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Clint Eastwood will be speaking at the Republican Convention in Tampa on Thursday according to Fox News. The network’s website is reporting that a GOP source confirmed “that Eastwood is indeed the mystery speaker”. Thursday night’s line-up has a “To Be Announced” speaker scheduled ahead of Senator Marco Rubio and GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney himself. Eastwood’s name was floated earlier this week as the speaker along with former VP nominee Sarah Palin, Donald Trump and even a hologram of former President Ronald Reagan. No stranger to politics, Eastwood served as the Mayor of Carmel, California from 1986 to 1988....

Catholic bishops in 2010 badly wanted to buff the Church’s battered image. So they ditched their usual succession system and picked the jovial Tim Dolan as their president. Their investment has paid off in spades: Democrats confirmed Tuesday that the cardinal will give the benediction at their convention in Charlotte, N.C., next week — a coveted task Dolan had already agreed to perform for the GOP on Thursday. Reviving the authority and status of the Catholic Church has been the focus of Dolan, the most visible and influential U.S. Catholic bishop in decades. At a polarized time when many bishops...

Patricia Carroll, the CNN camerawoman who was assaulted with peanuts and called an animal by two attendees at the Republican National Convention, told Journal-isms on Thursday that "I hate that it happened, but I'm not surprised at all." Carroll, who agreed to be named for the first time, said she does not want her situation to be used for political advantage. "This situation could happen to me at the Democratic convention or standing on the street corner. Racism is a global issue," she said by telephone from Tampa. Carroll said no one took the names of the attendees who threw...

By all accounts, Ann Romney gave a terrific speech last night. Well, maybe not by ALL accounts. It did not go over too well in DUmmieland. While Ann was speaking about love, the feeling was not exactly mutual. Witness this THREAD by DUmmie Aviation Pro, the elegantly titled "F*** Off...." Of course, the original has the letters instead of the asterisks. In fact, you may want to track the number of asterisks in this DUFU. It may set a record. So let us monitor the DUmmie F*** Off Focus Group, in Bolshevik Red, while the commentary of your humble...

Don't get too excited by this result, because Republicans weren't exactly blowing the doors off on favorability with registered voters before the conventions started, either. However, Democrats are, for the first time since Gallup began surveying on this question, doing worse than Republicans. And also for the first time, Democrats find themselves underwater — and not by a narrow margin, either (via Instapundit): In the lead-up to this year's presidential convention period, 44% of registered voters held a favorable view of the Republican Party and 43% of the Democratic Party. While the Republicans' favorable rating is similar to where it...

Seems like fact checkers need to do some fact checking of their own assumptions. Paul Ryan's speech last night included a reference to a GM plant in Janesville that closed, which Ryan used to criticize Barack Obama for failing to meet his campaign promises. A number of "fact" checkers jumped all over Ryan's anecdote to claim that he lied about the circumstances of the plant's closure. We'll just take one example, from the AP's "fact" check: RYAN: Said Obama misled people in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wis., by making them think a General Motors plant there threatened with closure could...

1. Dazzling At least a quarter of Americans still don’t know who Paul Ryan is, and only about half who know and have an opinion of him view him favorably. So, Ryan’s primary job tonight was to introduce himself and make himself seem likeable, and he did that well. The personal parts of the speech were very personally delivered, especially the touching parts where Ryan talked about his father and mother and their roles in his life. And at the end of the speech, when Ryan cheered the crowd to its feet, he showed an energy and enthusiasm that’s what...

2012 Republican Convention: Protesters Dressed as Vaginas Greet Delegates (Video) 10:48 AM PDT 8/27/2012 by Paul BondPro-choice protesters accost delegates at the Republican National Convention as they arrive to party with country star Rodney Atkins. TAMPA, Fla. -- Giant, walking vaginas have descended upon the Republican National Convention. Several demonstrators from the feminist group Code Pink wore frilly pink costumes while others adorned with cardboard cutouts resembling the sexual organ were milling about Sunday looking for Republicans. [...]A Florida website called Shark-Tank.net captured video of some of them during their preparation (video below). The protesters carried signs saying such things...

Quick post...

Alternate headline: "So far, so good."I assume most of this is due to Ann, whose speech dwelled entirely on Mitt, versus Christie, who didn't mention him until 16 minutes in. But even so, this is interesting: Romney had a 43-percent favorable and 44-percent unfavorable rating in nine battleground states heading into the convention, according to an average compiled by Real Clear Politics.A survey conducted by Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research in nine battle ground states Tuesday evening found Romney’s favorable rating among likely voters had jumped to 48 percent. His unfavorable rating dipped to 39…New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s speech...

Progressive bloggers and TV personalities are up in arms about Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention last night. Several of their accusations revolve around Paul Ryan’s own fiscal record, and his description of President Obama’s. I asked my liberal friends on Twitter to send me an itemized list of Ryan’s alleged lies, and they kindly obliged. So far, Ryan appears to have the better of the argument. [Snip] Dave Weigel of Slate compiled a useful list. (For a longer one, visit ThinkProgress.) Wrote Weigel, “Ryan plowed through one of the more impressive strings of whoppers we’ve seen at...

Minutes after Paul Ryan finished his RNC speech on Wednesday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews slammed the Republican vice presidential candidate for supposedly ignoring blacks during his "very constricted, very negative, very nasty speech," and suggested that he was directing the address to racists: "It's clear that Paul Ryan was talking to people who think about rights as something...produced by Thomas Jefferson, ignoring the people for whom the rights only came in the 1960s." Matthews added that "for some reason, they never mentioned those things, because they're talking to people - let's be honest about this - who didn't feel – the...

I guess Mark is mad that Romney is not a puritanical Reaganite.

Paul Ryan gave an acceptance speech which ...upped the ante. It lectrified the convention and established him as a force for the future... It... sent shock waves into the Obama-Biden Camp. Anyone who watched that well delivered speech - and witnessed this man's capacity to articulate his positions clearly, compellingly and cogently - while inspiring his listeners and drawing such rounds of appaluse- will, along with me, welcome the upcoming Vice Presidential debate between he and Vice President Joe Biden. This so called "wonk" is also a formidable political weapon. This debate will be one for the history books! Ryan's...

I'm a little surprised at the *lack* of punditry on conservative sites about how well the Romney campaign is faring at convincing Americans to support them during this convention. I expected, for instance, all the NRO columnists to have offered such an assessment so far, and there is only an article. I'm rather amazed that even FR is strangely quiet. So let's see what you think about it! (If you're a Paul-bot complaining about the rules which require delegates to vote for who they are selected to vote for or a fundamentalist who'se certain that a Mormon will destroy America...

Where is Sarah...

Excerpts released by the Romney campaign from Paul Ryan's address tonight to Republican convention in Tampa, Florida: "I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old – and I know that we are ready. Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment – to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the run-around, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Governor...

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 29, 2012 7:00 p.m. Convention convenes Call to order Introduction of Colors by Amputee Veterans of America Support Team (AVAST) Pledge of Allegiance by Brigadier General Patrick E. Rea, US Army (Ret.) National Anthem sung by Ayla Brown Invocation by Ishwar Singh Ron Paul Video Remarks by Senate Republican Leader and Convention Temporary Chairman Mitch McConnell (KY) Remarks by Senator Rand Paul (KY) Remarks by Christopher Devlin-Young and Jeanine McDonnell 8:00 p.m. Remarks by Senator John McCain (AZ) Remarks by Attorney General Pam Bondi (FL) and Attorney General Sam Olens (GA) Remarks by Governor Bobby Jindal (LA) Remarks...

I know conservatives have their issues with him, and he deserves it. However, there were some really good lines that will be worth repeating, REGARDLESS of the messenger, from now 'til November...    

And Cruz was well rewarded for his efforts. He pretty much brought the house down. If any voters across the country were getting their first look at Cruz yesterday, they got an eyeful. And it was probably hard to come away from it unimpressed. Good evening. I have the honor of standing before you this evening for one reason, because thousands upon thousands of grassroots activists stood united, not for a candidate, but for the sake of restoring liberty. Accountability, quite rightly, rests firmly in the hands of “We the People.” Since 2010, something extraordinary has been happening, something that...