He is not known for giving a great teleprompter speech.  He is much better known for having conversations with people in town hall meetings.  So I will try to keep that in mind as I give my thoughts on the speech.

The truth is, I was split on the speech.  There were times I agreed with him 100% and I wanted to cheer him on.  There were times I remembered why I am not so thrilled he is the nominee.  There were times I was a little bored.  I thought the speech started off a little slow.  Throw in some Code Pink whackos and that'll definitely slow things down a bit.  He talked about some great issues...reducing earmarks and reducing government spending in general.  He spoke briefly about being pro-life.  He spoke about energy and drilling off shores.  He spoke about maintaining a strong military.  He spoke about lowering taxes.  He also spoke about some issues that made me think to myself, "Uggghhhh why are you doing this?"  He talked about global warming as if it was a man-made phenominon.  He spoke about wanting to appoint Democrats into his administration.  He spoke about working with Democrats.  Now, it's not that he worked with Democrats....that in itself might be just fine.  It's WHAT he worked with them on.  So as for the issues, I thought it was a 50/50 speech.  I liked half of what he said and not so much on the other 50%.  He spoke about his wife and family.  I thought that was nice....all politicians do it. 

The one part of the speech that I thought was absolutely stunning was his was his description of his P.O.W. years.  We've all heard the story.  We all know what happened.  But the way he brought it all to life.....especially the part about being a cocky pilot who put himself first....and afterwards....he realized he was but just a speck.  He learned to put his country first and lose the ego trip.....THAT part of the speech was amazing.  That portion seemed almost unscripted and I clearly think was the best part of the speech.  The ending with him screaming "fight with me" "fight with me" "stand up" seemed a little overdramatic to me....but it seemed as if the audience ate it up.  Over all, it didn't change my opinion of him as a politician.  At the end of the speech I was thinking, "Thank God he picked Sarah Palin."

Tonight was night three of the Republican National Convention.  There were 4 major speeches tonight, but let's be honest....It was Gov. Sarah Palin's night!

Mitt Romney kicked off the night with his speech.  He made a lot of great points, but his delivery was a bit off.   The quotes from his speech that stuck out to me were, "The American people have always been the source of our nation's strength and they always will be" and "It's time for the party of big ideas, not the party of Big Brother."  He was serving up the so-called "red meat" (I hate that term) but seemed to be trying too hard to deliver a good speech.

Next up was Mike Huckabee.  He delivered his speech with his usual casualness and humor.  Some of the quotes from his speech that stuck out to me were, "Barack Obama's excellent adventure to Europe took his campaign for change to hundreds of thousands of people who don't even vote or pay taxes here" and "I'm not a Republican because I grew up rich, but because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life poor, waiting for the government to rescue me."  But I thought the best part of his speech was his story about a teacher's lesson to her students.  The story went as follows:

On the first day of school in 2005, Martha Cothren, a teacher at Joe T. Robinson High School in Little Rock, was determined that her students would not take their education or their privilege as Americans for granted. With the principal's permission, she removed all the desks from her classroom. The students entered the empty room and asked, "Mrs. Cothren, where are our desks?"

"You get a desk when you tell me how you earn it," she replied.

"Making good grades?" asked one student.

"I guess we have to behave," offered another.

"You WILL behave in my class," Mrs. Cothren retorted, "but that won't get you a desk either."

No one in first period guessed right. Same for second period.

By lunch, the buzz was all over campus... Mrs. Cothren had flipped out ....wouldn't let her students have a desk. Kids had used their cell phones and called their parents.

By early afternoon, all 4 of the local network TV affiliates had camera crews at the school to report on the teacher who wouldn't let her students have a desk unless they could tell her how they earned it. By the final period, no one had guessed correctly.

As the students filed in, Martha Cothren said, "Well, I didn't think you would figure it out, so I'll have to tell you."

Martha opened the door of her classroom. In walked 27 veterans, some wearing uniforms from years gone by, but each one carrying a school desk.

As they carefully and quietly arranged the desks in neat rows, Martha said, "You don't have to earn your desks...these guys already did. They went halfway around the world, giving up their education and interrupting their careers and families so you could have the freedom you have. No one charged you for your desk. But it wasn't really free. These guys bought it for you. And I hope you never forget it." 

Rudy Giuliani was next giving the keynote speech.  It was full of humor and seriousness as well.  He spoke of the contrast between John McCain's record and ability to make decisions and the inablity of Barack Obama to do the same.  He took jabs at Harry Reid as well saying, "The Democratic leader in the Senate said so: "America has lost.  Well, if America lost, who won? Al Qaida? Bin Laden? In the single biggest policy decision of this election, John McCain got it right and Barack Obama got it wrong."  He spoke of Obama's blunders when the events of Russia vs. Georgia were erupting.  He made clear that Obama is not the guy you want in the White House taking that 3:00 a.m. call.  He joked that even Hillary was right this one time.  He then sang the praises of Gov. Sarah Palin.  He scolded the left and the media for questioning whether or not she could be a take care of her family and run for vice-president...rightly pointing out that when has a man ever been asked that question?

Immediately follwing Giuliani, Gov. Sarah Palin took to the stage.  CAN YOU SAY HOME RUN?  Nevermind homerun!  GRANDSLAM!!!  She hit it out of the park with her speech tonight.  She showed her tender side pledging that she would be a friend to those families of children with special needs.  She showcased her experience as mayor and especially as governor.  She recounted the story of how when she became governor, she thought that the luxurious private jet a former administration had bought for use by the governor was wasteful spending.  So she sold it on Ebay and the state actually made a profit!  She got rid of the personal chef for the governor as another wasteful expenditure, joking that maybe her kids didn't like that so much.  She told of her fight against corruption including in her own party and she came out victorious.   She took on the good ol' boy network that was entrenched in the area, even going up against some of the corporations that were wrong. She showed she could take on the opponent delivering some poignant jabs at the Democrat candidates.  One example, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening."  Another quote was:

"And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.  But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.

This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word "victory" except when he's talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy ... our opponent is against producing it.

Victory in Iraq is finally in sight ... he wants to forfeit.

Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay ... he wants to meet them without preconditions.

Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights? Government is too big ... he wants to grow it.

Congress spends too much ... he promises more.

Taxes are too high ... he wants to raise them. His tax increases are the fine print in his economic plan, and let me be specific.

The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes ... raise payroll taxes ... raise investment income taxes ... raise the death tax ... raise business taxes ... and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

She was charming and funny and a pleasure to listen to.  She was humble.  Her timing was perfect.  This was the first time she had ever given a speech of this magnitude and to this many people and she remained calm cool and collected.  

The response of those in attendence and I suspect, based on my own response, of those at home proves that this a woman who is ready for this job.  We are not only confident of that, but excited that she is there.   She is the future and the future is bright.  Conservatism is back in the Republican Party.

I suspect that after tonight's speech, you will see a sizable bump in McCain's polling numbers.  This woman is the real deal for conservatives and may be just what the doctor ordered to revive the Republican Party into the conservative home it once was.

You know the liberals are scared to death of this woman.  Look at all the mud they are throwing, just to see what sticks.  Seriously, is there anyone in this country that was thinking, "Wow I really liked that Sarah Palin until I found out her husband had a DWI 20 years ago!  I'm now voting for Obama!"?

The liberals have even gone so far as to ask, "What kind of mother is she?  She has a newborn and she's running for Vice President.  Who is going to take care of her child?"  Oh geez, I don't know.....How about Dad?  Suddenly, the libs think a woman's place is at home baking cookies?  What happened to championing strong successful woman?

The liberals and their co-horts in the media have even gone so far as to attack Palin's 17 year old daughter.  "My God, her daughter's pregnant!  What kind of mother is she?"  I'll answer that.  She's the kind of mother who has taught her daughter the morals she believes in.  And when her daughter made a mistake, as all children do, she is supportive.  It's not the mistakes we make, it's how we react to the mistakes.  Her daughter is choosing to have the baby and get married tot he father.  It's a happy ending.  The liberals are upset because her daughter chose not to kill her baby through abortion.  They are upset that she has chosen to get married instead of going on welfare.  Our role as parents is to teach our kids the difference between right and wrong and when they cross the line, again as all kids do, it's our job to be supportive and to get them back on track.  It sounds as if that is exactly what is going on in the Palin household.

They've made fun of her for being from small town America.  Obama even called the town that she was Mayor of "Wasilly" instead of Wasilla.  The Democrats are imploding and showing their true colors.  They are showing their disdain for small town America.  If you are not an elite, you are a joke according to liberals like Obama and Biden.  Keep up that line of attack boys.  There are only so many big city elites...not enough to elect you.

Their desperation has gone so far as to dredge up a picture of her from a college dorm room in which she is wearing a shirt that says, "I may be broke, but I'm not flat busted."  Again, as if that is going to  stop anyone from voting for her ticket.  It's so laughable.

They tried the "She has no experience" line, but failed to realize she has more experience than their number one guy, Obama.  Palin has been mayor of a town.  She has been Governor of our largest state.  She governs a state that is a major energy provider for our country.  She has cut wasteful spending.  She has fought corruption and won.  What has Obama done?  He gave a few good speeches and wrote a few books.  WOW.....that is experience!  Hardly.

Governor Palin has the conservative base energized and in the campaign for the first time since McCain won the nomination.  Sarah has had more scrutiny of her record and of her life and family in 5 days than Barack Obam has had in 18 months.  Oh yeah, BELIEVE IT!  She scares the Democrats to death.  I love it!

I missed most of the opening speeches because my son had hockey practice (I'll try to catch them on replay or online) but I did manage to watch the 3 major speeches.  The first speech I saw came from President George W. Bush.  He gave his speech from the White House via satellite.  His speech was adequate.  I'm not going to pretend it was overly inspiring, but he reminded of us of the world we live in today and why this election is so important.

Next up was Fred Thompson.  HE rocked the house.  His speech was great.  His speech was inspiring and even humorous at times.  What was going through my head as he was speaking was, "What a difference between his speech and the speeches of all the Democrats last week."  Fred's speech was enthusiastic about life in America.  He spoke of how great it is and what an honor it was to be an American.  This was in stark contrast to the Democrat speeches that all basically revolved around their idea that America sucks.  It was refreshing to hear an uplifting speech after being bombarded by the negativity coming form the DNC.  One of the interesting things is that his most cheered lines came when he mentioned Gov. Sarah Palin.  She is definitely a breath of fresh air into this campaign and truthfully, the main reason many conservatives are at least a little jazzed about this election now.

The last major speech of the night came from Sen. Joe Lieberman.  It was big news that Lieberman was there and speaking on the stage because just 8 short years ago, he was the Vice Presidential candidate of the Democrat Party.  I understand why he was chosen to speak.  It was clearly to try and draw in the Democrats and Independents who know that elected Barack Obama would be a big mistake.  It was a speech designed to tell Democrats, "Hey, it's o.k. to vote for a Republican.  I'm a Democrat and I am voting for him."  To that point, maybe it was effective.  To me, as a conservative though, I was a little put off by his speech.  It reminded me of so many of the reasons I was weary of McCain being the Republican nominee.  Sen. Lieberman spoke of all the ways Sen. McCain fought against the Republicans and for so many of the bills that I disagree with him on.  To a Democrat, that is certainly a good thing.  To a conservative, it wasn't such a good thing.  He managed to make a few good points, but overall, I could have done without Lieberman speaking.  I ws curious to hear what the pundits would say afterward.  Most of them hailed this speech.  I don't get it.  It really did nothing for me.

Tomorrow night is a HUGE night.  Gov. Sarah Palin, the Vice Presidential nominee, will make her speech.  That is the speech I am looking forward to!

Once again, I will be donating ALL of the money minus only the Ebay, PayPal and shipping fees from this auction to the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund.  I will NOT be keeping any of the money from this auction.

For those of you who do not know, the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund provides scholarships to the children of our brave men and women serving our armed forces who have been killed or severly injured.  I can not think of a better cause to donate to and to raise funds for and it is my honor to do my small part inraising the much needed funds for this great cause.

Because of "red tape" issues, I can not mention that this auction is for charity on the Ebay page.  ProudConservative.com is not in any way officially affiliated with the Freedom Alliance.  It just happens to be my favorite charity.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:  Andrew Wilkow of Sirius Satellite Radio for obtaining this autographed book while Jerome Corsi was in his studio, specifically so that I could auction it off.   

CLICK HERE TO BE BROUGHT TO THE EBAY AUCTION PAGE

I am kicking off a month's worth of fund raising for the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund today.  I have a few ways to raise much needed money to support the scholarship fund this month.  

First, from now until midnight September 30th, 2008, I will be donating $2.00 from every shirt or hat purchased from ProudConservative.com to the Freedom Alliance Scholarship Fund.  That's $2.00 for every shirt or hat, not from every order.  If you order 4 shirts, I will donate $8.00.  Why not load up on your conservative shirts now!

Second, I have at least 3 autographed items to auction off this month.  As with my past auctions, ALL of the money from the winning bid, minus only the Ebay, Paypal and shipping fees, will be donated to the scholarship fund.  I will NOT be keeping any of the money.  Each item will be on the auction block for 1 week.  The first item will go up shortly after noon on Monday September 1st.  I am not going to divulge what the items are until they are officially up for auction.  Sorry, you're going to have to wait and see.

Thanks in advance to all who participate, either by bidding on any of the items going up for auction, or by purchasing shirts and hats this month.  This month can be a great success with your help.  PLEASE, spread the word about this month's fund raising activities.  Send your friends and family members to ProudConservative.com so they can participate as well.  If you have a blog, please mention it on your blog.  If you have a MySpace or Facebook page, let all your friends there know about it.

The fund raising has officially begun on the shirt and hat sales.  Check back shortly after noon E.S.T. to see what the first item up for auction is!

I am absolutely thrilled with his pick.  I recently wrote an editorial saying that McCain must pick a conservative V.P. because talk is cheap.  In that article I stated, "There are several candidates the conservative base will be happy with.  There are even a few choices we’d be thrilled with."  Sarah Palin was one of the choices I had in mind when I said there were a few we'd be thrilled with.  Bobby Jindal was another.

There have been few harsher conservative critics of Sen. McCain than myself.  I have not made it a secret that I was not happy he won the nomination.  I have given my reasons over and over again.  The choice of Gov. Palin has given me some comfort though.  This does not mean all of a sudden that I think McCain is a conservative.  It doesn't mean I will not continue to fight him when he is wrong.  It doesn't take away all the horrendous bills he has supported and/or wrote.  What it does mean is that I can give him the benefit of the doubt now when he says he supports certain conservative issues.  It means maybe he has learned something and maybe he has truly changed his views on some issues.  It means he has taken his conservative rhetoric and changed it into conservative action.  This was the whole premise behind my editorial about McCain picking a conservative running mate.  There is no doubt that McCain has sounded more conservative on certain issues in recent months.  Up until now, it has only been words though.  I used President Ronald Reagan's words, "Trust but verify."  With this choice, he has verified to me that at the very minimum, he is now listening to conservatives and has quit trying to poke us in the eye.  I give credit where credit is do.

Gov. Palin will no doubt be attacked by the left.  It's already happening.  It's actually happening with such vitriol that I know she makes the liberals nervous.  They have already gone after her for agreeing to run for V.P. because she has a child at home with down's syndrome.  Gov. Palin was given the so called choice of aborting her baby because the down's syndrome was detected in the womb.  She is pro-life and chose not to kill her child.  If they want to go that route...which is more family friendly?  A woman who chooses to bring a child into the world and love it and care for it despite it's illness.  Or aborting the baby as most liberals would support?

They are saying she has no experience.  This is laughable.  Gov. Palin is the only candidate running who has any executive experience.  She is the candidate who has ever been a mayor.  She is the only candidate who has been a governor.  She is the only candidate who has had to deal with budgets as an executive.  This strategy is flawed because it only highlights the inexperience of Sen. Obama, who is not the V.P. but the presidential candidate.  If they want to go that route...in Obama's words, "That's a debate I'm willing to have."

They have said, "Well she was only mayor of a village of 9,000 people."  What they fail to realize is that small villages and towns make up the majority of this nation.  They are so elitist that they make fun of coming from a small town.  They laugh off her service as mayor simply because she was mayor of a small village.  If they want to go that route...it will only highlight their elitism.

There will be endless attacks on her.  They are coming so brace yourself.

During Gov. Palin's speech when she was announced as Sen. McCain's running mate, she listed a litany of her successes and positions on issues.  There was one quote that stood out to me though.  As many of you recall, the Congress approved a pork barrel spending project called "the bridge to nowhere." It was an unnecessary expenditure that was nothing but wasteful spending of $250 million of the citizen's money.  Gov. Palin turned down the money.  This was her quote from the speech:  "I told Congress, 'Thanks but no thanks' on that bridge to nowhere.  If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves."  Gov. Palin gets it.  She gets that the tax payer is not an ATM machine for every project the politicians want to waste money on.  She gets that states need to stop looking to the federal government for everything.  This is conservatism.

She is a lifetime member of the N.R.A.  She understands and respects the 2nd amendment.  This is conservatism.

She is pro-life.  She understands that killing innocent babies is not only wrong, but barbaric. This is conservatism.  

She understands that our nation has abundant energy supplies and that it can be harvested responsibly.  This is conservatism.

She understands that man made global warming is a fraud and that the people will try to use it to weaken this nation economically.  This is conservatism.

I could go on and on.  Gov. Sarah Palin is the real deal.  She is bright.  She is articulate.  She is beautiful....hey what's wrong with that?  She is conservative.  She is the change we have been waiting for.  She has energized the base and brought conservatives on board.

So if supporting the McCain/Palin ticket with, at the very minimum, my vote gets this woman anywhere near the White House, I can now do that.  As someone stated, maybe this will set up a Palin/Jindal ticket in 2012 or 2016.

Sarah Palin has a proven track record of supporting and promoting conservative causes.  She has a record of being fiscally responsible.  She has a record of being a reformer.  She is pro-life.  She is a lifetime member of the N.R.A.  She's a hockey mom!  (Hey...I'm a hockey dad so I like that.)  Did I mention she's gorgeous?

I have not been a big supporter of Sen. McCain.  I have written several editorials and blogs about his candidacy.  All the issues I've ever had with McCain, I still have.  That being said, Sen. McCain has proven that he is listening to conservatives.   For this, he is to be applauded.  For his pick of Gov. Palin, he is to be commended.

I have gotten several emails asking me what I thought of the pick.  Many of you know, I have been hoping that he would pick one of three people.  My top three choices for him, in no particular order were Sarah Palin, Mark Sanford, Bobby Jindal.  I am absolutely thrilled with this pick.

I wanted to keep this blog short.  I will be writing another editorial/blog on this issue.  It will sort of wrap up my thoughts based on this pick and based on previous editorials/blogs I have written regarding McCain.  Look for it soon.

Ya know.....(Sorry I had to say that.  How many times did Obama say that last night?).....I was expecting his speech to be full of reasons why America sucks.  I couldn't believe how right I was though.  He went on and on and on about why America sucks and the scary thing was you had 85,000 people cheering him on.  Is this how the Democrats actually see this great nation we live in?  This whole week, I've had to look around.  After listening to speaker after speaker on the Democrat stage tell me how bad we have it, I thought maybe we were living in Ethiopia.  I didn't realize that everyone in this nation was out of work.  I didn't realize that we were all about to lose our homes.  I didn't realize that we all had built up piles of credit card debt and there was no hope for the future.....UNLESS we elect Barack Obama.

Everyone talks about what a great speaker he is.  And I'll give him some credit, he usually can read a speech pretty well.  But I thought his speech fell flat last night.  He wasn't inspiring.  He wasn't full of hope.  He was full of anger.  I expected the liberal nonsense but I figured he would be able to deliver it in a way that at least was grandiose.  You want to know the truth?  I fell asleep before the end of the speech.  I woke up a few hours later and caught the replay.  Electrifying?  Hardly.

Obama, the agent of change, picked a running mate who has been in Washington D.C. longer than John McCain.  The agent of change gave a speech that I've heard many times over.  It was a speech that just about every Democrat Presidential candidate has given for the past 30 years.  It was full of new spending on programs that this country doesn't need and the Constitution doesn't authorize.  It was full of promises of tax cuts, which never materialize once the Democrat is in office.  It was full of the message....."Don't worry if you screw up your life.  The government is here to pick you back up."  What happened to picking yourself back up. 

I wanted to throw something at my T.V. when Obama was going on and on..."blah blah blah, tough luck.  You're on your own!"  Of course we are on our own!  That's the way it should be!  And the times when we do need assistance, we don't need to look to the government.  We look to family and friends and charitable organizations.  We help those in need through churches, through charitable organizations...all without government interference and involvement.  Yes, we are on our own as we should be.   That's the American spirit!  Do for ourselves and help those in need without the government getting involved.  Why is it that the Democrats don't seem to get that?

If you are for more government involvement in our lives, if you believe America is a downright mean country, if you believe that Obama is our only hope....two words for you..."GET HELP."

I did catch Bill Clinton's speech and Joe Biden's speech.  What can I say?  More of the same.  America has no friends because we are terrible.  Everyone except for evil CEOs and oil tycoons are starving and losing their homes.  The world is about to end because of carbon emissions.  On and on and on.  It's all Bush's fault.  BUT Barack Obama will save the country and the world.  Obama will restore our place in world and the light will come shining down and the birds will sing. 

Bill Clinton did try to do what Hillary did not which was to try to say a few nice things about Obama.  But he mainly wanted to talk about himself and his presidency.  He made mention of how Republicans claimed he was too young and inexperienced and how wrong they were.  He failed to mention all of his foreign policy blunders in the first 2 years.  He failed to mention that until the Republicans took over Congress in 1994, his administration was running deficits as far as the eye could see.

Joe Biden gave the Democrats the red meat they were craving.  He said John McCain was his friend and then proceeded to knock and insult him for nearly 1/2 the speech.  He also added in what a miserable place America was to live and how everyone was living in the gutter.  Again, Obama is the solution.  Reality calling Sen. Biden.....come in Sen. Biden.

What was scary to me was they were basically reading right out of the communist manifesto on how they will "solve" all of problems in this country and you had thousands upon thousands of Democrats cheering.  I don't know if these people are just ignorant of what our government has the authority to do or they simply don't care.  I don't know if they realize they are applauding socialism almost on the edge of communism. 

The other main event of the night was that Obama was officially nominated to be the Democrat presidential candidate.  The roll call vote was haulted in a show....and I do mean show.....of "unity" by none other than Hillary Clinton.  She moved that the convention suspend the rules, end the roll call vote and nominate Barack Obama by acclamation. 

Thankfully, there is only one more night of this nonsense.