2008 Republican National Convention

I was listening to McCain's nomination acceptance speech on the radio on the way to the airport yesterday and it sounded so different than it did in the arena. I actually got to hear the fiery end to the speech, the part where he said:

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

In the arena that night, the whole last minute was drowned out by cheers — and then when the soaring music swelled, the confetti rained down as the harbinger of balloons and the hopeful first family took the stage, forget about it — it was a perfect end to a convention that last Monday, no one even knew if it would happen. But it did, and I'm so glad to have been there.

To see the balloon drop, read more

Now that it's all done but sweeping up the balloons, the New York Times, ever the data-doyenne, has a different way of looking at who said what these conventions. Bubbles of varying sizes show the amount of times per 25,000 words uttered, that certain phrases were used.

Interestingly, the "opponent's name" count varies pretty wildly — the Democrats used McCain's name 78 times to the Republican's use of Obama a mere 25 times. Up there for both parties? "Change" and "God." While the Republicans were twice as godly, and the Democrats three times as change-y, it seems like both have see the benefit to grabbing both traditional and forward-thinking tropes.

The graph also let's you see who said what — Obama used McCain's name 3.5 times more, and McCain grabbed the "change" mantel from Obama just over half as often. Watching the two conventions, do any of the results surprise you? What do you make of the disparity between use of the opponent's name?

Source

Since I made up my mind to vote for John McCain, I've been waiting for this night — and by the sounds of the crowd, an arena full of people agreed with me. The build up to John McCain was appropriately quick and tough and everyone was beyond anxious to get to the goods and see how McCain would follow Palin's speech. It felt different in the crowd. Yesterday's raucous relief was replaced with an enthusiastic solemnity.

The line up was a slate of friends and leaders who testified to McCain's readiness to lead and protect the country. Sen. Lindsay Graham had some particularly strong words:

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Barack Obama doesn't care. I'm just saying — he doesn't get it. Not once was Barack Obama's eloquent voice ever raised in support of Victory in Iraq. Not once was it used to rally our troops in battle. Instead, he inspired those who supported retreat and would have accepted our defeat.

The security theme continued up to the main event. To see who else spoke, and what McCain said, read more

Tonight's floor session just started and I've already teared up once. I don't stand a chance. Trace Adkins sang the opening national anthem — no accompaniment, just his booming voice — and after one line, the whole crowd started to join him. Tentatively at first, then by the end the hall was ablaze with song. There is a heck of a lot of red worn in this hall tonight, and people are ready for the main event.

John McCain is set to take the stage at 10 p.m. ET, preceded by Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota; Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida; former Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee; and Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas. What are you looking for McCain to say? What would constitute a home run?

To watch all of the speeches live and see more pics, read more

With a ramped up convention, comes amped up comedy. The Daily Show was out in full-force yesterday, with Samantha Bee interviewing the more creatively dressed delegates. In this scene she was doing a little role-play, pretending to be Bristol Palin while the lovely delegate played Sarah. Hilarity ensued.

My favorite part of this video? The women behind me while I was filming having this conversation: "What news show is this?" "I don't know." "Oh, I think it's that Daily thing." "What? Oh, you mean that show all the kids watch?" Ha. And not 10 minutes before, in that very spot, Karl Rove strode past me — he might have escaped my camera, but he didn't escape Jon Stewart on last night's Daily Show. He had some pretty blistering things to say to Mr. Rove. To see what, read more

No sooner had Sarah Palin's speech ended last night and the cheers faded were people clamoring to hear the response and analysis to it. I was the star of my shuttle bus for having the first-shot email from the Obama camp on my phone — I did a dramatic reading of it for my bus-mates.

The first shot included, "The speech that Governor Palin gave was well delivered, but it was written by George Bush's speech writer and sounds exactly like the divisive, partisan attacks we've heard from George Bush for the last eight years." The kids on the bus noticed the double-helping of Bush immediately. Now, the morning after, the fact-checkers are doing their duty on the speech, including these nuggets:

Palin said: "To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."

The rebuttal: Sarah Palin might have changed her mind on this one recently. However, a comment here notes that Palin actually slashed funding for schools for special needs kids by 62 percent.

To find out what else they zeroed in on, read more

Ah! Now this is more like it! The arena was rocking tonight, and it finally felt like a real convention. Fast forward to the end, they loved Sarah Palin — and it's crystal clear the Republicans are fired up! It was a packed line up and here are the highlights: GOPAC Chairman Michael Steele was the first speaker to rouse the full arena saying, "So, do you want to put your country first? Then let's reduce our dependency on foreign sources of oil and promote oil and gas production at home. In other words, drill baby drill! And drill now!" The crowd erupted in a chorus of "Drill baby, drill!"

Mitt Romney (whose hair is just as flawless in person) sounded very Reagan-esque, saying, "Our economy is under attack. China is acting like Adam Smith on steroids, buying oil from the world's worst, and selling nuclear technology. Russia and the oil states are siphoning more than 500 billion dollars a year from us in what could become the greatest transfer of economic wealth in history. This is no time for timid, liberal empty gestures."

Oh, yes. The gloves were off tonight. To see more highlights and the main event, Sarah's big speech, read more