THE SPEECH

A bit nervous at the beginning .. and then she warmed up. It's clear that Sarah Palin, like Barack Obama, loves being before a crowd. I thought she did a particularly good job taking jabs at the Northeastern media elite and at Obama. I particularly liked the line: "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."

No ... I didn't watch the speech from our skybox at the Xcel Energy Center. I left that up to Belinda and our engineer Charles. I watched Palin through my toes back at the hotel room ... and frankly liked what I saw. I want to see more of her, but don't care a whit whether or not I see more of Biden. Obama has been fun because he's been a fresh face. Ditto for Palin. Obama, though, can't lay claim to being a Washington outsider ... and he certainly can't claim to be a friend of freedom and free markets – the "folks," if you will, who brought us to the dance.

There was also Rudy's speech. What a tremendous job he did. Just get on the Internet and read some of the liberal blogs ... and the animosity they throw toward Giuliani ... and you'll instinctively know that he hit them where it really hurts. I particularly liked the fact that he pointed out that not once ... NOT ONCE ... were the words "Islamic extremism" or any derivative thereof heard from the Democrat convention in Denver. Islamic radicals have made it clear that they still want to and plan to kill as many Americans as possible, and the Democrats couldn't bring themselves to acknowledge their presence one time. Maybe if we just ignore them they will go away, right?

Boortz, Hannity Uncensored A FEW TICKETS STILL AVAILABLE: Neal Boortz and Sean Hannity will be together, on-stage and uncensored in Atlanta on September 5th, this Friday fresh from the conventions! Also joining Sean & Neal, special guests Dick Morris & Mike Huckabee! Make plans to attend and buy tickets! Get the details!

THE RESPONSE

I switched through the channels after Palin finished to catch the analysis from different sources. There was one common theme. Someone else wrote the speech for her. Well .... Duhhhhh. That would be a big ditto for Obama, Biden and McCain. They all have speech writers. But for some odd reason that seemed to be a very important point for the punditry to bring up. Apparently they thought Palin did a good job .. .but being an inexperienced woman from Alaska and all that ... someone else just had to get the credit, and that would be the speechwriters.

Within an hour the Obama campaign was in on the act. I guess they were taking their cue from the talking heads. The issued a press release with the "someone else wrote her speech" theme, but then threw in that it just had to be a Bush speech writer. Just more proof that McCain/Palin would be a third Bush term.

Yawn.

Photos: Tue | Wed | Thu

AND A BONE FOR THOSE SUFFERING FROM BDS

And for those of you suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome ... both Obama and Biden are giving you some real hope for revenge for 2000. Joe Biden has again reminded you that if you will just turn out in November and put them in office they will immediately begin work to pursue criminal charges against George Bush. Now that's what we need, don't we. A new era where every income presidential administration begins criminal investigations of their predecessors in office. If Bush had done that to Clinton ----- well, just what is the sentencing possibility in Arkansas for rape?

THE LEFT'S LATEST TACTIC

The left's newest line of defense is to assume that Sarah Palin is going to be dropped from the ticket. Either that, or she will eliminate herself. It started with an article in the Atlantic, comparing her to Tom Eagleton. We talked to Jamie Dupree a little about that yesterday. Then it slowly started spreading throughout the lamestream media. Maybe it's just wishful thinking ... but there are actually people betting on the fact that Palin will be removed from the ticket. Ain't gonna happen.

Well, actually there is a purpose here. Maybe the leftists think that they can work out a self-fulfilling prophecy here. Say it enough ... "McCain will dump Palin" ... and maybe they can make it come true. Yeah ... they wish. Take that wretched footstool Jack McCaffery on CNN. He actually put an email on the air saying that you usually see people like Sarah Palin on Jerry Springer. Another columnist said that all it would take to get rid of Palin would be one nude photograph.

Just what is it about Sarah Palin that scares these people so?

ANOTHER MIC MOMENT

It wasn't long ago that we were talking about the moment that might have never been ... when Jesse Jackson was caught on a hot mic talking about cutting off Barack Obama's manberries. Now it's time for the other side of the coin.

After an interview with NBC, Republican consultant Mike Murphy and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan were caught on a hot mic talking about Sarah Palin. Peggy Noonan said that "It is over." She said that Palin is not the most qualified Republican woman for the ticket, "The most qualified? No. I think they went for this — excuse me— political bullsh** about narratives," she said. "Every time Republicans do that... because that's not where they live and it's not what they're good atand they blow it." Murphy then chimed in: "The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical."

Certainly not a proud moment for the Republican camp. Makes me think somewhat differently about Peggy Noonan. Sad.

This just in: Peggy Noonan clarifies her remarks.

LIEBERMAN'S RISK

Joe Lieberman is no dummy, and the Democrats can't stand that about him. After his speech at the Republican Convention the other night, senior advisors to the Obama campaign responded by stating the Connecticut senator "proved a long time ago he's not a Democrat any longer. And last night he reminded everyone he's not even a man of his word any longer." Well duh, he's no longer a Democrat. But that no longer makes him a man of his word?

Lieberman still caucuses with the Democrats and he is the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. But now he may lose those privileges. A spokesman for Harry Reid says that "it's likely" that the Democrats will caucus after the election to decide the fate of Joe Lieberman in the Senate. Reid's spokesman said, "He has every right to make a partisan speech at the Republican National Convention if that's what he wants to do ... Having said that, that doesn't give him the right to question Obama's role and record in the Senate in the speech."

So now the Democrat defense is that Joe Lieberman did not have the right to question their chosen one, Barack Obama. Right? Well, maybe not --- how about a DUTY to expose this leftist?

NOW OBAMA WANTS TO FOCUS ON THE ISSUES

Barack Obama is upset that the Republican National Convention hasn't featured the "real people" who are being affected by this Bush economy. For those of you who weren't listening yesterday, just read this article from the Wall Street Journal about the economy under George Bush ... then keeping these facts in mind ... try and understand the logic of a liberal or a Barack Obama supporter.

Obama said, "if you don't have any issues to run on, you want it all to be about personality. If you have got George Bush's track record and John McCain voting 90 percent of the time in agreement with George Bush, then you probably you don't want to talk about issues either."

We blew that 90% nonsense out of the water last week with the help of The Washington Post. First; President Bush doesn't have a vote in the Senate. So just who is it that McCain is voting with? That would be Republicans. But wait! Most votes in the Senate are unanimous! So that would mean that for most of those votes where McCain was voting "with Bush" you would find every Democrat voting right along with McCain. Funny we don't see that in the mainstream media. Fact is, where there is an actual contested and meaningful vote in the Senate you'll find McCain voting "with Bush" only 45% of the time.

But .. that's The Chosen One for you .... He just memorizes a few good lines, like that "John McCain votes with George Bush 90% of the time." He can handle those lines without a teleprompter even! Even the media is getting frustrated with Barack Obama to include any real substance in his speeches. His response? To claim that it is really McCain campaign that doesn't want to talk about the issues.

Oh and by the way, the Democrats have created a new website to tote this idea of the McCain-Palin campaign being "more of the same."

A WORD FROM THE WINSOME CRISTINA MICHELLE GONZALEZ

Cristina got pretty agitated with the phone calls yesterday. Here's her take on the media's coverage of Sarah Palin:

At the age of 23 I have resigned myself to the fact that I can no longer be president. Once upon a time, I wore a bikini at the beach. Back in the day, I enjoyed wearing hoop earrings. And I, too, have worn a miniskirt. But the real problem? There are pictures to prove it. In the wake of media coverage following John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his VP, I have thrown in the towel. I have little faith the media will accept a woman who hasn't patronized their circles; a woman whose "scandalous" pictures are tame compared to my generation. Case in point: her own daughter.

I am not a feminist. I have never known gender to be an issue in my life, and I will not vote for Sarah Palin based on the fact that she is a woman. But we are currently experiencing a new kind of media era faced with a 21st century family ... one that has yet to be vetted by Washington or Meet the Press. One that has not sealed its documents in the shadows of library shelves or surrounded itself with PR aides, shaping the perfectly crafted picture. The Palin's are a new kind of American family that older generations are going to have to face – the MySpace/Facebook generation – like it or not.

Just five years ago I was a freshman in college. Few people had heard of the word "blog." Facebook was only available to a handful of universities and the ability to post pictures was well over a year away. By the end of my college career, I was taking a full credit class on blogging. Student staff at my university could be fired for "trashy" pictures posted on networking sites. This happened within four years.

This is not an excuse, but it is reality. And for the first time, a presidential campaign will have to deal with it. Bristol Palin's pregnancy has been "breaking news" for days, emphasizing this fact – the private information of our lives is now for public consumption. There is a reason for this: we've allowed it. The people who are not caught up in this personal sharing phenomenon cannot understand it just like I cannot fully comprehend what it means for things to be better than the Jimmy Carter years.

My disillusionment does not lie with the coverage of Bristol Palin's pregnancy. Sex sells in this information overload, celebrity worship culture. The media would rather cover Bristol's pregnancy than Barack Obama's ties to terrorist Bill Ayers because the people understand sex. This is why callers who can't even identify that Sarah Palin is a governor (no longer a mayor) feel that they have the authority to comment on her parenting skills. I have resigned myself to the fact that most people are this shallow.

"The most disheartening argument is that Sarah Palin should be putting her "family first." The people who buy into this line are patching up the cracks in that glass ceiling, intentionally or not. As a young woman, I worry how I will one day do what people say is possible – be a mother and have a career. Apparently this motto does not apply to Washington, and this disgusts me. It should disgust other young women who would rather pick up a US News and World Report on a news stand than an US Weekly. The fact that people wouldn't vote for Sarah Palin because they can Google an image of her in a bathing suit disgusts me. The fact that people wouldn't vote for Sarah Palin because "she has a lot of doctors' appointments to go to" disgusts me.

The liberal media is jealous ... they are scared that America might actually like a woman who isn't of their own making. And they don't know how to handle it. Instead, they resort to 1950's rhetoric and shallow coverage. I can't blame them entirely; after all, it's what the people want. Today is the day I have finally let the system get the best of me. It only took 23 years and a bank of vapid phone calls to do it.

Maybe we ought to let Cristina fill in for me sometime.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

The US is giving at least $1 billion in aid to Georgia after its conflict with Russia. Maybe they'll use some of that money to fix the potholes in front of my condo.

October 1st is going to be Energy Freedom Day ... that's when the Congressional moratorium on offshore drilling in the outer continental shelf should be allowed to expire.

Islamic Jihadists have posted $50,000 bounty for John McCain's spiritual advisor Pastor Rod Parsley.

Joe Biden ripped into the Bush administration, promising to go through the administration with "a fine-toothed comb" and pursue criminal charges.

Here's an article from a fellow Alaskan about how Sarah Palin handled the corruption in her state.

More Libertarian support for Sarah Palin. She's a "smaller government" candidate.

Searches for "Sarah Palin" on the internet are 10 times more popular than searches for "Joe Biden" ... and for all the reasons you would expect.

I like this part of the 2008 GOP platform: the U.S. "will pay a fair, but not disproportionate, share of dues" to the U.N., and "will never support a U.N.-imposed tax." Try to find that plank in the Democrat platform.

In October of just last year (2007), Newsweek was singing the praises of Sarah Palin.

Iraq is planning to re-open Abu Ghrahib ... with a museum.

John Voight had a few things to say about the media being "just a platform for ... the left of the Democratic Party."

A government worker in New York put a sign on a water fountain that said "whites only" ... that didn't go over very well.

New York is going to start tracking the weight of government school students in efforts to combat obesity.

A lot of listeners have sent in this story about a drunk driver, Uriel Perez Palacios, who was involved in a fatal car wreck in Texas.

A Michelle Malkin reader created an US Weekly cover that has yet to be seen.

Check out this photo...it captures a disturbing trend that is beginning to affect wildlife in the U.S.

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