Wow. That was\u2026really underwhelming. Big Sleepy and Droopy Dog didn\u2019t so much electrify the Xcel Energy Center as sort of light a dim, flickering candle. Dubya gave his best Big Brother impression. Basically, the night was cruddy. That doesn\u2019t mean it can\u2019t be effective \u2014 if, for example, you were unaware that John McCain was a POW (and given how he doesn\u2019t like to talk about it, you might have been), Big Sleepy\u2019s speech (cough) might have (ahem) swung you. And if you\u2019re under the impression that Joe \u201cBob\u201d Lieberman is still a Democrat, you might have been wowed by that.<\/p>\n
The really interesting thing is that John McCain really isn\u2019t the heart and soul of this convention \u2014 Sarah Palin is. She\u2019s hardcore right-wing. She\u2019s right on all the social conservative issues. Pat Buchanan loves her to death. And the more of an unmitigated disaster her nomination is, the more the right feels the need to up the ante on her. By Thursday, I fully expect John McCain to declare her Jesus\u2019 spokeswoman on Earth and the most experienced vice presidential candidate in the history of the universe.<\/p>\n
Oh, and Sarah Palin met with McCain\u2019s vetters once, the night before she was picked<\/a>.\u00a0 That\u2019s either \u201cmavericky\u201d or \u201ccompletely reckless,\u201d depending on whether you put country or winning first.<\/p>\n Frankly, the event lacked the panache of the Democrats\u2019 Tuesday, which featured Hillary Clinton blowing the doors off the convention hall. Tomorrow night, I expect the crowd to go berserk over Palin, for all the reasons the country won\u2019t \u2014 she\u2019s radically conservative, to a point far beyond the rest of the country. She\u2019s a slightly smarter Michele Bachmann, which is why the GOP loves her so \u2014 and why she\u2019d be a horrible, horrible vice president for the country. If there was no reason to support Obama, Palin\u2019s\u00a0 presence on the ticket would be enough to secure my vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wow. That was\u2026really underwhelming. Big Sleepy and Droopy Dog didn\u2019t so much electrify the Xcel Energy Center as sort of light a dim, flickering candle. Dubya gave his best Big Brother impression. Basically, the night was cruddy. That doesn\u2019t mean … Continue reading