Noam: it sounds thuggish. I find it really depressing that the greatest enthusiasm out of this audience comes when the most negative and nasty comments are made.

I can't help it: I much prefer to be inspired by my presidential candidates. I much prefer to have what it good in my character appealed to.

This crowd is most roused when its basest nature is appealed to.

And McCain has been totally eclisped by Palin. I'm starting to forget that HE's the one running for president.

(Rudy is a thug.)

I was annoyed at the fact that no one on TV wanted to analyze anyone but Palin- I thought Rudy was by far the most effective speaker of the night, in stark contrast to Romney and Huckabee, and Palin, for that matter.  The line about getting the VP in writing was good, and most of the attacks he leveled were way more red meat than any leveled thus far.  I guess it's not surprising that a prosecutor would be a good attack dog.  Thankfully for him, he's not being examined on his own pro-choice, pro-gay rights record.

Aaanyway, Romney seemed like he was merely a vessel parroting boilerplate (frankly, why he didn't run on his universal health care and on his unconventionality is beyond me- I think he sold out too early, as opposed to McCain, who sold at the point where the market was high), and Huckabee's speech was met with silence.  Silence!  And he got a ton of votes- I guess that populist type of stuff doesn't fly at the Republican convention.  As far as Palin, her speech was basically identical to Romney's, in my opinion- long on ideology (and pat phraseology) and short on actual policy.  Except she's actually on the ticket.  For a group of people who have been killing Obama about not laying out specifics, they have been pretty parsimonious about doling those out themselves.  

ps- as someone who was almost certain that Rudy would have beaten Hillary in 2000 had cancer not intervened, I can't help but be thankful that he isn't in the Senate.

ein reich, ein volk, ein rudy!!!!

I also think it's complete bullshit that the networks give so much podium time to the Rs.  They showed the entirety of six or seven speeches last night.  When the Ds were up, they showed maybe two.  The rest of the time was spent talking about the Clintons, etc.  

Well, this is the same shameless crowd that 4 years ago wore fake bandages to mock John Kerry's Purple Heart. They are consumed by hatred, and the fact that they consider a war hero to be a war hero only if he's Republican puts the lie to their "country first" nonsense. That they consider themselves "true Americans" is appalling. They are the worst this country has to offer, and anyone with even a partially functioning moral compass who acted as they do would spend the next few months hiding out of grievous embarrassment.