By Al Giordano

(Photo by Barry Crimmins.)

As you know, I don't bother myself much with what media talking heads say. They're almost always "off" and we've been steps ahead of them all year long.

As I've been observing and blogging tonight, I concluded: John McCain delivered a terrible speech tonight, and as I said in the previous thread, it was reminiscent of Jimmy Carter's in 1980 for it's brain-dead platitudes atop a milquetoast delivery, all with the stench of a born loser, that left Independents and swing voters empty handed, wondering what the fuck?

The tracking polls tomorrow and the next day may (or may not) show a McCain bump based on the Palin speech last night. But Chicago (which will have its own private polling numbers) won't sweat it, if that happens, because this speech was a dog that would not hunt, and a few days later the polls will reflect the horror for the GOP. My educated assessment is that young people, Clinton voters, suburban Independents, moderate Republicans, and others that will decide this election, were turned off - no, make that they will be aghast - by McCain's performance tonight.

There are a couple of voices in the media that agree with me:

Michael Gerson (Bush speechwriter):

"The policy in the speech was rather typical for a Republican. Pretty disappointing. It didn't do a lot of outreach to moderates and independents on issues that they care about. It talked, about issues like drilling and school choice which was really speaking to the converted. I think that was a missed opportunity. Many Americans needed to hear from this speech something they have never heard from Republicans before. And in reality, a lot of the policy they've heard from Republicans before."

Jeffrey Toobin (CNN analyst):

"I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I've heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980. I thought it was disorganized, I thought it was it was theme-less, I thought it was very, very boring...I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad."

That's where I come down on this:

A. Total. Disaster.

If we had national health care, ambulances would be rushing to the XCel Center right now.

Field Hands, what say you?

By Al Giordano

Okay, here goes. Help me blog this thing!

(And how did John McCain ever get the rights to use this song? That's just an un-American sacrilege! Must be a St. Louis Anheuser Busch thang.)

Update 9:07 p.m.: Another slide show. The two-dimensional nature of these GOP convention videos is so yesterday. Oh wait. It does have a few snippets of actual moving characters. But, like, any of those people ever hear of YouTube?

9:13 p.m.: "Barack Obama never had a daddy who would carpet bomb him." (And is that Fred Thompson's voice reading the "poem" at the end of the video? Okay. There he is. Poking around the stage to find the Braille teleprompter...

9:16 p.m.: This can't be happening. They're using the lime green jello background again! (Where is Katie Halper?)

9:32 p.m.: I've now read the entire speech, shrugged my shoulders, and said, "Al, you should watch it. Maybe the delivery is better than the text?" But it's not. This is a really B-list speech. I don't think it works with swing voters, not the suburban soccer moms nor the Nascar dads. It's really quite feeble. It's like he has something to prove and keeps falling back on his resume. "I fought for Indian tribes." What? I fight for this, I fight for that. Huh? I bet that Mark Halperin grades this speech B-. And it will hurt him to have to do so. But maybe McCain will rally in the brief "talk show" segment? Or is that even going to happen. He's barely halfway through his prepared remarks!

9:36 p.m.: I remember this convention. Both of them. It's 1980 and McCain is Jimmy Carter and Obama's speech was Ronald Reagan. Just sayin'.

9:45 p.m.: This is so happily terrible. "My friends, we'll drill them now, we'll drill them now!" Should be an interesting night in St. Paul as they haul in the big oil equipment and open up a hole in the city. Worst. Acceptance. Speech. Evah!

9:50 p.m. I can imagine Halperin, pen in hand, thinking "if I'm going to be honest this is going to be a C grade... Maybe I should give him a C+!" And Chuck Todd is thinking, "I better not grade this speech!"

9:52 p.m.: I'm just waiting for 9:56 to chant "Four more minutes! Four more minutes!" People really do watch these things thinking, "can I really listen to this guy for four years?" Jeebus. "I have my record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not." And by that you mean, Senator? And? (Halperin is thinking that if he were a real journalist this would be a D grade.)

9:56 p.m.: Four more minutes! Four more minutes!

10:00 p.m.: Remember the term "catharsis" as applied to the Democratic convention? This is a "catharsis of one." Rare, when the losing team starts running out the clock. Never seen that before. Chicago must be ecstatic right about now.

By Al Giordano

The Nielsen ratings are in and an estimated 37 million Americans watched Governor Palin's speech last night, just short of the 38 million that had seen Obama last week, and towering over the 27.6 million that watched George W. Bush four years ago.

EXCELLENT NEWS FOR JOHN McCAIN!!!!!, right? Well, not so fast: that depends on how the people who watched received it. We'll begin to see some tracking poll data tomorrow and will have a clearer sense early next week of whether she's winning over swing voters for her ticket. But the reviews from the Detroit Free Press focus group last night bode an ominous omen for McCain-Palin: Republicans loved it, Democrats didn't, and Independents - the real battlefield in the messaging part of this campaign - really, really didn't like her, or Senator McCain for choosing her.

Another thing that Palin's impressive ratings number does is raises the bar for McCain's speech tonight. If he doesn't exceed that number of viewers, it will be reported as an anti-climax, a case of the tail wagging the dog on the GOP ticket.

And McCain has to share the night with two other big TV moments...

At 8 p.m. ET, Obama's going on the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News. The interview will surely be filled with bombastic Bill-O attempting "gotcha" moments (don't look for O'Reilly to be as fawning to Obama as he was to Senator Clinton back in the Operation Chaos days; back then he was rooting for her to derail tonight's guest).

And at 7 p.m. ET is the NFL season opening game between the Super Bowl champion New York Giants (which in addition to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut has a healthy fan base in Northeast Pennsylvania) and their longtime conference rivals the Washington Redskins, whose fans don't only include the city of DC (hello swing-state Virginia!). Normally, an NFL game is over in three hours. Are you ready for some football?

The Giants are ot;http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/odds">a four-and-a-half point favorite. (That spread started at three-and-a-half but you know those New York bettors!). The over-under is 41. Now, here's the fun part: What are the odds of this game going into overtime and stepping on McCain's convention speech? The Field has done the math and sets them at roughly 9-1; there is a 10.1 percent chance that this game goes into overtime.

NFL opening night has been a big ratings attraction in previous years:

Plus, McCain isn't even going to give a real speech. Instead he'll offer some limited words and then "spontaneously" wade into the crowd for a staged "town meeting." I say "staged" because, duh, one has to get a credential from the Republican National Committee to get into the hall. All the questions will be plants.

Finally, today the Stock Market sunk by three percent, down 340 points. Republicans may be sounding inspired, but they're not putting their money where their cheers are.

So, what will prove the more compelling show tonight?

Obama vs. O'Reilly?

Jints vs. Skins?

The ratings war of McCain vs. Palin?

Or McCain vs. McCain?

Hope that Braille teleprompter is ready in time.

And, with apologies to our Washington DC Metro Area Field Hands: Go Giants!

Update 6:31 ET: NY Giants 7, Washington Redskins 0.

6:37 p.m.: Giants 10, Redskins 0 (So far, this don't seem like it's heading to overtime!)

7:00 p.m.: Giants 13, Redskins 0 (Time to switch to the Obama v. O'Reilly game.)

7:19 p.m.: Giants 16, Redskins 0.

7:25 p.m.: Giants 16, Redskins 7.

7:42 p.m.: Part I of the Obama-O'Reilly interview has started, opening with O'Reilly thanking Obama for "being a man of your word" and coming on the show, then complaining that it took nine months to do it. Obama replies, "Well, I've been a little bit busy!" Then questions go on to the war on terror, and Iran. Listen to this: O'Reilly, "On Iraq, I think history will show it was the wrong battlefield." Heh.

7:47 p.m.: Cripes, for all the build up, that was short. Part I of the interview is already over! Part two and three come next week. O'Reilly interrupted about 30 times in less than ten minutes. Obama had him fairly domesticated, though, and looked and sounded sharp and tough on foreign policy issues. No breaking news except that there was no breaking news! The first anti-climax of the night. Back to the Giants game!

7:55 p.m.: O'Reilly (after the interview segment) telling his colleagues on the air: "Lemme tell ya. Obama's a tough guy. I've looked him in the eye. He's no wimp." Ha ha. That whoosh you just heard was a pig flying by your window.

8:03 p.m.: Senator Lindsay Graham at the RNC: "Barack Obama's campaign is built on us losing in Iraq." Then tells a story in which John McCain saved the world, or Iraq, or something.

8:05 p.m.: Graham: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank God for Joe Lieberman!" God: "Don't blame me!"

8:15 p.m.: The Palin "video" (it's really a slideshow, a bunch of still shots with narrative over music) ends: "When Alaska's maverick joined America's maverick, the world shook." What? Did the Alaskan Independence Party already win? It's now another country? The world shook? Shook what? It's head?

8:23 p.m.: Tom Ridge: "Over 230 years ago some leaders met. Some were called mavericks." Wow. I didn't realize that McCain was that old. Calls America "the greatest community ever formed." (But don't you ever try to organize it, commie!)

8:30 p.m.: Video about "little Cindy Lou" and her father buying Anheuser Bush. This is really weird. Cindy Lou Who? Didn't Dr. Seuss already write this story? "At a Navy cocktail party in Hawaii a handsome captain came up and introduce himself... He was 41 but told Cindy he was 37... She was 24, but told him she was 27..." I'm not making this up! WTF, did Katie Halper slip a tape change in there?

8:40 p.m.: I was getting a little freaked out, but now I see. Nancy Reagan has invaded the body of Cindy McCain.

8:51 p.m.: OMG. Cindy McCain adopts more babies than Angelina Jolie, and she is going to adopt the baby of... (Al smacks himself for even thinking of going there.)

8:53 p.m.: She introduces a woman from Rwanda. "You are my hero." (Translation: We had to go all the way to Africa to find a black woman who would show her face at this convention. Now that's courage!)

By Al Giordano

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

-   Governor Sarah Palin, September 3, 2008

I'm always heartened when Nate Silver and I - each viewing the Palin speech last night from our respective cones of silence (and each with our hands full keeping websites overwhelmed by the stampede of so many new readers online) - end up drawing similar conclusions. Nate writes:

I think some of you are underestimating the percentage of voters for whom Sarah Palin lacks the standing to make this critique of Barack Obama. To many voters, she is either entirely unknown, or is known as an US Weekly caricature of a woman who eats mooseburgers and has a pregnant daughter. To change someone's opinion, you have to do one of two things. Either, you have to be a trusted voice of authority, or you have to persuade them. Palin is not a trusted voice of authority -- she's much too new...

...the fact remains that Barack Obama is extremely well known and Palin is largely unknown, and when that is the case, your perception of the known commodity is more likely to influence your perception of the unknown commodity than the other way around. If there's a certain Italian restaurant that you've been going to for years, and some stranger stops you on the street and tells you that they don't know how to cook their pasta, you're going to think that the stranger is a kook -- not that the restaurant is poor.

The co-pilot over at 538, Sean, adds:

St. Paul loved this speech... and so did Chicago. Palin swung for the fences, mocking the very notion of community organizing. So did Giuliani.

I knew something was "off" with the Palin presentation as I watched it last night but was slow to identify the precise moment that she blew it. The mortal error of Palin's speech was the attack on community organizers. Perhaps because I have self-identified as a community organizer for my entire adult life - with the scar tissue upon scar tissue that makes me used to and unconcerned with the typical belittling response from petty bureaucrats, governmental and corporate - I forgot about how the community that is organized takes special offense when some apparatchik goes after their own organizer.

Community organizers like Reginald and Mildred Martin in Houston, Texas were the recipients of Palin's snide attack. The angry reaction of from their son, Roland, who happens to be a CNN commentator, is indicative of something that happened in neighborhoods and farmlands throughout every corner of the country. "She mocked community organizers," an angry Martin told the nation, "the GOP does not give a flip about community organizers. It means they don't care about you... wanna talk about small town values? Don't you dare criticize the people who fight for community people who have community issues":

Palin's claim to portray herself as the new Erin Brockovich, the PTA everymom, five-months-long heroine of the special-needs kids (perhaps including her running mate, who will appear tonight from a remodeled convention stage complete with a Braille teleprompter specially constructed for the charisma-impaired?), field marshal for the armies of the unborn - and then also attack community organizers as a group - delivered a self inflicted wound.

Apparently, for all the Field & Stream hype, she really isn't any more skilled with a knife or a gun than the current vice president. Twenty million people saw her stab herself in the leg last night while attempting to skin the donkey.

Whether she wrote that "community organizer" one-liner, or McCain's handlers imposed it upon her (given Giuliani's similar sideswipe, I'm guessing the latter), it was her rookie mistake to have recited it during her national debut. Palin did not have the street smarts to excise such a gaffe before delivery. And so she ended up offending the most respected person in every neighborhood and small town in America as collateral damage of her snipe at Obama.

Related, is that the PUMAs, last night, went from the category of "endangered species" into extinction. "In lieu of flowers, donate to Obama." Senator Clinton has to be happy that she won't be saddled with that embarrassment any more.

Gloria Steinem wrote, in response, that Sarah Palin "shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger," in her LA Times column:

...the anti-feminist right wing -- the folks with a headlock on the Republican Party -- are trying to appease the gender gap with a first-ever female vice president. We owe this to women -- and to many men too -- who have picketed, gone on hunger strikes or confronted violence at the polls so women can vote. We owe it to Shirley Chisholm, who first took the "white-male-only" sign off the White House, and to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who hung in there through ridicule and misogyny to win 18 million votes.

But here is even better news: It won't work.

Oops! The women's movement, too, was built by community organizers.

Froma Harrop, who dedicated the entire primary season to attacking Obama quite viciously while championing Senator Clinton from her Providence Journal column, finally go the memo, and wrote about it:

What a McCain presidency now promises is another four years of Terri Schiavo and other artifacts of the cultural right. You remember Schiavo's husband having to fight the Bush administration and Republican Congress to remove his wife -- in a vegetative state for 15 years -- from life support. It's four more years of national humiliation as our leadership undermines the teaching of evolutionary science, and if something happens to John McCain, opposes stem-cell research.

One tries to untangle McCain's political calculations. The Schiavo case, creationism and similar excesses appeal to a passionate but small slice of the electorate. They are one reason voters are booting Republicans out of power. So while some religious conservatives may be "energized" by the Palin pick, most everyone else is revolted.

The Obama campaign wasted no time seizing upon what everybody outside of the media newsrooms (where they don't "get" community organizing either) understands was the major gaffe of the week, putting up a "Fight Back" page for donations with an early morning email rally from Plouffe:

Both Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin specifically mocked Barack's experience as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago more than two decades ago, where he worked with people who had lost jobs and been left behind when the local steel plants closed.

Let's clarify something for them right now.

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.

A hockey mom has to be careful not to elbow or get in the face of all the soccer moms and football moms and baseball moms and basketball moms, but Palin couldn't help herself last night. She had to say, in a few fateful words, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

Translation: I got elected and therefore I am better than all of you!

In her attack on community organizers, Palin not only revealed her own petty hubris and scorn for the real people she plays on TV, but she also inadvertently awakened a sleeping giant: The community organizers and those we have organized in a million struggles large and small. We are everywhere.

Update: Reader George writes, via email:

Also was thinking about the pay that Obama got as a community organizer vs. the pay that Palin got for being mayor.   $10,000 vs. $75,000.    Hmmm. 

Good point. Get it to re-write:

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,' except that you get paid seven times as much!"

Update II: Crimmins reflects on last night's fear-of-community-organizers revelations:

It's time for Barack Obama to continue exactly what he did to get where he is today. He needs to step up what was roundly mocked last night. He needs to community organize. Just as Palin wants to turn the entire nation into a paranoid and intolerant small town, Obama must continue his work to turn American voters into a very large, organized community. The R's tipped their strategy last night - they think community organizing is an easy thing to pooh-pooh. But in the back room the reason for the attack is different -- these people fear an effectively organized electorate. This attack was first unveiled by crooked cross-dresser Rudy Giuliani, who asked if anyone even knew what a community organizer does. Of course he knows exactly what a community organizer does - - a community organizer makes life miserable for racist, fascist mayors like Giuliani. A community organizer helps create collective power by motivating large numbers of downtrodden people to hope for a better day. There are more than enough downtrodden people in this country to organize and so they can tip the scales of power. If Barack Obama can continue to inspire these folks to get politically active, they'll create a roar so loud that it will be heard even behind the walls of the most fortified gated community.

Update III: Blame the hyper-over-shooting and self-wounding fast-talk on the meth? (Hat tip, Andrew Sullivan.)

By Al Giordano

First, my apologies for the system crash of the past two hours. I was unable to post or read a thing. Our tech team will not be able to sleep tonight until we can figure out how to accommodate the ever-growing readership in time for tomorrow. Thank you for your patience (and I'm humbled that you're still here!).

Second, after watching Governor Palin's speech, if I were Obama I'd breathe a sigh of relief tonight. And if I were McCain, I'd lose sleep.

The McCain team made one big mistake tonight: they put Palin on the attack at the same time that she was introducing herself to the nation. Stupid, stupid, stupid. That solidified the base. But the GOP base won't be enough in 2008.

The suburban Independent swing voter that feels favorably toward both Obama and McCain but wants change would not have been impressed by Palin tonight. She came off as just a tad too nasty and sarcastic, without being authentically funny. There was something all too forced about it all. (Just tune in to Fox News and watch them try to spin the night if you doubt what I'm telling you.)

The Democratic convention solidified its base but also expanded it.

The Republican convention so far solidified its base but while alienating swing voters.

They just seemed overly obsessed by Obama tonight. And snide.

She could have been big, but instead she was small.

But enough of my first impressions: what's your take?

By Al Giordano

Here's the official schedule for tonight's Republican National Convention.

The seven o'clock hour (Central Time) will attempt to show you that Republicans really don't all look like the delegates in the hall.

The next hour-and-a-half after that will try to make you like John McCain by reminding you of all the undesirable traits of those unsuccessful presidential candidates - Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani - who wanted to be in his five-hundred-dollar shoes tonight.

And the last half-hour will be Governor Palin's teleprompter driving test...

The drinking game is this: Every time a speaker mentions the word "change," take a sip. Even if they're small sips, my guess is that you'll be drunk by the closing gavel...

 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

 

 Speaker: Dr. Elena Rios

 Speaker: Ruth Novodor

 Speaker: Christy Swanson

 Speaker: Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams

 Speaker: Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico Luis Fortuno

 Speaker: Meg Whitman, former President and CEO of eBay

 Video: Sen. McCain's Economic Reform Package

 Speaker: Carly Fiorina, former Chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard

 Prayer: Bishop Thomas Wenski

 

 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.

 Speaker: GOPAC Chairman Michael Steele

 Speaker: Former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.)

 Speaker: Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.)

 Musical Performance: John Rich, Gretchen Wilson, and Cowboy Troy

 

 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

 Speaker: Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (N.Y.)

 Speaker: Gov. Linda Lingle (Hawaii)

 Video: Sarah Palin

 Speaker: Vice Presidential Nominee Sarah Palin

Here are some excerpts from former Governor Romney's prepared remarks:

"We need change all right -- change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington -- throw out the big government liberals and elect John McCain...

"And at Saddleback, after Barack Obama dodged and ducked every direct question, John McCain hit the nail on the head: radical Islam is evil, and he will defeat it! Republicans prefer straight talk to politically correct talk...!

And Romney will also attack Michele Obama:

"Just like you, there has never been a day when I was not proud to be an American. We inherited the greatest nation in the history of the earth. It is our burden and privilege to preserve it, to renew its spirit so that its noble past is prologue to its glorious future. To this we are all dedicated and I firmly believe by the providence of the Almighty, that we will succeed. President McCain and Vice President Palin will keep America as it has always been -- the hope of the world."

Here are some excerpts from former Governor Huckabee's prepared remarks:

"I'm not a Republican because I grew up rich, but 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 deeper into your paycheck and pick your doctor, your child's school, or even the kind of car you drive or how much you inflate the tires...

"Maybe the most dangerous threat of an Obama presidency is that he would continue to give madmen the benefit of the doubt.  If he's wrong just once, we will pay a heavy price."

This should start something in Italo-New York: Giuliani will plagiarize from Mario Cuomo's 1984 "city on a hill" speech!

"Governor Palin represents a new generation. She's already one of the most successful governors in America - and the most popular. And she already has more executive experience than the entire Democratic ticket. She's led a city and a state. She's reduced taxes and government spending. And she's actually done something about moving America toward energy independence - taking on the oil companies while encouraging more energy exploration here at home. Taxpayers have an advocate in Sarah Palin - she even sold the former governor's private plane on E-Bay...

"And as we look to the future never let us forget that - when we are at our best - we are the Party that expands Freedom.  We began as a party dedicated to freeing people from slavery... And we are still the party that is willing to fight for freedom at home and around the world. We are the party that wants to expand individual freedom and economic freedom... because we believe that the secret of America's success is not central government, it is self-government. ...And we are the party that believes unapologetically in America's essential greatness - that we are a shining city on the hill, a beacon of freedom that inspires people everywhere to reach for a better world."

And here are excerpts from Governor Palin's prepared speech:

"I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town. I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better. When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too. Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities...

"I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I've learned quickly, these past few days, that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone. But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country...

"Here's how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change..."

So, the boys will try to bloody up Obama who is tearing up the terrain in some "swing states" and putting them into the blue column: According to the new Time/CNN battleground state polls, he's up +15 points in Iowa, +12 in Minnesota (The Field thinks you can now safely move both states into the solid Obama category, and they bode well for neighboring Wisconsin, too) and he's up +2 in Ohio, where McCain has to win to have a prayer in the Electoral College.

And then Palin will come up and say "Change! Change! We want it, too!"

But do note, she also plans on running against the media... and will offer some snide remarks about community organizers.

Meanwhile, here's a new ad the Democrats put on the air today to introduce the JustMoreOfTheSame.com website:

So blog away, Field Hands! I'm going to make a quick beer run and, once back, hope you'll have kept me posted as to what has happened so far.

Update 7:58 p.m. I was thinking of posting the entire prepared texts of the Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani speeches here, but, gawd, much of them wouldn't make the cut for coherent comments 'round here. Thankfully, Wonkette has done it for us.

8:10 p.m. Romney is telling the crowd that "liberals" have been running Washington and the Supreme Court all along. Who knew?

8:17 p.m.: By the way, if you're joining us for the first time tonight, the real action is in the comments section, with the greatest (and often the funniest) supporting cast a blogger could want!

8:23 p.m.: Bored by Romney (and having already read his speech) I made the rounds and found this interesting report from Kelly O'Donnell at NBC's First Read: 

Palin worked until about midnight last night practicing her speech and resumed again this morning at 5 a.m., according to McCain advisors who have been with the Alaska governor day and night...

 

The governor was in "prompter practice" from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. today, aides said. Last night at about 10:30 p.m., aides added, they did a full run-through at a practice podium in an effort to create the feeling of performing at the hour she will appear tonight.

McCain has called to check in a number of times, they said.

Prompter practice? Sheesh. From my experience as a singer, the only day one doesn't want to rehearse is the day of the show.

8:27 p.m.: Here's Huckabee, who will deliver the nastiest remarks vs. Obama tonight. Out of character, yes, but he reads what's put in front of him.

8:34 p.m.: Huckabee gets biggest applause lines of the night talking about how poor he was as a kid, how he had to use lava instead of soap and it hurt. Them Republicans sure love them some class traitor! (Did his folks wash his mouth out with rocks when he cussed? Just wonderin'.)

8:37 p.m.: Huckabee: "John McCain can't even raise his hand!" (Would somebody please escort the Senator to the men's room? He must really need to go badly! No, not that men's room at the Twin Cities airport here. It's occupied!)

8:42 p.m. Har-dee-har. T. Boone Pickens is being interviewed by Hannity & Colmes from the convention floor and is praising Obama's energy plan as outlined in his speech last week. Hannity: "What about John McCain?" Pickens: "I'm waiting to hear what he has to say." Hannity: "Here's Sarah Palin's speech text, she's for all these things. Isn't that great?" Pickens: "Not enough. She doesn't mention natural gas." Poor Hannity looks crestfallen.