After day 2 of the RNC

I had mixed observations as I watched the RNC last night.

First of all let me say that Laura Bush is an elegant, articulate, and very classy first lady. President Bush’s speech was pretty typical for him. I don’t think that he has ever been an impressive speaker and an even less impressive communicator, but for a cameo, he did fine.

Fred Thompson stole the show last night. I thought his speech was excellent and I thought he delivered it perfectly. If Fred had campaigned for president like he spoke last night, he would be the nominee right now.

There was also a huge contrast between Fred’s endorsement of McCain and either of the Clintons’ endorsement of Obama. The only time Senator Thompson brought up his own record was when he was referencing John McCain’s leadership, friendship, and example. His speech was exciting, humorous, inspiring, and dramatically delivered. I’ve heard John McCain’s POW story a number of times, but Thompson really made it hit home.

He took a few shots at Obama (but not by name) and some more shots at the Dem congress and explained their failed ideas in clear terms. His comments about Dem tax increases coming out of the “other side” of the bucket were excellent.

Personally I thought they should have ended the second night right there, or switched the order of Thompson and Lieberman. Not that Senator Lieberman is a bad guy or that his speech was bad. In fact, I thought it was pretty good. He tended to emphasize the things that conservatives despise about McCain, but then again he was obviously trying to appeal to Independents and Democrats. Unfortunately Joe Lieberman is a tiring speaker. His frowning way of talking is just hard to listen to and he smacks of Ben Stein on Ferris Bueler’s Day Off. Ugh. I just felt like the whole night would have ended on a more positive and uplifting note if it would have ended with Thompson.

I do appreciate the fact that Lieberman is endorsing McCain. It’s a bold move to slap your party in the face. Not that they have shown him any respect the last couple of years by supporting someone else in the Dem primaries, but still, I imagine they will do whatever they can to make it a little bit more difficult for him after this.

As a whole I was kind of disappointed at the convention itself (except for Fred’s speech). It seems like all of the delegates that are there are, well... older. They need more fresh faces. The whole thing seemed to be lacking a little bit of spunk and spirit. Let the delegates bring a friend. Fill the arena with cheering people.

I really hope we see a little bit more of that tonight when Giuliani and Palin take the stage.