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A photo of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and his Code Pink bundler, terrorist supporter Jodie Evans, has finally surfaced. Ironically, it most likely was released by Code Pink.The photo is included in a video report by WCCO-4 in Minnesota about Evans and her Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin infiltrating the Republican National Convention the night of vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's speech Wednesday night.The WCCO reporter, Esme Murphy, included the unsourced photo of Evans and Obama to illustrate Code Pink's claim that they go after both sides. Murphy describes the photo as a Code Pink member "interrupting Obama", yet...

Grab a beer with... Biggest disappointment... Biggest star.... Freep it. Sarah is biggest star, Biden is biggest disappointment.

Freep this poll: Who had the better convention D's or R's

After lackluster showings in viewership at the beginning of the week, the Republican National Convention bounced back on Wednesday and Thursday, making it the most-watched political convention in American history (or at least since Nielsen began recording convention viewership in 1960).

Remember the Democratic National Convention? The Clintons and the Obamas, Invesco Field, the fireworks? No, I thought not. It's so last month. So B.S.P. -- Before Sarah Palin. Before Hurricane Gustav and his pals. Before the GOP rediscovered how satisfying it is to bash the news media, liberals and East Coast elites. And that's a problem for the Democrats. Last week's Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., has re-energized the party and John McCain's presidential campaign. It wasn't just the convention's late timing or its retro, culture-war theme that reinvigorated Republican hopes. It was the power of Palin. McCain's...

Two masterstrokes were accomplished in the last two days of this year’s Republican National Convention. In her first appearance on the national stage — which can only be called a tectonic event — Sarah Palin secured the conservative base for maverick John McCain, while also reaching out to Democratic women. Then on Thursday night, John McCain struck again, making a play for the rest of the Democratic party. When John McCain was sewing up the nomination in the early spring, I spent a lot of time in many comment sections defending him in as many ways as I knew how....

The three adult children who took turns disrupting John McCain's acceptance speech last night, now being heralded as heroes by some left wing blogs, are off-springs of the steady lineage of vitriolic shrill that's come from Al Gore (of "He lied to us; he preyed on our fears" fame), Teddy Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, et al, for they have helped sustain and sanction their growth. With each spewing of distain and hatred for Bush-Cheney, a divot is taken out of the fairway of what civility there was left in American political discourse. And, while partisans might meet...

To paraphrase conservative talk show host, Larry Elders, "Truth is like kryptonite to a liberal". Liberalism withers and disintegrates in the face of honesty, integrity, work, independence, and patriotism. Therefore, liberals must ban these things at all costs. Witness the left's reactions to Sarah Palin. She is the most threatening person they have ever been confronted with, and they will try everything under the sun, moon, and stars to destroy her. Which brings up a point I've been wanting to make since the night of her speech. From about 2 minutes into Sarah's speech, and continuing until maybe a few...

LOS ANGELES, Sept 5 (Reuters) - A record 38.9 million U.S. TV viewers watched John McCain accept the Republican nomination for president on Thursday, beating the record set last week by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, Nielsen Media Research reported. Obama had an average 38.4 million viewers watching his speech accepting the nomination for his party last week. McCain's tally also was higher than the 37.2 million Americans who tuned in to hear Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's speech on Wednesday.

The View co-host and well-known Republican enthusiast Elisabeth Hasselbeck spent the day wowing delegates at the Republican National Convention Thursday. Hasselbeck, 31, served as the official emcee at a luncheon for Cindy McCain just hours before John McCain's big speech. Hasselbeck also showed off vintage-style "McCain '08" T-shirts she designed herself, and spent time on the floor of the convention taping a segment that will air on Monday, Sept. 8, onThe View. "She was a bit of a rock star," a source tells PEOPLE. "The Republicans were all over her, fawning over her, telling her she was the best, clapping...

There is such a thing as a black Republican, but they have been all but invisible at the party's national convention which is hardly representative of America's diverse population. Among the party's 2,380 delegates gathered in St. Paul only 36 are African Americans and very few other visible minorities were to be found on the convention floor.

H/t Kimberly M. Did the Code Pink members who interrupted John McCain's speech last night use MSNBC press badges to get into the hall? Not according to Code Pink itself, which claims the two women "obtained passes to the convention from disaffected Republicans." Right. There is another much more intriguing explanation out there. According to Shay at Booker Rising, which describes itself a newsite for black moderates and black conservatives [emphasis added]: "I took the shuttle bus back to Minneapolis, and I overheard a convention organizer named Phil telling a convention delegate that the protesters on Wednesday night got through...

Video at link

A protester holds a flower out to riot police outside the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota September 4, 2008. Police offered her a vase for her flower and then arrested her for possessing a Minnesota Yellow Gerbera Daisy, which is on the state endangered list. Illegal harvesting or sale of the flower carries a $30,000 fine and two years in prison. Semi-literate Code Pink Activist Janet Macaroni holds up a sign in support of "WAR" before collapsing from the weight of her handmade vinyl banner. Anti-war protester Jessica OrganicGrapeJuice is assisted by bicycle police after she puts...

Apparently Ted Anthony of the Associated Press thinks it is somehow "contradictory" of the GOP to show VP candidate Governor Sarah Palin's kids at the GOP convention on TV. He seems to imagine that, since the GOP objected to the media attempting to use the kids against Governor Palin, that the GOP shouldn't be allowed to have the kids attend the convention to see their Mother accept her nomination. Anthony's "analysis" hit the nets on September 3, the day after Palin's wonderful acceptance speech on night 3 of the proceedings. Naturally, the AP trolls our left leaning universities to find...

<p>Across all broadcast networks Thursday, Sen. McCain’s speech ended the night with a 4.8 rating/7 share, compared to Sen. Obama’s 4.3/7 average, according to overnight numbers from metered households in 55 U.S. markets measured by Nielsen. These ratings are preliminary, however, and are subject to change.</p>

ST. PAUL, Minn. — John McCain, a POW turned political rebel, vowed Thursday night to vanquish the "constant partisan rancor" that grips Washington as he launched his fall campaign for the White House. "Change is coming," he promised the roaring Republican National Convention and a prime-time television audience. "Fight with me. Fight with me. Fight with me. Fight for what's right for our country," he said in a convention crescendo. To repeated cheers from his delegates, McCain made only passing reference to an unpopular President George W. Bush and criticized fellow Republicans, as well as Democratic rival Barack Obama, to...

Tonight was the end of the beginning of the campaign, and the beginning of the end of the campaign. And where once in the Republican home where nothing was heard but a discouraging word, hope springs eternal. A look back before looking ahead…* OK, after last night’s boffo performance by Sarah Palin, there simply was no way, no how for tonight’s warm-up speakers to come off as anything but flat and uninspiring. So let’s just leave it at that without naming any names.* And from the Department of Too Much of a Good Thing, enough with the videos, OK? It...

By all reports, John McCain isn’t much of an orator. But one wouldn’t know it from his impressive acceptance speech yesterday at the Republican National Convention. Part personal story, part policy blueprint, the speech, ably delivered by McCain, also was a stirring call to national service. Its greatest virtue, however, was its stark delineation of the differences between Sen. McCain and Barack Obama. Even more than McCain’s rallying cry to “fight with me,” the speech may be remembered as a study in contrasts. In his remarks, McCain had kind words for his Democratic opponent.

What a relief last week to go from the real world of Gustav to the unreal world of another national nominating convention, full of full of hype and fury signifying . . . well, that depends on who's talking at the time. As the drama built up to the well-staged acceptance speeches Wednesday and Thursday nights, Tuesday evening was just the prelims. But it had two stars: Fred Thompson was the first. The former senator and prosecutor was utterly convincing so long as he was praising the record of his party's standard bearer. It was an easy case to make....

American presidential politics went from the sublime to the ridiculous within little more than 12 hours last week. Being in the Denver stadium filled with over 80,000 supporters of Democratic Presidential Nominee Sen. Barack Obama last Thursday night, this writer experienced the palpable shared sense of a great moment in time, and the strongest, most refreshing rekindling of the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King in the 40 years since his death. Obama was forceful, eloquent, and not strident but firmly resolved to lead the nation back on the path it abandoned in the years following Dr. King's assassination, toward...

Somebody, PLEASE, post a clip of Andrea Mitchell fighting through the ballon drop while trying to drone out about (her view) McCain's utter failure as a nominee. This truly was Must-See TV!

Here is a tag cloud of the top 100 words used last night in John McCain’s speech.

Last night's rather low-key Convention speech by John McCain was hugely overshadowed by Sarah Palin's virtuoso performance the evening before. It did however succeed in reinforcing the message that the Senator from Arizona is a force to be reckoned with on national security issues in an increasingly dangerous world, and that his record as a war hero gives him far greater credibility as commander in chief than his Democrat opponent. Perhaps the most important element of the speech related not to the routine "kitchen table" issues that dominated large swathes of it, from government spending to education reform, but his...

Dawson, Gretchen Wilson make the rounds at convention

Republicans descended on the Midwest for their convention this week, promoting John McCain's credentials, introducing vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and hoping to win the support of the region's voters come November. If money determined the winner in each state, McCain would take Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, North Dakota, Nebraska and South Dakota. He wouldn't, however, manage to win Minnesota, which hosted the Republican National Convention this week, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois or Missouri.

Link only.STORY

Political parties usually reform in the wilderness. They suffer some crushing defeat, the old guard is discredited and the pain compels turnover and change. John McCain is trying to reform the Republican Party before a presidential defeat, with the old guard still around, and with a party base that still hasn’t accepted the need to transform. The central drama of this week’s convention was the struggle by reform Republicans to break through the gravitational pull of old habits and create something new. Before the convention, some McCain aides wanted to sunder the links to the past in one bold stroke:...

Pointlets on McCain’s Speech [Jay Nordlinger] 1. I’ll start by repeating what I said earlier, in my “instant react”: He was himself and he said what he believes. And that’s probably the most you can ask for in a candidate. 2. The introductory video was effective in its use of humor — “Some called him a hothead. Some called him things that can’t be repeated.” (I paraphrase.) Nicely done. 3. Seeing pictures of McCain’s dad reminded me that WFB knew him — stayed with him out in Hawaii. 4. “John McCain’s life was spared — perhaps he had more to...

By the time Sen. John McCain finished his speech and delegates let out of the Xcel Energy Center, downtown was so devoid of activists that a large diverse crowd gathered in Rice Park couldn't even muster a unified cheer, despite many signs indicating anti- Republican sentiments. In short, a stranger might not know this is a democratic town. The end came after protestors who had rallied at the Capitol grounds made several unsuccessful attempts Thursday night to reach the X, site of the Republican National Convention. Large rows of armed law enforcement officials, many on bicycle or horseback, stopped them...

Why Palin’s Speech Worked A former vice-presidential speechwriter breaks it down. 4 September 2008 Last night, Sarah Palin, the previously obscure governor of Alaska, demonstrated before a national audience that she has an extraordinary ability to communicate with Americans. As someone who used to make her living writing political speeches, I can say that Palin certainly knows how to deliver one. She is talented at properly inflecting words to maximize dramatic punch, and she doesn’t stumble over timing. These skills, and not the writing, are what make it possible for an audience to really hear a speech. Consider that the...

More than 40 million tune in to Palin’s speechBoth Palin and Obama reached about the same number of viewersLOS ANGELES - Barack Obama apparently isn’t the only “rock star” in presidential politics this year. After days of intense media coverage about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s qualifications, more than 40 million Americans tuned in Wednesday to see for themselves what they thought of her. The huge audience for Palin’s acceptance speech rivaled that for Obama’s address at the Democratic National Convention six days earlier, and set a tough standard for the top of her own ticket. John McCain was...

The real candidate of change accepts the nomination and promises to shake up Washington. There were a few code pink moments that the crowd shouted down with USA chants.

What is it to be an American? The John McCain I met tonight was incredibly Reaganesque as he reminded us that American pride comes from winning the fight - not from whining for handouts as victims. McCain, through his own riveting personal story of transformation from self centered cocky fly boy to dedicated man of his country. McCain reintroduced himself to America, and reintroduced us to ourselves. The speech was a huge hit. And the comparisons to Obama were striking.

Here is the outstanding biographical video shown at the Republican National Convention, September 4, 2008. . . . (see video at link)

MSNBC gets worse spot than Al Jazeera (updated) September 4, 2008 at 6:53 pm by Irene Jay Liu A random observation: NBC News has possible some of the worst seats in the house, tucked away so far to the side of the Xcel Energy Center that it has a partially obstructed view of the stage. To the right of NBC is Al Jazeera, which has a slightly better view of the stage. MSNBC, which is affiliated with NBC, is widely considered to be the more liberal of the cable news networks (with Fox to the right, and CNN somewhere in...

Great speech tonight, if I didn't know any better I believe he channeled Ronnie for a bit...

According to U.S. News and World Report's Web site, Robert Schlesinger is the magazine's deputy editor and oversees all opinion editorial content. Schlesinger blogs from the Republican National Convention on "Cindy McCain's $300,000 Outfit:" ST. PAUL—Remember Pat Nixon's "respectable Republican cloth coat?" It's come a long way, baby. To wit: According to Vanity Fair, Laura Bush's outfit cost between $3,400 and $4,300. But of course that's chump-change compared to the roughly $300,000 that Cindy McCain's cost (the biggest line-item being $280,000 for three-karat diamond earrings). For those of you keeping track at home, Cindy McCain's outfit could pay for a...

They have disrupted McCain's speech several times. I've never seen anything like this during a convention. I wonder how they managed to get in. To me this is scary. What if these people were there to do something other than shout? I'm sure these people will be the headline on MSNBC and the New York Times....

Code pink and the next John Kerry woooopppppeeeeeee

Never before, at least in my memory, has a vice presidential nominee so wowed a convention, and never before has a vice presidential nominee been so pivotal to a presidential candidate's campaign. John McCain made a high stakes bet and has collected big time. Since Palin's selection was announced Aug. 29 in Dayton, mainstream media has been trying to discredit Palin--even setting a betting line on when she would be dropped from the ticket. Those bets now seem to be worth less than shares of Bear Stearns. --- The American Margaret Thatcher? Too soon to say. But consider this: Lady...

There is a lot to say about Sarah Palin’s performance last night, but perhaps the place to begin is with this observation: Boy did Democrats choose the wrong hockey mom to pick a fight with. 1. It’s always difficult to judge these things in real time, but my sense is that what happened last evening was a genuinely important political moment. It was important above all for Sarah Palin, who, under enormous pressure, delivered her speech flawlessly, with grace and style, in a way that was elegant, effective, and accessible. She is a supremely gifted political talent, both captivating and...

Thursday, September 04, 2008 McCain Speech Tonight   [Jonah Goldberg] Word is that McCain is going to announce to the Beltway establishment that their days of corruption and lawlessness are at an end. It's going to be an oddly choreographed speech as well. I've actually gotten  hold of a video run-through of one of the most stirring portions of the speech. It's very clearly very a rough draft.   Here it is for what it's worth.09/04 07:28 PM

As part of their recruitment drive, leaders of the anti-war, anti-American activist group, Code Pink, showed up at the Republicans' national convention in St. Paul yesterday and performed an act of political theater that got them arrested. Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, who really ought to be dressed in bright pink straitjackets, disrupted the acceptance speech of vice presidential nominee Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and were led away. Benjamin and Evans wore pink slips upon which ''Palin Not a Woman's Choice'' was written and tried to wave a banner that read, ''We need a Peace VP.'' (Sean Hackbarth has a...

As Roosevelt was approaching the podium, out of view of the spectators, he reached out to shake hands with the elderly poet Edwin Markham and fell. Helpless to rise on his own, Roosevelt was furious; his speech text flew out of his hands. But aides quickly helped him rise and, on the arm of his son James Roosevelt, made his way to the podium and began speaking to the 100,000 in the stadium and a nationwide radio audience. But the pages of his speech text were out of order. Quickly, without a hint of irritation or hesitation, he reshuffled them...

Palin records HUGE jump with independents and moderates in overnight polls: Survey USA Breakdown: Surveying INDEPENDENT VOTERS, is Gov. Palin an asset or liability to the GOP ticket? Asset? 09/03/08 = 43% 09/04/08 = 56% Liability? 09/03/08 = 44% 09/04/08 = 27% (Margin of error +/- 6) Surveying MODERATE VOTERS, is Gov. Palin an asset or liability to the GOP ticket? Asset? 09/03/08 = 38% 09/04/08 = 48% Liability? 09/03/08 = 49% 09/04/08 = 30% (Margin of error +/-5)

More held as convention protests continueTally grows to 315, expected to rise Gary Emerling Thursday, September 4, 2008 ST. PAUL, Minn. | Another day brought another series of protests during the Republican National Convention, as law enforcement officials remained on guard in a week filled with violent activity. National Guardsmen in full riot gear took up posts around the Xcel Energy Center following two days of protests that saw hundreds arrested, traffic disrupted and tear gas in the streets. Officials said 315 people had been arrested as of Wednesday evening, up from 280 on Monday. Secret Service spokesman Darrin Blackford...

MINNEAPOLIS -- The GOP's uninvited guest, Hurricane Gustav, initially cast a pall over festivities at the Republican National Convention this week, but by Wednesday the party was popping. Actor Jon Voight made the rounds; so did singer Pat Boone (easy to spot in white suit and boots). Former Nixon speechwriter turned actor and columnist Ben Stein worked the convention floor between appearances on CNN. Five for Fighting's John Ondrasik, a John McCain fan who donated to the senator at a fundraiser in Beverly Hills in June, performed at a downtown nightclub. Singers Aimee Allen and Sara Evans serenaded political maverick...

"I'm very proud to have introduced our next Vice President to the country. But I can't wait until I introduce her to Washington. And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming." "The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn't a cause, it's a symptom. It's what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you. Again and again, I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That's how I will...

Perhaps it was the enormous will on the part of America’s liberal media that Sarah Palin should make a mess of her speech at the convention that willed her so much to succeed. She certainly did. The speech fulfilled, and in some respects exceeded, the requirements of such an occasion. It did this by fulfilling, and in some respects exceeding, the expectations of the Republican faithful.