Obligatory Convention Blogging - Day 2

I flipped on Fox News Channel about 9:30 or so to see what was going on. I didn't take notes and I'm sure everybody else in the Universe will link to transcripts, so here are my general impressions of last night's Prime Time speakers:

Ahnold - Like Giuliani the night before, Der Governator was having the time of his life up on the podium. This is the kind of political figure that drives his opponents to drink: telegenic, at ease, humorous, a lot smarter than he pretends to be. And his speech, if lacking in any real substance, was politically untouchable: The Immigrant Dream. Mom and Apple Pie. Ameerica and Collyvornia. Republicans rock. What fun!

Barbara and Jenna - I can't think of a nice way to say this: they blew. Who the hell vetted this routine? Cosmo Kramer? When Jenna made that joke about Sex in the City, the Missus and I turned to each other aghast. At that moment, the FNC camera was dialed in on some elderly silver-haired matron in the crowd. You could almost see the blast wave mussing her coif as the joke went rocketing over her head, but she had a look on her face that suggested she knew enough to consider the whole thing in pretty bad taste. So did I. I think the Twins realized that they were in trouble early on - both looked like they wanted to make a run for it. Fortunately, I don't think their performance is really going to matter much in the overall scheme of things. The GOP should just take its mulligan and move on.

Laura - I was beginning to fade in and out while she spoke, so I can't offer too much commentary on what she said. From what I remember, it seemed about what anyone could reasonably expect: George is a great guy. That's just fine. She could have said anything short of announcing that she was having an affair with Rosie O'Donnell and I think it would have passed muster. The unspoken point of having Laura speak at all was simply to demonstrate that she wasn't a flaky whack-job like Theya-RAY-Suh.

Some other FNC-specific observations:

- I don't watch talking heads shows very much at all. But it seems that every time I catch a couple of minutes of Hannity & Colmes, Sean is handing Alan his head on a plate. Doesn't Combes ever get tired of this?

- Hannity interviewed McCain last night and McCain got ranting about 527's and campaign finance reform. So far as I could understand his argument, McCain seems to think that McCain-Feingold is good legislation because the Supreme Court upheld its constitutionality. Mmmmmm'kay. Hannity kept pressing McCain on why unlimited funding with full disclosure wouldn't be a better idea. McCain wouldn't bite except to say that some senators have testified that big money influences elections. Gasp! Stop the presses!

- Charlie Rangle was on as well. I have a strong suspicion that he was drunk. That's the most charitable explanation for the stream of blather flowing from his mouth.