In all honesty I must admit to not watching the entire GOP convention this week, but I did manage to catch what I thought were the most important and interesting moments. All in all, the convention was a pretty good kick-off for the general election campaign, with some highlights…and some not so wonderful moments. So what follows are my personal observations of what was right and wrong with the convention.

Rudy rises to the occasion: As much as we conservatives fond to dislike about Rudy Giuliani, we have to give him his due; the man knows how to give a speech and engage a crowd. His speech was a gem, especially in singing the praises of McCain and Palin and making them seem like a perfect combination to have on the ticket. And he was especially good in hitting Obama and Biden on their lack of leadership and vision, with his most memorable line being, “Change is not a destination, and Hope is not a strategy.” That pretty much sums up what the Obama campaign has been about, and did a good job of pointing out that the words are nice but more is needed that Hope & Change to govern this nation.

Fred ain’t dead: Fred D. Thompson did a great job in reintroducing himself to the folks with his speech as well. He showed a fire in the belly that seemed to be lacking in his early campaign, but which was evident later on in his run. He was engaging, he did a great job in telling the McCain story, and he was pretty biting in some of his criticisms of the Obama ticket. Whether he was just stumping for McCain or angling for a spot in the administration, he did a great job of getting his name back out before the people.

Joe Lieberman…not so much: I understand that Joe Lieberman and John McCain are longtime friends and colleagues, and I know that the sight of Lieberman onstage at the RNC was supposed to show bipartisanship, but in my view it was a failure. Lieberman was boring in his delivery for the most part, and his speech brought into focus the very things that make conservatives so wary of McCain. Did anyone in the McCain camp actually think that having Lieberman get up there and remind us of McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, or the Gang of 14 was the way to get the base fired up? I could have seen it if Lieberman had gotten up and given a passionate, heartfelt, rousing oration like Zell Miller did in the ’04 convention, but unlike Miller, Lieberman only breaks ranks with the Democrats on national security issues. Lieberman is still on the left side of the aisle on nearly every other issue, and his presence there made McCain look as if he is willing to tilt left, instead of moving a little more to the right. This was a case of a good idea in theory, but a terrible one in practice.

The Palin pile-driver: When Gov. Sarah Palin took the stage at the Xcel Center; I have never seen a crowd pop like that at a political event! This was the moment the delegates had been waiting for, the chance to hear from “Sarah Wasilla”, as some liberals snottily refer to her. This was a chance for the delegates to hear her story from the source, not given to us through the MSM filter, and Gov. Palin did not disappoint. She was poised on the stage and her story of being the PTA member who ran for office in her town, who became the mayor of Wasilla (population 9,000), and who made her way to the governor’s office was compelling. And her story of her family life, of having met her husband in high school and his still being her guy 20 years and five kids later; of the birth of their youngest son, born with Down’s Syndrome but loved nonetheless; the pride she has in her son and nephews who are serving the nation in the military, and her touching on her daughter’s unexpected pregnancy showed her to be just one of us. And as much as Obama’s story is the American Dream, so is hers; she has risen from the simplest of roots to possibly the second highest elected office in the land. What really stood out was her willingness to fight back against the Obama campaign and media questions about her experience by pointing out the lack of experience that Obama brings to the top of the Democratic ticket. And her lines that stung Obama so much were well written and well delivered, and directly on point; as much as the Obama camp and the media began caterwauling about her “demeaning” his experience as a community organizer, she was not wrong in her criticisms. In what world does being a community organizer prepare one to be President of the United States? And it was delicious to hear the Obama camp and media crying foul about her describing him in that manner, when the Obama campaign has made it a point to overlook the fact that Sarah Palin is the sitting governor of the state of Alaska, while trying to portray her as only the mayor of Wasilla (population 9,000). All in all Sarah Palin did exactly what she needed to do in her speech; she introduced herself to the public, she showed she was more than willing to fight back hard in the coming campaign, and she rallied the conservative base. That was as effective a speech as I have seen in some time, and it served notice to the Obama-Biden ticket this won’t be any easy win for them.

Heeeere’s Johnny: Finally we came to the acceptance speech of the nominee, John S. McCain. After the excitement generated by Palin, all McCain had to do was ride the wave, give the people a reason to get behind him, and show that he valued the base that Palin had so energized with her performance. In my view, McCain dropped the ball with his speech. For one it was nearly an hour long, and I don’t want to listen to anyone speak for that long unless they are saying something truly captivating. In cases like that an hour seems like a few minutes, but McCain’s speech felt every bit like an hour long speech; the man is just not a speech maker. Now I see why he prefers the town hall approach because it allows him to move and really engage with the crowd, but even with the new stage at the RNC he just never seemed to be in his element. It was compelling to hear him finally tell his story of captivity and his realization of just how much his country meant to him, and it was inspiring to hear him tell of his change in attitude , “No longer was I my own man, but my country’s”, the speech just lacked pop. And it was obvious to me that McCain was still trying to draw in the moderates and independents with his speech, and in doing that he was managing to off put a number of conservatives who are searching for a reason to back him. We all know that hyper-partisanship does not allow important work to get done in Washington, but with McCain’s reputation for dallying with the Democrats a bit too much, his talk of reaching across the aisle and embracing all good ideas will make some conservatives that were leaning towards him take a step back. I was watching the speech on CSPAN, and you could see it on the faces of many of the people in the crowd that this talk was not what they wanted to hear. Even after the acceptance speech McCain still has work to do in shoring up his base for the general election.

All in all, the RNC was pretty well done, especially with the juggling done in the face of Hurricane Gustav. It would have been great to have heard from Gov. Bobby Jindal in person, but his decision was to stay in state and lead in the face of the hurricane. And the staging of the events were a stark contrast, with the DNC being about glitz, what with those “Styrofoam pillars”, while the RNC was more reserved and traditional. The one thing that I did notice was similar in both tickets is that they are both upside down in their own ways; the Democrat ticket has all of its experience at the bottom of the ticket, while the GOP ticket has the unifier of the base at the bottom. We will soon see how this works for the two tickets as we start the general campaign in earnest now that the conventions are over.