I'm hiding out on the intertubes so I don't have to watch Sarah Palin. And Project Runway was much more fun than Huckabee et al. (Lee Ann won AGAIN!)

Am interested to hear what those of you with strong stomachs thought.

I'm too creeped out by this article to listen to Palin speak.

I stopped watching after Rudy led the crowd in a rousing cheer of "Drill, Baby, Drill!" Surreal.

Giuliani is a moron. Democrats didn't give up America, we gave up on believing our incompetent president could fix his screw-ups.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

I was welding my muffler at a friends house in Fountain City. What happened?

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

What happened?

I was at the Squeeze reunion tour stop at the Ryman. Singles 45s + 7.

Setlist:

Strong In Reason
If I Didn't Love You
Revue
Up the Junction
Take Me, I'm Yours
I Think I'm Go Go
Separate Beds
Piccadilly
It's So Dirty
Black Coffee In Bed
Annie Get Your Gun
Goodbye Girl
Melody Motel
Tempted
Slaughtered, Gutted, and Heartbroken
Is That Love?
Cool for Cats
Another Nail from the Heart
Hourglass

Encore:
Slap & Tickle
Pulling Mussels

(ETA: The barkeep at the Ryman needs to learn the difference between the soda button and the tonic button on the post mix gun. Gin & soda, not so good.)

____________________________

the distance between black & white is much further than i would like until now i never noticed that fascism has many disguises -d. boon, 1981

I watched PBS coverage from Huckabee's speech to the end of Palin's speech. I thought Huckabee was having a difficult time getting the crowd fired up and his speech was not one of his best. I couldn't believe that he opened up his speech with his comments how he wished he could be speaking tomorrow night instead (as the nominee), but was proud to be here to endorse his "second choice" for nominee. That line fell pretty flat and came across as a fairly petty comment and not as the laugh line he intended. (Or maybe he didn't intend it as a laugh line, in which case it was very effective in creating the uncomfortable moment he planned.) After that his speech rambled on with no identifiable path. As Elvis once said, "We're gonna start off slow and then just kind of taper off."

The governor of Hawaii offered a couple of interesting points, but I thought she spent an inordinate amount of time waiting for audience reaction. I was curious when she introduced the idea that Palin has more executive experience than Obama and Biden combined. How come she didn't include McCain in that total, too? By their reckoning Palin is better qualified to be president than their own nominee. For that matter, so is Mike Ragsdale. I don't expect to hear an answer to that anytime soon.

Guiliani's speech was a stunner to me. I kept looking at the screen and then to my wife and asking, "Is this real?" I felt like the GOP had descended into self-parody. An adoring crowd chanting, "Drill, Baby, Drill"? The contemptuous, mean-spirited mocking of "community organizers?" I kept waiting for Guiliani to then interject something like, "Live from New York! It's Saturday Night!" Sadly, no. This is how they want to be portrayed. This is who they are.

Then Tina Fey came out and talked to the crowd about pit bulls, lipstick, eBay, the Bridge to Nowhere, and made fun of community organizers, too. It was all very odd.

Given the show the GOP put on in 2000 and in 2004 (complete with styrofoam Greek columns, thank you very much), I am a bit surprised at how strange this one seems. I can't put my finger on the exact right word to describe it other than to say it seems "off." Maybe they're just phoning it in and making their plans for 2012. I don't know, but this doesn't look like the orgiastic Roman conqueror's celebration of 2004.

On a related note, does it look like there are a lot of empty seats in parts of the arena? I didn't notice that in Denver. I imagine that Denver used curtain screens of some sort to hide the empty sections (as they do at Thompson-Boling Arena) if there were any. I would think the GOP would have encouraged St. Paul to do the same or maybe they're trying to make a point.

The factcheckers are having fun with some of the more bizarre claims, like Huckabee's moronic statement that Palin got more votes as Mayor of Wasilla than Biden did for President...Wrong! By hundreds of thousands of votes.

Now we know why the economy sucks under Republicans...Can't count for crap!

I imagine that Denver used curtain screens of some sort to hide the empty sections

There were no empty seats in Denver during the major speeches. The fire marshal shut the place down (i.e. nobody else was let in) at least twice. Movement inside the arena was virtually impossible. All the aisles were crammed, and people were packed on the floor like sardines. Out in the concourses there were thousands more, and every monitor had huge crowds watching.

I watched very little of the coverage on TV last night. I just now watched the CNN video of Palin's speech.

To be clear, I am an Obama/Biden supporter.

I thought Palin did fine last night. IMO, so far, she is an asset to the Republican Party. Earlier in the evening I watched some TV pundits concerned about how she would do with the delivery, thinking she could not handle the teleprompters. She handled them fine, again IMO. (Maybe CNN cut out any mistakes for the video?)

I picked up most of the same moments mentioned in this AP article.

I do not agree with most (if any) of the positions of the Republican Party. I find many of their party to be uncaring and elitist in their own way. I hope the Democratic Party can sell their caring, compassionate, balanced budget, responsible taxation and spending, and international expertise positions to the American people.

Since 1969 (nearly 40 years), we've had two Democratic presidents, Carter and Clinton and five Republican presidents, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, GHW Bush, and GW Bush. Democrats obviously need a definitive strategy to win the White House. I'm pretty sure the anti-Palin strategy is not the ticket, although obviously part of the full plan. Let's make sure we too attract the rural vote, the "hockey moms" and get Obama/Biden elected.

I watched part of Guilliani's speech and all of Palin's. I wonder how community organizers and volunteers (the folks in the trenches during Katrina, Gustav, etc) in this country feel about being ridiculed. I was watching on CBS (I think) and at the end of her speech, the commentator said something to the effect of being surprised that she again mentioned the "bridge to nowhere" since she had initially supported it until she found out that Alaska was going to have to pay for part of it. My husband (Republican) thinks she needs to tone down the hockey mom thing. He does not see that as an asset. We both laughed when the camera cut to Palin's youngest daughter licking her hand and slicking down the baby's hair. For the most part, I see the conventions as a group hug for the parties. I'm looking forward to the debates.

Obama campaign manager David Plouff responds to "community organizer" remarks:

Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians and their failed policies.

And it's no surprise that, after eight years of George Bush, millions of people have found that by coming together in their local communities they can change the course of history. That promise is what our campaign has been about from the beginning.

Throughout our history, ordinary people have made good on America's promise by organizing for change from the bottom up. Community organizing is the foundation of the civil rights movement, the women's suffrage movement, labor rights, and the 40-hour workweek. And it's happening today in church basements and community centers and living rooms across America.

Meanwhile, we still haven't gotten a single idea during the entire Republican convention about the economy and how to lift a middle class so harmed by the Bush-McCain policies.

It's now clear that John McCain's campaign has decided that desperate lies and personal attacks -- on Barack Obama and on you -- are the only way they can earn a third term for the Bush policies that McCain has supported more than 90 percent of the time.

I thought this bit from Huckabee's speech was interesting.

When gasoline costs $4 a gallon, it makes it tough if you're a single mom trying to get to work each day in a used car that you drive. You want something to change.

If you're a flight attendant or a baggage-handler, and you're asked to take a pay cut to keep your job, you want something to change.

If you're a young couple losing your house, your credit rating, and your piece of the American dream, you want something to change.

I was about to be impressed with this. I was a bit surprised that he went this direction (not really surprised that Huckabee did, but that the GOP allowed it). I was not surprised by the tepid applause these lines brought. I thought I even heard a boo or two in there. Great, I thought, he's going to introduce some GOP strategies for the economy. Let's hear it.

Then... nothing.

But John McCain offers specific ideas to respond to a need for change. But let me say there are some things we don't want to change: freedom, security, and the opportunity to prosper.

...

Let me make something clear tonight: I'm not a Republican because I grew up rich. I'm a Republican because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me.

John McCain doesn't want the kind of change that allows the government to reach even deeper into your paycheck and pick your pocket, your doctor, your child's school, or even the kind of car you drive, or tell you how much you have to inflate your tires.

I think he left out the part where Democrats also want to pick out your house color, but he managed to get the rest of the jabs in there. Nary a bit about what the McCain-Palin ticket brings to the table in regards to policy, though.

and have studiously avoided watching anything from either one. Besides, now that my vote is decided, I'm just on cruise control until November anyway.

But here are four rhetorical questions and a real one that kind of strike me as significant at this point.

Rhetorical:
1. How many threads and replies on this board in the past few days about the GOP VP choice?
2. How many stories in the national media in the past few days about the GOP VP choice?
3. How many threads and replies on this board in the past few days about Obama?
4. How many stories in the national media in the past few days about Obama?

Real:
Is it possible that the GOP VP choice is almost perfectly fulfilling her intended role in this campaign?

I think maybe we have a huge case of "Oh my God, there's a woman on the GOP ticket!" She's someone most people had never heard of. She has a background and family history that's both interesting (even controversial) and "fresh" from a storytelling perspective. She seems to be driving both traffic and nielson points. It looks to me like the GOP VP choice has given the media and the masses something new to focus on and talk about in this campaign. In short, she's earned the GOP campaign a break from the constant "Obama love" that had been saturating the media since Iowa. To me, it looks like the GOP have played their cards very well. Even if Palin eventually comes across exactly as the Dems are going to try to portray her, that's hardly damning to the GOP campaign (Dan Quayle, anyone?). I suspect her role is to give the media a new focal point, an alternative to yet another Obama "cult of personality" article or feature. From a purely tactical standpoint, it looks like a damn good play.

Palin's pick is aimed @ those folks that know we need reform in Washington but aren't sure about Obama & dont believe the Republicans are the answer.

Voters also want answers not the same old libral/conservative divide.

Think about it..How many times did she say Republican or conservative? Not many.But over & over Palin spoke about taking on the establishment..reforming government...how she & McCain will shake things up.Brandishing McCain's maverick streak.

Palin's pick is exhibit A in the reform arguement.

We are not the Republican ticket..or the conservative ticket..WE ARE THE REFORM TICKET..that WILL GET THINGS DONE!!

Will it work? Dont know.

But McCain sure shook things up with Palin.

But McCain sure shook things up with Palin.

And that's the key with McCain.

Every "maverick" position he has taken since starting in the Senate has been to attract media attention.

From opposing troop deployment in Lebanon when Reagan was President to campaign finance reform to Iraq he will go with what seems to be an unpopular opinion just to get media attention.

And each time, the media goes for it. He's not about Republicanism. He's not about conservatism. He's all about John McCain.

From the Alaskan blog, Mudflats (http://mudflats.wordpress.com/):

Jesus was a community organizer while Pontius Pilate was a governor