Sarah Palin Attack Dog or Barracuda?

Image by bobster1985 via Flickr Another week, another political convention. This week kicks off the Republican National Convention that will see the nomination of John McCain for President and Sarah Palin for Vice-President, though the schedule is in flux with Hurricane Gustav that has landed in Louisiana.
McCain named Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his running mate on August 29th. She was more or less a surprise pick. She is not well known on the national scene, at least from a media perspective.

The first day of the convention was greatly abbreviated. The only real speakers were Laura Bush and Cindy McCain putting out a call for help for the areas affected by Gustav. They also made announcements of some projects that the Republicans will be undertaking to help victims of Gustav. This fit with the theme for the day: Service.

The theme for Tuesday was Reform. The main speakers of the evening were Laura Bush, George Bush, Fred Thompson, and Joe Lieberman. President Bush gave a very short speech about McCain and didn’t really say too much. Fred Thompson followed and defended the choice of Sarah Palin for vice-president and helped define McCain a bit more. He was followed by Joe Lieberman, who was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee 8 years ago. Lieberman went between praising McCain, defending Palin, and hitting out at Barack Obama. The keynote speech to be given by Rudy Guiliani was moved to Wednesday.

Wednesday the theme is Prosperity. Palin gave her acceptance speech tonight and America got their first real chance to know her. Palin filled the vice-presidential role of attack dog. And she did a good job of attacking Barack Obama and Joe Biden. McCain is going to have a tough time topping her speech. Also speaking were Mitt Romney, Meg Whitman, Mike Huckabee, and Kay Bailey Hutchinson. The speeches once again seem to focus on John McCain, but not on any policy stances for the candidates.

Thursday will be John McCain’s day. The theme for the final day of the convention is Peace. The day is supposed to showcase McCain’s idea of American goodwill and our pursuit of peace in the world. McCain tops off the evening with his acceptance speech. Then the campaign can begin with 60 days until Election Day.

The convention schedule will be very flexible and may change on any day in response to the events of Gustav. One of the places you can keep up with the ever changing world is 104inc.com.

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