First Night at the RNC Convention

What a start ladies and gentlemen. WOW. So many good things tonight...where to begin, I guess I should start with the opening speech by Ron Silver. This was a great introductory speech and it set the tone for the whole night. He talked about growing up in New York and the tragic day of September 11, 2001. He spoke of all the citizens that were murdered that day. It was a very emotional moment for everyone there and a lot of viewers at home. He strongly endorsed Bush for re-election. It was a great start to the night.

Next we had Senator John McCain. He's not someone that I imagined giving a keynote address for President Bush, but he gave a great speech also. He also slammed Michael Moore for being "that disingenuous movie maker". He had me right there. I was screaming my approval. It was some great needed red meat for the delegates and viewers at home. His first part of the speech looked like he was not quite comfortable yet, but as it went on, he got stronger and stronger in his support for President Bush. I think the speech played well to the swing voters out there also. After the speech, I snuck a peek at how the Bush re-elect futures were doing. I had a hunch things were going well and I was not disappointed. The contract was up to about 58.9 as I recall. That was up from 57.5 during the day. Not bad for the night and we still had Rudy's speech to handicap.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave the best speech of the night in my opinion. He hit all the right themes. It was emotional for me and most of the delegates as he was recalling that fatefull day on 9/11/01. He related a bunch of personal anecdotes and also had a lot of humor mixed in his speech. He hammered John Kerry for being a flip flopper. He was definitely hitting paydirt talking about how John Kerry has taken both sides of the issues during his Senate career and so far in the campaign. Again I think this speech played very well to the conservative to moderate democrats out there who have not made up their minds yet and it also I think solidified any lingering doubts that Republicans have for this election. All and all, it was a great start to the week. A side note, as I watched Chris Matthews after Rudy's speech, I gotta hand it to Chris, "we just saw Rudy Guiliani fillet John Kerry in front of our eyes"...indeed we did, wasn't it a beautiful thing.