Tom Ridge just called McCain "John Bush."  Unfortunate Freudian slip for them.

Win, lose or draw, Obama and Palin will be the speeches people remember next year. If Obama wins, look for the Right to set her up as a "shadow president".

Zzzzzzz....

Wait?

Wha?

Is it over?

Did anyone see Andrea Mitchell being attacked by balloons? If ever there was a clip tailor-made for The Daily Show...

McCain to be ahead next week; it's good that he's setting expectations though if he's right, I think McCain is the overwhelming favorite at that point.

However, I think Matthews is wrong and I'll reiterate my prediction in my diary: Obama will be up five in rasmussen and six in gallup on Saturday and Sunday.

The speech made me very...tired and confused, like after a bowl of oatmeal spiked with Xanax.  His words are like sonic horse tranquilizers.

Terrible policies, can't stand the party-  um... didn't hate the speech.  Thought it was well delivered and sincere- I expect he gets a good bump from this.

Honestly, the first time I ever listened to him speak (I've worked really hard to avoid it).

Democrats won the evening.  If we're talking about change by the end of the night, i don't know how the repubs will win.  This is the  first time since 96 that the political discussion is being led by the democrats.

Didn't watch McBush. But I did see Olbermann apologize beforehand for his network showing the exploitative 9/11 video in its entirety. He was holding back tears at the thought of his friends who died there.

When it hits Youtube we'll surely see it posted here.

To get himself separated from Bush, he threw all other Republicans under the bus.

I'd be shocked if the DSCC didn't pull out a "John McCain says that Washington changed the Republicans" ad. It'd play well in red states, but could also be a selling point in campaigns where the incumbent is already being attacked for other inadequacies (Liddy Dole).

Successful enough (low bar) that I think Obama will release fundraising news soon (assuming it's a big number) to steal the news cycle.

The speech will also be sued by the makers of Ambien for infringing on their sleep aid patent, but there were 30 second clips that will be consistently replayed that were tolerable enough, so most people won't realize how slow it was.

who knows what the polls will say, but what it felt like was a big fat exhale compared to the energy from yesterday. If this were the 4x100 relay, I would say Sarah ran the third leg in a record split time, caught the leading team, and handed the baton to the anchor, who ran the worst 100 meters of his life.  But I probably watched too much olympics last month.

I tried like hell to pay attention to the speech. I failed. He lost me in minutes. Not because of the content or my bias. He's just painfully dull. I was, however, amused by the pasty old guy in the leisure suit who was holding a sign that read, "THE MAVRICK." Buy a vowel, Ralph Furley. He pretty much said it all for me.  

Somewhat umderwhelming, especially after Palin's speech. Being upstaged by the VP nominee could present problems for him down the line.

He did speak about economics, but I don't know what he said because he lost me for that moment. However, I did think that near the end of the speech, where he told his POW story, may have been effective for those who were hearing his story for the first time. For me, the story has become tiresome. Yes, you suffered alot as a POW, but what are you going to do to help the economy and the people who are suffering, besides cutting taxes for the rich?

convention, strange week..."

Michael Gerson just trashed the speech on MSNBC.

Yikes!

"The first pork-barrel earmark that comes across my desk, I will veto it, and you will know their names!"

Oh, those horrible, evil earmarks.  Gee, I wonder what mooseburger-eating governor has benefited from earmarks more than any governor in the United States?  I'll give you a hint: it rhymes with "Failin'."

David Gergen said that the POW story was nice, but said that it was otherwise vague and ineffective.

Wow, I finally agree with Gerson on something ... it was a terrible speech.  Very poorly written and constructed ... my God, you have to put some rousing stuff up front to give the speaker some confidence.  I nearly fell asleep 15 minutes into that ... and it never really got better.  No specifics, no contrast.  A complete waste of 45 minutes.

I assume that Jerome is off his ledge now. That was a hideously bad speech on so many levels. Yes its possible that it played better out in America than it did in the hall but David Gergen ripped him a new one on adopting tired Republican economic policies that got us into the mess we are in (I am paraphrasing what he said).

I also couldn't believe the green screen after all the talk of his last green speech after the primaries. It was a technical malfunction you could tell but funny as hell.

If the majority of people in the country looks at this choice and says this ticket (McCain-Palin) is who we need to lead us into the meat of the 21st Century I will eat my hat.

(Jeffrey Toobin just called it the worst speech by a nominee since 1980!)

Sounds like Hill is threaten by the attention by lavished on Palin by the likes of Jerome.

This convention was pretty lackluster, saved only by the attack dog speech by an unvetted VP candidate who is plagued with scandals.  Even Wednesday night was kind of a mixed bag in the big picture.

Monday: interrupted by Gustav, Bush and Cheney speeches mercifully cancelled, Cindy appears in dress apparently made out of gold and diamonds

Tuesday: Grandpa Fred rehashes the POW story, Joe Lieberman puts 'em to sleep

Wednesday: SARAH FUCKING PALIN!!!!

Thursday: McCain does his impression of a talking, breathing Ambien

FAIL.

That was a hands-down, horrible speech. The convention audience in the hall applauded and cheered because they had to do their part not because they were enthused.

It absolutely lacked any coherent thread, any line of argument as to why McCain wants to be president, and what he will do for ordinary Americans.

I thought Palin was fabulous, even though I completely disagree with her politics and policies.

McCain was a bore. He looked old and incompetent. He was the best advertisement against voting GOP.

wake up and smell your Depends.

McCain's epiphany in Hanoi:  Country first. But family first, not so much. He put personal ambition, vanity, and penis first.

What a marvelous ape!

Dude that was weak.

Mccain's speech would be more effective than Palin's in my judgement .

It wasn't delivered with precision and wasn't pitch perfect like Palin's , wasn't even close but it had a lot of clarity , character and honesty to it .

Especially the way he told his experiences in war and peace.

The whole convention was about the biography and character of John Mccain and they are hoping once again that trumps weakness on issues .

It just might work..

but will it get the kids off his lawn?

I agree fully and I will shout at the top of my voice with all all my power that
``CHANGE IS COMING TO AMERICA''

And that change is coming from a senator of 4 yrs not a Senator for 25 yrs who still thinks that we are fighting the Vietnam war.

I hope you will be around to see what REAL CHANGE means.

Did anyone see the video shown at the Convention showing the plane hitting the tower?

A friendly recommendation to Obama campaign. They should just ask every surrogate of theirs to refer John McCain as John Bush in every interview. Take a leaf out of Fox and just drill it into everybody's head.

Like when they come on TV tomorrow morning --

Q--So what did you think of speech yesterday night?

A--John Bush is an admirable man and his passage of how the torture broke him was very moving. But the election is really about how to fix the broken economy that Bush has given us for 8 yrs. John bush is promising to continue the same policies. Do we really want the same old policies?

I just went out and bought some blue raspberry popsicles.  Yum!

I saw a few yawns on tv. I think this will be the first time where the VP nomination has higher ratings than the POTUS nominee.

It's seems to me that one unspoken consequence of McCain choosing Palin for VP, aside from the judgment issue, is that one of the other choices in picking a running mate is that the VP choice should not upstage the top of the ticket.  As everyone is saying, "A Star Is Born", by picking Palin, McCain has energized the base, but not for the McCain candidacy, but for the Palin candidacy.  Essentially, it seems to me that McCain while so blinded by wanting to beat Obama, chose a candidate, much like Obama, who has more charisma and oratory skills than he himself does.  Even in his speech tonight, while you and others I guess loved many of the bipartisanship parts of the speech, it seemed to me that the delegates in the hall, were not as impressed or enthusiatic, until Palin showed up.  Even during Cindy McCain's remarks, most of her lines fell flat, until she mentioned Gov Palin (I won't even get into how much less warmly Cindy McCain came off compared to Michelle Obama).

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if in time until the election in November to see Sara Palin talking to huge crowds, and McCain still struggling to find seat holders.  Basically, McCain has released a monster flame in Sara Palin, which it seems to me has the potential not really blunt Obama's star power, but will completely engulf McCain's.

So, in less than a week, Sarah Palin has gone from complete nobody to the biggest celebrity in America, from the worst VP pick of all time to the savior of the Republican party and from a giant albatross around McCain's neck to completely outshining McCain at his own convention.  

She's never going to be more popular than she is right now.  Some of the scandals swirling around her have real meat to them.  Forget about BabyGate-- she's going to regret putting that "bridge to nowhere" reference in her speech and she's going to regret all the earmark handouts she's gotten as governor of Alaska.  

The John Edwards saga may have a real silver lining-- it gave the National Enquirer some credibility.  Let's see if the Enquirer runs with this story about Palin having an extra-marital affair.  If they do, expect it to dominate the news, and it's not so easy to just dismiss the National Enquirer anymore.  Then there's TrooperGate, the book-banning scandal... It shouldn't be too hard to paint this woman as an out-of-touch extremist wingnut, because that's exactly what she is.  

What's the difference between George W. Bush and Sarah Palin?

Lipstick.

Speaking of the green background (along with the blue background for a good deal of time), he's just BEGGING to get keyed.  By that, I'm talking about color keying, in which anyone with a few minutes training in any video editing software could show McCain speaking in front of Disneyland, Bob's Big Boy, or the pyramids.  I've spent a great deal of time learning rotoscoping/compositing/keying techniques, and the very first thing I noticed was that perfect green background.  It's actually very difficult to get a greenscreen that nice looking.

Anyway, I figured I'd post a word cloud of McCain's speech.  "Fight", "fought", "change", and "work" were some of the most common words this time around (aside from the obvious gimme words), so it's no real surprise there.  He seems to be taking the route of his ability to buck the status quo, which should give Obama some firepower considering McCain's propensity to vote with Bush.  Anyway, word cloud.

I watch for the little details.

The Repub convention was the flattest they have thrown for as far as my memory goes back. The house was only 2/3 full on the main deck, and the gallery was occupied by more floodlights than people. The stage was too far from the crowd, so all the long shots caught the sparse crowd every time.
When McCain had the stage built, in actuality it was done to make the house look better- the long camera shots caught more people than empty seats, and it helped fill the gallery more, but they couldn't be seen through the lights. Maybe it worked for the audience, but not on tv.

That huge screen made the speakers look like urgent mice on stage- it was overwhelmingly large, and that perpetually waving flag background must have induced seasickness from the looks of the crowd.

All the speakers meant to light the fire for Palin flopped.

Thompson really needed a drink of water- there was as much throat clearing as speaking.
Mitt was obiously trying to do some positioning for 2012, but it wasn't working. He kept saying 'Thank You' long after his tepid intro applause stopped.
Guilani was a little better, but he had nothing to hope for, so why not?
Huckabee's wit was there, but he was flatter than he was in the primaries.

Palin brung it, but she sounded very rehearsed, and she was very tense. She growled several times at the first, and clamped her lips tightly shut at the end of every sentence... I think that when we see her on the trail, she will have a runaway mouth, as she did when we saw her speak for the first time after McCain's announcement. She's smart, but I don't think her handlers will be able to give her enough catch-up to keep the hold on her initial interest. I expect she'll go back to speaking like a hockey mom.

McCain looked and sounded like a once powerful car that now has 200,000 miles on it and the suspension is gone. He's an old pale shadow of his former self, and he'll tucker out again once he hits the trail. It was sad that he had to apologize for the Repub mess, but I think he's now leader of the party... Bush lost his final chance at some redemption from his own.

My last impression was the contrast between the two conventions. The Democrats' excitement grew and grew, culminating in that huge stadium crowd. Palin gave the Republicans some heart, but after listening to McCain and the balloons finally dropped, they were ready to leave and turn out the lights. At the end, they were as dispirited as they were in the beginning.

If the Repubs get a bounce, it's not going to stick. Too many people want positive change, not more mud. And whatever bounce comes won't be as big as Obama's was.

In The Caucus blog that Jonathan linked in the main entry, I ran across this unfortunate turn of phrase:

For sheer excitement, he was outshined by his Number Two.

I guess I am still a 7-year-old when it comes to scatological humor. I ROTFL.

Dang. In talking about the small stuff, I missed one- an important one.
Those big screen fireworks. They were loud, because the hall's p.a. was turned up, but they were just a projection. A flat screen projection, and the crowd wasn't impressed.

The fireworks in the stadium after Obama's speech were the real deal. They were quiter because they were actully up in the air when they went off. The crowd there just kept hollering.

The old lady Repubs didn't wear nearly as many silly hats this year as in the past. Old lady's silly hats always add to the color and gaiety of it all. I saw plenty of them in Denver.

I also didn't see any young Repub rockettes this time- they always used to have a big line of them, kicking out the lights. Where were all the kids?

I also didn't get around to the sum of all this:
The Republican convention had an odd disconnect going on everywhere. Like the fireworks, there was a lingering aftertaste of phoney baloney to it all. Everyone there sensed it andthere  was an uneasy feeling that drifted out of my tv screen.

To me, it simply looked like a severe case of communal flop sweat. They knew they had a lot to answer for, and it showed.

the speech tanked, but when I called and e-mailed home to see how people responded, most say he nailed it and he even changed a few votes back.

People are so easy to please.

Blogging from Delaware County, PA

I work in one of Pennsylvania's most strident working class union GOP strongholds.  

To me, the weirdest part of John McCain's speech is what he did not mention about being a POW

Coming back to Hawaii(I was a kid and my family was there to greet him --- in fact my Mother was friends with his first wife and asked to be there for her while McCain was beinf returned from Hanoi) amid cheers --- getting to the mainland amid jeers

Huge transitional problems.  McCain would know more about them but he refused to retire from  military service and insisting on staying in the Navy to get full benefits.

His drinking and carousing and general scary ass sh*t while he was Navy Liaison in DC was the stuff of legend (it helps to have a family business where your Dad and Grandad were both Navy Admirals) ---- compare that to POWs I knew who got arrested for drugs, assault, PTSD type behavior and were largely dumped on by the system and given little more than a shrug from the communities where they lived.

It also helps that once you are elected --- no one mentions teh fact that you regularly show signs of PTSD, that you had panic attacks while in the House and Senate and that despite being told like 500 times not to --- you kept attempting to start fires in your Senate Office Fireplace.

It seems if you want the courageous label for being a POW --- you must accept teh scarred individual tage as well ---- I've met a lot of POWs over the years --- they are all messed up in the head

Maybe the MSM will do a story