2 Candidates, 2 Americas: Old Values vs. New

It's not just youth vs. age, Peggy Noonan writes of the general election contest that began in earnest this week, it's a battle of the Old America vs. the New America—"between the thing we were, and the thing we have been becoming for 40 years or so." The Old America McCain represents values patriotism, tradition, honor, character, stoicism, she writes. The New, Obama's America, values education, achievement, making bold decisions, breaking tradition.

“I weigh this in favor of the Old America,” Noonan writes. "Hard not to, for I remember it, and its sterling virtues." But they may not be enough to win the election, she adds. "America is always looking forward, not back, it is always in search of the fresh and leaving the tried. We like new. It's in our genes. Hope we know where we're going, though." (More John McCain stories.)