I agree with @Mamradpivo: it looks like the old McCain, who I much preferred to the new McCain. I think @MissAnthrope has every right to be skeptical, but it would be nice if this were the first step in a more permanent return to the old McCain. We’ll have to wait and see.
Not that the old McCain was perfect. I had plenty of disagreements with him even then. Still, I would not have despaired had the old McCain become president. There’s a difference between disagreeing with the person in office and being worried that he’s downright incompetent. I accept that not every vote will be decided in accordance with my opinion, politics being the art of compromise and all.
Finally, I’m not sure I agree with @syz‘s interpretation of the passage quoted above. McCain doesn’t specifically say he’s talking about himself, and I’m unaware of anyone blaming him. Sarah Palin is the one who has come in for criticism on that score, and it seems he is defending her (if anyone). As part of an essay that pleads for a change in the rhetoric, it doesn’t seem all that inappropriate. We don’t need to blame Palin or say that anyone’s rhetoric is responsible for various tragedies in order to tone it down. The resultant state of public discourse is its own reason. Recent events might serve to have raised the issue, but they need not be the reason we choose to control ourselves.