Convention Miscellany

Daniel Glover of Eyeblast.tv provides solid video evidence that, while the teleprompter "was rushing Palin through the speech", it "worked fine" and the "rolling text and her speech are in sync".  Video at the link.  I think the McCain campaign owes an explanation for why they said it was "broken".

Nielsen has released the TV ratings for last night's Republican Convention.  They were rather good.

More than 37.2 million people tuned in for coverage of the third night of the 2008 Republican National Convention, which featured Sarah Palin’s much anticipated national debut.  Wednesday night’s RNC broadcasts attracted just a 1.1 million fewer viewers than Barak Obama’s record-breaking speech on day four of the Democratic convention. 

Coverage of day three of the GOP convention drew a large female audience (19.5 million) — 5.2 million more women than tuned in for day two of the Democratic convention, when Hillary Clinton addressed the delegates, and 6.9 million more women than watched Joe Biden accept the Democrats’ vice presidential nomination last Wednesday night.

Of course, it's probably best not to overestimate the importance of these numbers.  While they're good and they're big, they will be dwarfed by the number of people who see the clips and news coverage after the speech.   Within weeks, hundreds of millions of people will have seen the footage.  That is why the "highlight reel" always has to be good - it's the only intersection most people usually have with politics.

Rich Lowry quotes a point that I've heard from numerous people in the past 18 hours.

The ability to effectively skewer political opponents with a twinkle of the eye and remain likeable is a rare political skill. The three best I’ve ever seen: Reagan, Clinton, Palin.

As one Democrat wrote on Twitter last night...

That smile right after she twists the knife? Priceless.

Kevin Drum, Ezra Klein and Hilzoy all point to a focus group result that suggests Sarah Palin's speech didn't go over well with independents...

 Over in Michigan, the Detroit Free Press put together a panel of voters to react to last night's speeches. Interestingly, the independents were universally negative on Palin, and in fact much harder on her than the Democrats were.

Kevin Drum says "the snide mockery and withering sarcasm that both Palin and Rudy Giuliani delivered last night might be more of a turnoff to apolitical voters than the GOP thinks."  

But wait.  Giuliani and Palin were simply responding to Democratic attacks against Gov. Palin. 

• Palin didn't pull the pro-small town, pro-mayor stuff out of the air or question Obama's experience and accomplishments merely to be mean.  She was addressing specific Democratic lines of attack against her.
• Democrats have attacked Palin for being a "small town mayor" and for her own qualifications; some on the Left have pushed some incredibly vile whisper campaigns against her and her children.  The distaste of independents for mockery and sarcasm will cut both ways. It seems to me that the attacks on Palin have been much more vicious than her criticisms of Obama.
• Go see Obama's nomination acceptance speech.  He was extremely critical.  Why is Palin attacked for doing the same thing?
• Obama and the Democrats don't get to attack Palin over experience and qualifications and then cry foul when Palin responds.

This is the kind of unacceptable Boss Hogg Republican crap that Republicans need to purge...

The Harvard-educated couple that the Democrats want to install in the White House are part of an elitist, “uppity” class, a Republican congressman said Thursday. ...  “Honestly, I’ve never paid that much attention to Michelle Obama,” Westmoreland said. “Just what little I’ve seen of her and Senator [Barack] Obama, is that they’re a member of an elitist class ... that thinks that they’re uppity.” 

John McCain needs to get out in front of crap like this.  Condemnation is not enough.  McCain should publicly demand an immediate and abject apology and let Rep. Westmoreland know that failure to do so will result in the Republican Party withdrawing any and all support for him in any future race.