speech,” Mr. Shirley added. “This might be part of a dialectical change in American politics.”

Twitter abounded* with similar sentiments:

NRO's Jim Geraghty: Romney lost - tis all for the best

I'm not familiar with the thinking of NRO's Jim Geraghty. But this bit of self-contradicting self-consolation, from the NRO "Morning Jolt" email*, struck me as curious:

One other thought, and before I go further, I want to emphasize I wish Romney had won. But I felt a strange sense of relief upon hearing our nominee's post-election remarks: