Day 2/3 of the Republican Convention: Slick Mitt, the Huckster, Rudy & Palin-Drone

After all the fluff and huff of the GOP convention early on night 2, it didn't take long once prime time began, for the Slick Mitt Romneys and the Huckster, the "turn 'em loose", prison sentence-commuting former Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, to go negative, attacking Barack Obama and Joe Biden constantly rather than offering any ideas or solutions to the problems plaguing America after 8 years of George W. Bush. The same George W. Bush who has hardly been mentioned during this convention. Dubya has become the "crazy Aunt" Ross Perot spoke of in 1992, the one nobody in the family wants to talk about.

Early in the evening, Slick Mitt Romney kicked things off with a nonsensical, rambling speech in support of a man, John McCain, who reportedly loathes Romney, a common malady among those who have encountered the man on the campaign trail.Then, things at night 2 of the GOP convention went further downhill. Romney is widely regarded as a monumental phony by those in his own party!

Slick Mitt Romney was followed by earnest Mike Huckabee, the Huckster, as he is known in Arkansas. Huckabee, who comes from a middle class background, is a dichotomy. On the one hand, Mike Huckabee is a "different kind of Republican" with compassion, not as a slogan, but an actual concern for Hurricane Katrina evacuees and other people in distress.

On the other hand, you have Mike Huckabee's evil twin, the Huckster, who helps himself to thousands of dollars worth of gifts from special interests. The Mike Huckabee who disregarded the wishes of Prosecutors and the families of crime victims to commute the sentences of hundreds of hardened criminals, including one Wayne DuMond, a serial rapist who after his release murdered two women in the Kansas City area.

Mike Huckabee, as he usually is, was an entertaining speaker. One never knows what Huckabee might say with his easy manner and "loose cannon" ways. As a man who has been running for President for several years, Huck seemed to be positioning himself for a future run at the White House...again. Mike Huckabee's speech, although hokey, was the highlight of the evening, at least until Sarah Palin's diatribe. More on that later.

Just before 9:00 p.m. Central, Rudy Giuliani took the stage. I kept expecting Rudy to note at exactly 9:11 the upcoming anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks. Just a note to his speechwriters: Ol' one note Rudy should not be given a speech with any words with the letter "s" in them. Funny how, after Fred Thompson's indignant rant about the right to life last night, that the keynote speaker to the GOP convention should be pro-choice Rudy Giuliani.

Guiliani was shrill, as usual, as he riduculed Barack Obama's record of community organization. For a party whose speakers constantly talk about "personal resposibility" and how we don't need government running every aspect of our lives, one would think that such a record would be commendable rather than a subject of ridicule. After all, community organizers are the people who got the constitution changed giving women the long-denied right to vote. They may have gone by a different name back then, but community organizers are the people who got civil rights laws enacted when blacks were not allowed to vote.

Imagine the irony, all of Rudy's ex-wives must have been thinking of, seeing him on the stage pretending to be a champion of women's rights. Last I heard, at least some of Giuliani's own children supported Barack Obama's candidacy over that of their Dad, when he was still running. Family values indeed?

Last, but not least was "Hockey Mom" Sarah Palin who introduced herself to the American public not by speaking of the direction she and John McCain want to take this country, but by touting her experience as Mayor of a town with a population of less than 6,000...and directing much sarcasm at Barack Obama. If Sarah Palin was a hockey player, she would have been sent to the penalty box for "high-sticking".

While Sarah Palin's candidacy for Vice Presidency is refreshing in many ways, McCain could have chosen just another "good ol' boy", I would have liked to have heard more about the issues facing our country such as healthcare, jobs and the economy and less personal insults directed at Mr. Obama.

Sarah Palin continued Rudy Giuliani's ridicule of "community organizers", saying at one point that being a small town Mayor was similar only, Mayor's had "actual responsibilities". If it were not for community organizers working for women's right to vote long ago, she might still be back in Wasilla, AK instead of on the podium at the RNC. I fully expected someone to gig Obama on his statement about voters "clinging to guns and religion". Fair enough. Barack Obama did say that, so the statement is not unfair.

However, I do have problems with is Sarah Palin pretending to be the one who single-handledly axed the infamous "Bridge To Nowhere" when, in fact Palin supported the bridge until after Congress nixed the wasteful spending boondoggle. Sarah Palin as Mayor sought and received much "earmark" money for the town of Wasilla, something John McCain supposedly is against. Breathless commentators are hailing Palin for throwing "red meat" to the crowd in St. Paul, when actually what she threw was "pork" as in "pork barrel" spending.

Sarah Palin was "dismayed" at the indictment of corrupt Alaska Senator Ted Stevens and in an interview before she was selected as John McCain's running mate asked the interviewer just what is was that a Vice President did. David Gergen of CNN, a Republican himself, has been one of the leading media members questioning her credentials. Instead of presenting her credentials, the Republicans on Wednesday night relied on the time honored GOP tactic of ...blaming the media. Ironic for a media darling such as John McCain has been for years.

Do the Republicans really think that if Joe Biden or Barack Obama had an unwed pregnant daughter it would not be reported? You bet it would and there would be lots of "family values" pap from the GOP talking heads about it.

Many commentators in the aftermath of Sarah Palin's speech have proclaimed the speech as Palin "hitting it out of the park". That may be, the people in attendance at the XCEL Center were obviously impressed by the speech, but unfortunately if the batter hits a foul ball out of the park, it counts for nothing.

By going on the attack in her very first major speech to the American public, Sarah Palin follows a long line of GOP Vice presidential candidates. Richard Nixon in the 50's, Spiro Agnew in the 60's and early 70's, before his resignation in disgrace, Bob Dole in 1976, Dan Quayle in 1988 and '92, and Dick Cheney all would have been or are proud of the Sarah Palin sarcasm-laced speech on the evening of Sept. 3, 2008.