[laralara]

What did you think about the Republican convention? Was it better or worse than the Democratic one?

[jjwoodhull]

As an Independent who is still undecided, I have been watching with much interest. Gulianni (who I loved when he was my Mayor) made an of himself. His speech was arrogant and mocking with no direction or substance. Sarah Palin was poised and articulate. She seemed very likeable. Of course her political views are much to conservative for me.

As for better or worse than the DNC - I will not know until I hear McCain speak. I thought Michelle gave a good speech. Hilary Clinton (I've never been a fan) gave the best speech I've ever heard her give and, of course Barak Obama speaks better than anyone. Joe Biden, however, came across as cheesy and insincere.

The key is to see beyond the rhetoric and figure out exactly what their political views are. I'm still working on that.

[RickJ]

I recognized excellent speakers at both... but being admittedly biased I must say that I was surprised that there was little to no talk at the Dems Convention about Terrorism.

I'd forgotten how awesome Huckabee is. He was great :)

[tomder55]

I will go out on a limb and say that McCain will not deliver as dynamic a speech as the "inexperienced " Sarah Palin gave last night. I also like the fact that the Republican convention is truncated to a 3 day event. Being on the east coast we constantly get screwed when it comes to the nations definition of what prime-time is . I lose a lot of sleep because I am a political junkie and a sports fan. Last week I had to stay up for 4 nights . This week I only have to endure 3 days (which is plenty of time for the candidates to introduce themselves to a larger national audience) .

I thought the Dems did a good job structuring their events to cater to their constituency... lots of glitz and production culminating in the over the top stage for Zeus to make his thunderous angry speech.

My advice to him is to let his 2nd in command and other surrogates make the punches. He should appear to be above that . I also hope McCain realizes that the smack down that Fred Thompson ,Rudy and Palin gave the Dems should be sufficient . McCain should come in with a broader message .

I also thought that Obama spent too much time in detailing his policies . That is for the stump speech. He could've spent more time on a broader vision and explaining why he is the best person to deliver that vision.

I wrote on another posting this morning that what I really find interesting is that when push comes to shove ;both campaigns are trying to promote the idea that they are the "change " . The Republican theme ;and McCains biggest task tonight is to prove that he in not McSame ;as the Dems like to paint him . That is why the 'hockey mom' who delivered an effective body check last night is his perfect 'wing-man'. I think he will effectively argue that he is the original outsider maverick ,who as Palin said," use their careers to promote change". He is not a "Johnny-come-lately " to the reform movement . He has been actively promoting change in Washington his whole career.

I have not always agreed with the direction he would lead us. Anyone who knows me understands that I have a lot of issues with him. But as I have also said;the Republicans may have stumbled into picking their best candidate for these times.

[Lowtax4eva]

Since I'm in Canada I only really watch a bit just to be informed of the candidates etc. but I don't really get the idea behind these conventions... maybe like 100 years ago these made sense, send representatives from all the states to go to one place to hear the new party leaders plans if they win the election and take this information back to their home towns. Now with TV and how fast the news moves they seem like a big production.

All the speeches from both conventions have been well delivered, but then it's easy to give a nice speech that you had written for you by a professional writer, that you practiced and that your giving to an audience that is 100% behind you.

I'm more interested in the debates and not the conventions.

[BABRAM]

The Dems were the hot ticket. Obama gave the best acceptance speech perhaps ever, and very historic. If you watched and listened to Palin last night, you heard nothing new. She was preaching to her Republican based choir. Their buzz word for that is "energized." The same bunch that voted for Dubya twice. For all practical purposes it was George W. Bush with make-up, earrings, and in a skirt last night. It was a typical canned speech written by a Bush speech writer that we've heard from for the last seven and half years. If you really want to listen to a train wreck, watch McCain grin through another simpleton written speech.

[tomder55]

but I don't really get the idea behind these conventions... maybe like 100 years ago these made sense, send representatives from all the states to go to one place to hear the new party leaders plans if they win the election and take this information back to their home towns. Now with TV and how fast the news moves they seem like a big production.

Generally correct observation .In the past the parties met at the conventions to select their candidates . Now that the primary system has taken dominance ,the actual vote for the candidate is pretty much a predetermined event. This leaves the conventions to being nothing more than a multi-day infomercial . The major networks have substantially reduced their coverage but the cable networks have more than taken up the slack.
But the parties cannot afford to get these conventions wrong. Both Obama and Palin's addresses drew an audience of over 30 million viewers. (37.2 million for Palin and 38.3 million for Obama) Even the debates will not duplicate that.

Edit :

I checked the numbers ,and we have been overlooking another important aspect about the conventions . I'm sure that this is true with the Democrats also...
McCain's war chest swelled this week with new donations ;especially after the introduction of Palin to the faithful.
The McCain campaign left St.Paul with $200 million in the bank... with $84.1 million in federal matching funds ;and $125 million from the RNC .Fundraisers are working to bring in another $80 million to $100 million over the next two months.

Obama will have more to spend presumably but he is forgoing Federal matching funds (after pledging to live within the restrictions that accepting them mandates ) .He has raised more than $400 million for his presidential campaign and expects to raise another $80 million in the next 2 months . He will be in a position to outspend McCain ;but McCain is no longer in any danger of having to scale back his campaign spending .

[Stringer]

I found the Republican Convention entertaining.

[tomder55]

So did about 38 million others

UPDATE 2-John McCain speech draws record TV ratings | Markets | Markets News | Reuters

McCain's tally was believed to be the biggest commercial TV audience every for a single night of a U.S. political convention, Nielsen said.
The Republican convention in St. Paul also attracted more average viewers overall than the Democratic Party convention in Denver last week.

[spyderglass]

what did you think about the Republican convention? Was it better or worse than the Democratic one?

Worse- Mc.Cain is a veteran and I applaud him for that- but Palin is an extremist
And Mc.Cain flat out said that he isn't changing anything.
I watched because I want to see the whole story-
Mc.Cain attacks lobbyists-
But he has a lobbyist from Georgia (I hope you know I'm not talking about the state)
Any rate-
Drill baby drill? What the hell?

[BABRAM]

tomder55 agrees: "the best acceptance speech perhaps ever" ??? nothing like a little over the top hyperbole.

Well Tom, I really think Obama gave one of the top two or three acceptance speeches in modern American history. Some news commentators and critiques agree with me. My coworkers, the ones that were die-hard Republicans, even they were very impressed. For certain it was historic. :cool:

[hellobea]

what did you think about the Republican convention? Was it better or worse than the Democratic one?

I think McCain did good... on his speech. It's like he's been rehearsing it in front of a mirror for like, a hundred times.

[Skell]

I think he will effectively argue that he is the original outsider maverick ,who as Palin said," use their careers to promote change". He is not a "Johnny-come-lately " to the reform movement . He has been actively promoting change in Washington his whole career.

If this is the case then he hasn't done a very good job has he?

[ordinaryguy]

I thought it was embarrassing. All the huffing and puffing with faux outrage at the "Washington elite". How stupid and gullible do they think we are? Like nobody will notice that they've been running the government for the last eight years?