If I had any doubts about the vice presidential candidates prior to Sarah Palin's speech, they're gone now. They got manikins in Japan that could have delivered that speech with more genuine emotion than Palin. I used to think that Hillary Clinton was as cold as a winter wind, but compared to Sarah Palin, Hillary is a veritable heat wave. If Palin had lost her reading glasses, tonight, she would have been speechless. Although Im not a big Hillary fan, I'd pay to watch her kick Palin's arse back to Anchorage in a debate. On the entertainment scale, that event would fall somewhere between the"Thrilla in Manila" and "Jerry Springer RAW".

Clearly, Palin's speech was aimed at two bastions of Republican support, non-thinkers and the Republicans who think George Bush is the greatest president since Richard Nixon. 'Scuse the redundancy.

Two areas of Republican hypocrisy were patently blatant tonight. McCain's military experience was underscored and he was touted as "the only candidate who has fought for his country." In the last election, Republicans "swiftboated" a decorated Vietnam veteran. They denigrated his patriotism, his service to his country, and his valor. They promoted a hookey playing member of the National Guard in absentia, instead.

During the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Michelle Obama focused much of her speech on her family, her husband, and her marriage. Her speech was characterized by Republican supporters as "light-weight ", absent of issues and solutions. Tonight, Palin did little in her appearance but chide her opponents, and showcase the strangeness of her family. This was praised by Republicans proponents as a brilliant strategy to connect their vice presidential candidate with middle and small town America. I was raised on a family farm in Iowa; my wife grew up in a small Eastern WA town. There was no connection.

John McCain has got a serious case of electile dysfunction, and Sarah Palin is not going to change that.