GOP To Hold Hurricane Party in Tampa

UPDATE 8/25/12 - I was right to warn the GOP about this.  Hurricane Isaac will affect their convention.

Actually they'll call it the Republican National Convention, but August 27th, 2012 will be right in the middle of hurricane season:

The Republican National Committee's site-selection committee is expected to name Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday as site of the party’s 2012 convention, top Republicans tell POLITICO.

The site-selection committee is scheduled to announce a choice among three finalists: Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Tampa. The committee has made high-publicity visits to the top prospects, which put on the dog to show what they could do for the GOP.

Phoenix was a non-starter, not because of the immigration debate but because it's like 140 degrees there in August. Salt Lake City doesn't really offer the GOP any electoral advantages since Utah will go red again.

The last convention in Minneapolis lost the first night because of a hurricane that looked like it was going to hit New Orleans and the GOP got played by political correctness. This time they could lost the whole shebang if a poorly timed Al Gore-loving storm were to strike the Tampa area...or pretty much anywhere in Florida.

A Suggestion for the RNC

The Republican National Committee is finalizing their choice for the 2012 Republican Convention city:

The Republican National Committee has narrowed its list of potential cities to host the 2012 Republican National Convention down to three final contenders.

National Republican insiders with knowledge of the process say the cities under consideration are Tampa, Phoenix and Salt Lake City.

The GOP convention will come first in 2012 (the out-of-power party always has their convention first) and that means the convention will be sometime in August of 2012. Does anyone really want to be in Phoenix in August? It'll probably be 115 every day.

And August is the middle of the Atlantic hurricane season. The last GOP convention was interrupted because of a hurricane that looked like it was going to hit New Orleans, but they only lost one night of activities. If the convention is in Tampa they could literally lose the whole thing if a storm hit at the wrong moment.

Let's go with Salt Lake City...for weather reasons, not because Mitt Romney is "next" in GOP circles.

The RNC 9/11 Tribute Video

This video was shown at the Republican National Convention and it garnered an unbelievable response from former MSNBC political anchor Keith Olbermann. First, I want you to watch the video:


I think we can all agree that this was a moving and effective couple of minutes. However, this video did not sit well with the lefties, and particulary Olbermann who gave one of the most outrageous responses you could ever imagine. Radio host Mark Levin plays Olbermann's inanity and sets him straight in this piece:

I'm sure the complaints NBC got after Olbermann's hysteria helped lead to his dismissal as a political anchor.

Thank You, Gustav

Thanks to Hurricane Gustav and the California budget crisis, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was bumped from the speaker lineup, and according to this story, Fred Thompson did his speech instead:

In an interview with the German mag Der Spiegel, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says that he was originally to give the heart-rending account of John McCain's time as a POW.

He also calls Sarah Palin "feisty' and a "good looking woman," while suggesting he expected (and perhaps hoped) McCain to have tapped Lieberman or Pawlenty.

The speech I would have given is the one that Fred Thompson gave. I gave him my speech because I did not go to the convention. It was a great speech because it talked in minute detail about McCain’s torture and his being a POW, and that’s the speech that the party wanted me to give.

Dodged a bullet on that one. Fred's sonorous baritone and dramatic delivery made that speech highly effective and very moving. If Ahnold had given that speech with his accent, it would have sounded like Colonel Klink talking about Colonel Hogan.

Political Quote of the Day

Brit Hume's response to a question from Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace, asking what the reaction will be if Sarah Palin doesn't soon start doing interviews with Washington journalists:

Hume (paraphrased): "I don't think the voters give a fig whether Sarah Palin takes questions from the liberal media."

I suspect he's right. I'll try to get the exact quote when a transcript is available.

The more the media complains that Palin isn't being offered to them for grilling, the more they set themselves up for a situation in which their future interviews (and there will be interviews) may be deemed unfair. You just know the press is working on questions like this:

Liberal Journalist: "Tell me Governor Palin, who is the third deputy prime minister in Donkeystan, and how will his policies affect the political stability of neighboring Oxcartistan?"

You just know that's gonna happen, if not in an interview, in the Vice Presidential debate. Since Joe Biden hasn't had to actually run anything for the last 35 years, he'll probably know all those arcane answers, but Palin may not.

The blowback against that kind of journalism will be swift and fearsome. We all saw what happened when the liberal media tried to make Palin into some type of caricature in the days between the announcement and her speech and how that resulted in the most-watched political convention in history. If the press wants a McCain landslide, they should just keep making unfair and sexist attacks on Palin.

UPDATE: For all those wringing their hands that Sarah Palin isn't doing the Sunday talk shows this weekend and is "hiding" from the national media, take this:

(CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. John McCain’s surprise pick for the VP spot on the Republican ticket, has agreed to her first television interview with a national media outlet since being named as McCain’s running mate.

CNN confirms that Palin will sit down with Charles Gibson of ABC News later this week; the exact date has yet to be announced.

According to the McCain campaign, Palin will stay on the campaign trail through this Wednesday and then return home to Alaska where she will speak at a ceremony marking the deployment of her eldest son’s Army unit to Iraq on September 11. Palin’s interview with Gibson will be conducted near the end of the week.

Since the McCain campaign picked Palin as the Arizona senator’s running mate, the media has delved into her background and criticized Palin and the McCain camp for not making her more available to the media. Before Palin’s selection, she was a virtual unknown on the national political scene while one of McCain’s trademarks since mounting his first run for the White House eight years ago has been accessibility to the press.

UPDATE, 3:15 p.m.: CNN Correspondent Dana Bash has confirmed additional details about the upcoming interview: According to a McCain aide, the plan is for Gibson to have time with Palin over two days — Thursday and Friday of this coming week. The interview will be part sit-down, part walk-and-talk at various locations in Alaska.

For the record, how many national media interviews did Joe Biden do his first week as the nominee? Zero. Where are the complaints about "Hiden' Biden"?

A Worried Democrat Recognizes the Palin Threat

Democrat Willie Brown, former Speaker of the California Assembly and Mayor of San Francisco writes today that Democrats have right to be worried about Sarah Palin:

The Democrats are in trouble. Sarah Palin has totally changed the dynamics of this campaign.

Period.

Palin's speech to the GOP National Convention on Wednesday has set it up so that the Republicans are now on offense and Democrats are on defense. And we don't do well on defense.

Suddenly, Palin and John McCain are the mavericks and Barack Obama and Joe Biden are the status quo, in a year when you don't want to be seen as defending the status quo.

From taxes to oil drilling, Democrats are now going to have to start explaining their positions.

Whenever you start having to explain things, you're on defense.

I actually went back and watched Palin's speech a second time. I didn't go to sleep until 1:30 a.m. I had to make sure I got the lines right.

Her timing was exquisite. She didn't linger with applause, but instead launched into line after line of attack, slipping the knives in with every smile and joke.

And she delivered it like she was just BS-ing on the street with the meter maid.

She didn't have to prove she was "of the people." She really is the people.

That's as good an analysis of Palin's impact on the campaign as anything I've read to date, and coming from an old Dem pro like Brown, should be very worrisome for the Obama campaign. Would anybody look at Obama, Biden, or for that matter McCain, and be inclined to describe them in the same way as Brown did in that last sentence?

Obama: "That Girl Hit Me! Waaaahhhhh!"

The Dems are screaming like little non-Sarah Palin little girls because Palin hit them with some very witty sarcasm, and they're claiming that it was much more negative than anything offered at the Greek Temple. Not so (h/t Next Right):

Obama’s speech includes more negative attacks than Palin’s. [...] If one compares Palin’s speech to Obama’s, it appears to me that they used similar amounts of sarcasm (not much), but Obama made considerably more extensive negative comments about McCain and Republican administrations than Palin did about Obama and Democrats.

Obama's just mad that Palin has taken all the air out of their campaign. They didn't get to bask in the glow of Denver's Greek Temple more than about 12 hours, and after than it was all-Palin all the time. Now they're on their heels trying to figure out how to fight back.

Go ahead and attack her, Dems. It worked so well the first time you tried that it made the three day Republican Convention the most watched convention...in history.

How Did the Code Pinkos Get Into the RNC?

One of today's mysteries is how several members of infantile leftist group Code Pinko got into the Republican National Convention in order to attempt to disrupt speeches by John McCain and Sarah Palin. Newsbusters is reporting that there is strong suspicion that the credentials came from MSNBC, the "Barack Gives Me a Shiver Up the Leg" network.

Gateway Pundit has photos of one of the protesters wearing a name badge belonging to an alternate delegate from Indiana, but the delegate never let her credentials get away. The name badge could have been picked up at one of the seminars being held in the center.

The Code Pinkos themselves say they got credentials from disaffected Republicans, but I doubt that very much. The most logical suspect is either outright theft of the credentials, or a media group like MSNBC giving them credentials knowing full well what was going to happen.

Hopefully the police seized the credentials the protesters were wearing and will be able to trace their origin. All are bar coded, so it shouldn't be difficult to see who they were assigned to.

If it turns out to be a media source, I don't care if it's MSNBC, CBS or Fox News, Republicans should freeze that source out until the person or persons responsible are fired. No interviews, no trips with the candidates at any level, no appearances on their shows, and no credentials for any candidate events. That network should be persona non grata at all Republican events...period.

Until the people are fired and a formal apology is aired by the network, they're toast in Republican circles.

Jesus Was a Community Organizer

The "community organizer" lines in the GOP convention speeches really hit the Obama campaign hard. Obama had been claiming his CO time as executive experience, but now it's become the fodder for all kinds of humor. Take this line from James Taranto:

Are we supposed to cast our eyes on the slums of Chicago, behold how well organized they are, and exclaim in wonder, "Wow, Barack Obama did that!"?

The Obama campaign sent out a fundraising letter which tried to imply that by poking fun at community organizing the GOP was really engaged in racial slurs and insults to poor people. Heh.

And now, from the infants at DailyKos comes this:

Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor.

More proof that Barack really is the Obamessiah.

UPDATE: This silly "Jesus" statement makes it all the way to the floor of the House of Representatives.

Cops Hold An Old Fashioned Hippie Butt Whomping

Stories like this warm my heart:

Police used flash grenades and tear gas near the Minnesota State capitol on Thursday night to herd a crowd of about 250 people onto a bridge where they were trapped between lines of officers and arrested, less than an hour before Senator John McCain was scheduled to address delegates in the Xcel Energy Center, about a mile away.

A crowd began gathering on the capitol lawn in the afternoon and at 5 p.m. close to a thousand people marched slowly south on John Ireland Boulevard and onto an overpass spanning Interstate 94. The overpass separates the capitol area from downtown St. Paul, where Republicans were preparing for the final night of their convention.

Police on horseback and motorcycles blocked the marchers near the center of the bridge but after about an hour, the demonstrators receded back towards the capitol. They then spilled east into the intersection of Cedar Street and 12th Street, where about 50 people were arrested.

The police then formed a second line to prevent marchers from moving across yet another bridge that leads across the interstate and towards the Xcel Center.

A handful of people emerged from the milling crowd with tears streaming from their eyes and white foam caked on their faces, complaining that they had been sprayed with chemicals. At 7:30 officers with batons charged into part of the crowd sending people scrambling back across the bottom of the capitol property.

The crowd fragmented then, breaking into several small groups, pursued by police, who blocked residential streets off of University Avenue. Flashing lights were visible on leafy residential lanes and the dull booms of police ordinance could be heard echoing across parking lots.

The main body of marchers, numbering in the hundreds, circled those streets and was headed north on Marion Avenue, away from Interstate 94, when police forced them backwards.

Officers wearing helmets and padded vests heaved projectiles from the back of a vehicle known as a Gator. Grenades exploded amidst the crowd with a bang and a bright white flash as people scattered and ran. Thick plumes of tear gas clouded the air.

The crowd, which included several credentialed reporters and photographers, were ordered to sit on the roadway, where they were handcuffed.

Tom Walsh, a spokesman for the St. Paul Police department who arrived at the scene as marchers were being loaded onto buses, said that most of those arrested would probably be charged with unlawful assembly but would not spend the night in jail.

He added that some demonstrators had been arrested with bags of feces but told a reporter that those items were not available for viewing.

It might have been more effective if they'd just tossed them off the bridge. Not so much time wasted processing them.

Code Pinkos Show Their Immaturity (Not Exactly Breaking News)

Whoever is in charge of credentials at the GOP convention needs to be fired. For the second night in a row protesters, complete with signs, got into the convention and tried to disrupt a major speech:

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (CNN) – Two protesters tried to disrupt Republican presidential nominee John McCain's speech behind and to the right of the podium.

One took off an outer garment to reveal a pink garment underneath and held a banner in front of her.

The banner was snatched away by a man nearby who threw it to the floor and the protester tried to pick it up and struggled with several people for it.

One of the protesters flashed a peace sign while being led away by a single man. The other struggled with several men before being carried up the stairs and out of the auditorium.

I would have given $1,000 to the RNC if one of those delegates would have just hauled off and belted that women right in the nose on live TV.

Jim Geraghty noted that both protesters came out of areas suspiciously close to the press section. My guess is that's how they got their credentials.

My Reactions to Night 4

Here's the post where I'll put my Twitter comments for this final night of the GOP Convention. I'm only going to look at John McCain's speech. Frankly, the lineup for tonight is pretty bland compared to the last two nights. They should have had at least one fiery speaker right before McCain.

• Cindy McCain speaking now. Nice tribute video - lots of medical missions around the world.
• Based on the reviews of Tom Ridge's speech, it's a good thing he wasn't chosen for VP. The ticket would have died before leaving St. Paul.
• My opinion - Cindy's going on too long. She's awfully low key and the audience is having trouble figuring out when to clap.
• Cindy certainly has the humanitarian creds that Michelle Obama will never have. There's nothing angry about Cindy.
• Okay, Cindy's done and I think we have a bio video of McCain coming next. It better end on a high note after Cindy's low key speech.
• My wife: "When the TV focuses on Sarah I just think 'there's my friend'" I think a lot of ladies are thinking the same thing.
• The bio video is now playing - starts on the Vietnam experience. Nobody can tell that story like Fred Thompson did.
• To those people worried that McCain will just drop over after taking office, they should check out his 96-year old mother. Sharp as a tack.
• Video really plays up the POW angle which just drives the lefties nuts. MSNBC is probably having a stroke right about now.
• Fred Thompson now doing a dramatic reading - that guy's good. Here comes McCain to the stage.
• Giant flag waving on the screen behind him. Not a Greek Temple in sight.
• Moving the podium into the crowd was a good move. The camera shots from any angle except head-on show him surrounded by crowds.
• He's just not that good on teleprompter, I'm afraid. You can see him staring at it as he starts. Some dummy now trying to protest.
• McCain pays tribute to Bush for leading us "in these dark days following the worst attack on American soil and keeping us safe."
• Somebody needs to go throw that protester off the balcony.
• I don't remember Republicans interrupting the Obamessiah's speech. The lefties are such children.
• "I won't let you down!" repeated three times. Thanks uncommitted voters for giving him an opportunity to earn his trust.
• Offers his respect and admiration to his opponents. More unites us than divides us. Didn't hear that much in Denver.
• "We're going to win this election!" And, he just might.
• "We will reach out our hand to any willing patriot..to get this country back on the road to prosperity and peace. Code Pink interrupts.
• "Please don't be diverted by the ground noise and the static" Big cheer. This doesn't make the left look very good.
• "America wants us to stop yelling at each other". He keeps getting interrupted by protesters. How did those idiots get in there?
• Praising Palin now - not hard to do with that crowd.
• "Change is coming" to the "me first, country second" crowd.
• He promises to "stop leaving our problems to some unluckier generation to come".
• Just out of curiosity, are all Code Pinkos lesbians? Sure looks like it.
• Future rule - nobody wearing a pink nightie gets in.
• Promised to veto pork barrel spending and threatens to "make them famous - you will know their name!"
• Giving a list of the various entities he's fought - trial lawyers, union bosses...etc. Fought for the surge when it wasn't popular.
• Thanking General Petraeus (sp?) and the men and women who protect us.
• McCain shows the bracelet he wears for a fallen soldier in Iraq. A bracelet with McCain's name used to be worn by others.
• Lileks reports he got film of the Code Pinkos being dragged off - that should be good.
• "We believe in rewarding hard work...faith..service...a culture of life...personal responsibility..judges who don't legislate from the bench
• "A government that makes sure you can make choices for yourself" Drawing difference with Obama's policies.
• Touting his tax cutting and spending cutting plans. Getting rid of failed programs. When has that ever happened?
• "My opponent promises to bring back old jobs by wishing away the global economy" Good line
• Delivery still not up to Obama or Palin. He's just a lot better off a teleprompter.
• "Education is the civil rights issue of this century" Promises to promote school choice. "Empower parents with choice"
• "Help bad teachers find another line of work". There goes the teacher's unions, which he never was going to get anyway.
• "We're going to stop sending 700B to countries that don't like us very much"
• "We will drill new wells offshore and we'll drill them now!" Has Palin convinced him on ANWR yet?
• Mentions lots of alternative energy sources - no mention of ANWR. He needs to fix that.
• "It's time for us to show the world again how Americans lead." When he mentions "healing the world" I cringe.
• Detailing world threats - al Qaeda, Iran, Russia. Warning Russia not to try to reassemble the Russian empire.
• We face many threats, but I'm not afraid of them, I'm prepared for them. I know how the military works, what it can do and shouldn't do.
• "I hate war. It's terrible beyond imagination. I'm running for president to keep my country safe.
• When he talks about remembering Pearl Harbor it tends to emphasize his age. Good story,but maybe self-defeating.
• Blasting "constant partisan rancor" and people who go to Washington to work for themselves and not for you.
• He "has the scars" to prove he's fought unpopular battles in Congress. Obama has not.
• My wife has fallen asleep - she was riveted last night. Not a good sign.
• "I've been an imperfect servant of my country for many years, but I've been a servant first, last and always
• "I've never lived a day in good times or bad that I didn't thank God for the privilege. I was blessed by misfortune. POW story coming
• He should stop here and play Fred Thompson's narrative from Tuesday.
• The convention has heard the POW story several times and it might have worked better to downplay it in his speech.
• "They worked me over harder than they ever had before, and they broke me. I was ashamed to face my fellow prisoners
• "I wasn't my own man anymore, I was my country's" Effective line.
• "My country saved me and I will fight for her as long as I have breath, so help me God" Took a little shot at Obama right before that.
• "Comfort the afflicted, defend the oppressed." Could I add 'educate the wacky left?
• "Fight with me, fight with me!" He's rolling now. "Stand up and fight!" " We never give up, we never quit!
• Well, he ended on a high note. Could have used a lot more humor. Won't go down as a great speech.
• Cindy joins him on stage - no big kiss like Al Gore in 2000 (thank goodness).
• Here comes the Palins. I think a lot of Republicans are glad to see her and shudder at who might have been standing up there with McCain.
• Here come the balloons to stirring music. They couldn't do that in Denver. God refused to hold the balloons for Obama.
• Well, that's it. Okay by McCain standards, but it will probably get low marks from the pundits for delivery.
• Thanks for tuning in - we now return you to your regular programming.

The wife warns that John McCain has to be careful not to become Prince Charles, the guy who accompanies the person everyone wants to see as happened with Princess Diana. Right now Sarah Palin is playing Diana.

We'll see how this speech plays with the audience, but I don't think he added to the Palin bump, and might have hurt it a bit. The speech was pretty programmatic, and that can get a little boring. He didn't really fire up until the very end.

By the way, where's the nice Obama video congratulating McCain for his nomination? You know, like the one McCain did for Obama? Obama doesn't have that much class.

Twittering John McCain's Speech

I'm going to do one more night of frantic Twittering as John McCain gives his acceptance speech in St. Paul. I'm not going to bother with the other speakers since the line-up tonight is not particularly inspiring. You can follow along here, and as I get time, I'll post the Twitter comments to a separate blog post. Remember to refresh every couple of minutes to stay current.

McCain will speak sometime in the 10pm (ET) hour.

Don't Get Mad, Get Funny

If you were to line the speeches up from the two conventions and compare styles you would notice one striking difference - anger. When the Democrats attacked McCain and the Republicans, it was with anger and rage. When the Republicans attacked Obama, the Dems and the media, for the most part it was with humor. Rudy showed a little anger when he blasted the opposition for questioning Sarah Palin's ability to manage a family and a job, but otherwise the knives were stuck in with humor, sarcasm and wit.

My advice to John McCain tonight is don't get mad, get funny. Humor is more memorable than anger and does more damage. Can anyone quote me any of the angry lines from Obama, Biden or both Clintons? Probably not, but I'll bet you can remember lots of funny lines from Thompson, Giuliani and Palin.

Go get 'em, John, but keep it funny.

A Prediction Regarding McCain's Speech

Tonight John McCain will give the most important speech of his career. The staging in St. Paul has been modified to give it more of a town hall meeting look, a venue in which McCain is very comfortable. I'm sure he'll still use a teleprompter, and with McCain that could be a negative. He has never learned to be comfortable with those. It throws his timing off and his speeches tend to have too many awkward moments.

Regardless of how he does I can pretty much predict the reaction from the mainstream media, especially after his spokesman blasted them yesterday for their scurrilous coverage of Sarah Palin. The operative words will be "disappointing", "let down" "overshadowed by his VP". Even if McCain knocks it out in St. Paul there will be an attempt to make it appear that his speech killed the momentum generated by Sarah Palin. You can take that to the bank.

Of course, if he doesn't do a good job that description will be warranted, but I think he'll rise to the occasion and at least do better than he has in some teleprompter addresses.

I'm sure the media is already writing their reviews and are just hoping the speech lives "down" to their hopes.

By the way, McCain's speech may go right up against the opening game of the NFL season. I'm not sure that's a bad thing, especially if he's not as sharp as we'd like. The viewers that watch the game instead of him hopefully watched last night, and that's the image they'll retain.

Photoshop of the Day

From The Page:Sarah Palin blotting out the Obamessiah and his Greek Temple. Kind of reminiscent of Godzilla strolling through Tokyo.

Here's another photo from The Corner which kind of says it all:According to the ratings service, 37,244,000 people watched Palin's speech last night, about a million fewer than watched the Obamessiah and 13 million more than watched Joe Biden. All that despite the fact that her speech appeared on fewer networks.

Today, the day after the speech, the only thing people are talking about is Sarah Palin. Last Friday, the day after Obama's speech, the only thing people were talking about was...Sarah Palin.

McCain's announcement timing couldn't have been better.

And finally, the Palin bio video that was supposed to run before her speech was cut because of time problems (Rudy ran long), so here it is, narrated by Hollywood veteran Jon Voight:

Speaking of Empty Rhetoric

I've been scanning some of the lefty reaction to last night's speeches and it's pretty predictable, but this line caught my eye from Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

Starting tomorrow, the Democrats can and must come back hard on this issue of "reform". McCain/Palin reform is just ... well, there's nothing. It's an overused phrase but it is all rhetoric.

You mean like "change and hope"?

The Best Moments From The Speech

Here's a YouTube video featuring some of the best moments from Sarah Palin's speech:

And then there was this moment featuring Palin's youngest daughter Piper and youngest son Trig:

The Day After Reactions

For almost five days the press and the Dems had almost uninterrupted opportunity to assault Sarah Palin. They took their best shot and last night she walked onto the stage in St. Paul and essentially gave them all the finger. It was a thing of beauty.

Scanning the Drudge headlines this morning a couple of things are clear - Sarah Palin's speech was wildly successful, though you may have to go to a foreign news source to find that out. The most effusive praise is comng from the British press while the American media is trying to find ways to be critical without looking completely stupid. Some examples:

From The Sun (London):

A WEEK ago nobody had ever heard of her.

Today she is the most talked-about woman in the world. And with good reason.

Sarah Palin's sensational performance at the Republican Party Convention may turn out to be the tipping point of this rollercoaster American election.

Obama fans hoping she would fluff her big night were in for a nasty shock.

This speech has turned the election upside down. It was simply stunning.

Democrats and their Lefty media backers had been sneering that she was a small town nobody, a hick from the Alaskan sticks put into a job way beyond an inexperienced woman.

Believe me, you will not be hearing that again.

Palin turned out to be an electrifying mix of intelligence, passion, energy, optimism and plain speaking.

Full of self-assurance and aggression, she popped Barack's balloon big-time.

And now compare that to the Chicago Sun-Times:

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- No great movement designed to change the world can bear to be laughed at or belittled. Mockery is a rust that corrodes all it touches.
--Milan Kundera

Sarah Palin may come from the backwoods of Alaska, but she has the heart of a street fighter.

So Democrats shouldn't get entangled in the Republicans' "experience" ploy.

Palin isn't on the Republican ticket because she has been the governor of Alaska for two years.

The people who cooked up this scheme don't care whether Palin will be a heartbeat away from the presidency if something happens to the 72-year-old McCain.

Palin's on the ticket because she's a woman and she isn't afraid to engage in the Republicans' mean-spirited personal attacks.

And now, from the hairy-legged feminist crowd, here's Gloria Steinem:

Here's the good news: Women have become so politically powerful that even 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. This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need. Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It's about making life more fair for women everywhere. It's not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It's about baking a new pie.

Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."

I included a photo of a couple of Code Pinko protesters who somehow got into the convention hall and tried to disrupt the speech. The fool on the left is one of Obama's biggest donation bundlers. The other fool is the head of Code Pinko who gets arrested about every other day.

I'm sure you remember all the Republican protesters who showed up to interrupt Obama's Greek Temple speech.

(*crickets*)

Yeah, it didn't happen. Republicans are grown-ups. There are some real questions about how these people got into the convention. They could never have gotten credentials from the GOP. Do you think someone in the media might have helped?

You'll note the idiot on the right has "Palin Not a Woman" scrawled on her pink nightie, or whatever that is she's wearing. I don't know if Palin saw what was going on, but I've written a line she's welcome to use the next time...and there will be a next time:

"I see we have a visit from the Code Pinko loser crowd. Back where I'm from, we have people like that that act up...briefly. We use them as polar bear bait."

The attacks on Palin are far from over. After her tour de force last night desperation is going to set in on the left and the attacks are likely to get even more shrill, and even more ridiculous. However, now that Americans have had a chance to see her in action, the attacks are going to start looking silly.

The next 60+ days are going to be fun.

UPDATE: To all those lefties and media who tried to make Sarah Palin into Day Quayle, Thomas Eagleton or who have been running pools predicting the day Palin would withdraw from the ticket, how silly do you all look now?

A Guest Post - The Perspective on The Speech From Mrs. HolyCoast

(From Rick) Not being of the feminine persuasion I can't react or respond to Sarah Palin's speech and candidacy the way a woman could. I'm used to members of my gender being in high leadership positions, but I'm sure the experience is quite different for the ladies in the audience.

My wife is not a political person, but after watching the speech she was fired up and had some great lines. I asked her to write up her thoughts, and without further ado, here they are:

From Mrs. HolyCoast:

For the first time through the seemingly interminable campaign that began so long ago, I am ready to fight for the Republican nominee. Through the primaries I was very apathetic and could not really get behind anyone. I felt I was betraying the whole of womankind since I was so against Hillary even though she's a Democrat (and I am a bit more liberal Republican). I just did not want to see her succeed, and as a woman, I felt I was going against women everywhere and not being supportive of a woman that had managed to get so far.

Now I see what was missing - Hillary was playing the "insider" role. With all her experience in the White House she came across as a "good old boy" pretender and I didn't like it. Sarah doesn't play that game. She is who she is and does not waver. She isn't an insider, and she knows how to hold her ground. She's tough and not going to back down or be pushed around by anyone. She's not afraid to stand in front of the whole country and not make excuses for her family or feel she has to explain to the world a decision that her teenage daughter made to have sex before marriage. I know how teenagers are and they really don't think there will be consequences for their actions, that they will be the lucky one and not get pregnant.

I see this attitude on a daily basis and I don't blame Sarah as a mom for what happened. I do applaud her for accepting the situation and moving forward. She does not own anyone an explanation for her daughter's actions, but she did not hide her daughter, send her away in secrecy or anything else. They dealt with it as a family and that is their own business.

There was no lying, no cover-up. And thank goodness she did not base her future and the future of the country on the possible embarrassment to herself and her family.

She's a tough cookie and you want her on your side, and she makes you want to be on her side. Her political record in standing up to the corruptness in Alaska is very empowering. She does not seem hesitant - she knows what is right and she will fight for what is right for the people of the United States like she did with the people in Alaska.

The campaign has shifted from Obama vs. McCain to Obama vs. Palin. It's as if McCain isn't running for President - she is! Biden has become invisible and I can't wait to see a debate between the two. My ideal situation would be a debate between Palin and Obama - I bet she'd win!

She made me feel better about McCain than anyone else has and her style of criticizing Obama was much easier for me to accept. The other speeches can get offensive and I start feeling very uncomfortable when they just sound mean and nasty - even when it is the truth. There is a right way and a wrong way to show an opponent's faults. She does it the right way.

This woman has been through a lot and has survived some difficult situations in her family life and political life. She makes women feel comfortable because she has dealt with some really big issues and she understands the woman's point of view and can still go head-to-head with the big boys.

Obama has been impaled by Palin's en guard. Let the games begin!

I definitely married above my class. I'd love to get other reactions from the women in the audience. Please feel free to post your comments and take as much space as you need.