McCain: "We'll Make Up the Difference"

Today reinforced my belief that the pundits on TV aren't paying attention to the speeches they comment on, and are not worth our time. How many times have I heard someone talk about how he said drilling would solve our problem (which is not true, he talked about wind, nuclear, and other sources of energy, and specifically said drilling would not solve the problem by itself). Another thing I'm hearing is that he didn't offer any specifics on how he would help struggling families. Apparently they weren't paying attention. Apparently conservatives weren't either. I was surprised to hear them cheer for this line:

For workers in industries -- for workers in industries that have been hard hit, we'll help make up part of the difference in wages between their old job and a temporary, lower-paid one while they receive retraining that will help them find secure new employment at a decent wage.

So there's a specific for you, but is it just me, or does this sound like a new government welfare program? I must have missed something though because conservatives don't seem to be upset by it, despite the repeated call for less government dependency throughout the convention.

I wonder how this plan will be implemented. So the government will give a check to someone working at McDonalds because they used to work at an auto plant. But the person working next to that person will not receive a check, because they never worked at the auto plant? Does that make sense?