I hadn't seen any of the RNC before last night...it defied belief. Speaker after speaker got on to trash the Democratic ticket, claiming they'd "raise taxes" or "increase government" and completely ignoring the budget shenanigans the GOP has fostered for the past eight years. Next, Guiliani and Palin both attacked Obama for leaving college to become a community organizer (did they want him to leave Harvard Law School and immediately start racking in money at a big firm?!?) because that wasn't "real work". First the Republicans attack the government, and now they're attacking community organizers. Who's next? Traffic guards?

The oddest moment of the night came in Guiliani's speech, when he claimed that Obama's success story could happen "only in America" and the audience began to laugh. Maybe I just don't get it. Why would that be funny? Do they think America has too much opportunity?

Palin came across as a dyed-in-the-wool GOP knife fighter, eager to lie (Obama's tax plan actually cuts taxes for 85% of middle income Americans by over a grand....way more than the McCain plan, which costs $40 trillion but mostly deals with corporate taxes) and obfuscate (she actually fought for the bridge to nowhere....but now baldly claims she was against it!) to get elected. Ugh. Hopefully the media will call her out on her distortions (a few did last night.)

The contrast between the two conventions couldn't be starker: Obama's final speech, in which he said that we should never question the patriotism of those in the other party stands in clear opposition to every speech given last night, where GOP member after GOP member slammed the Democrats for being weak on economics or national security. It's like we're in bizarro-land, where President Gore has presided for the past eight years.

Sigh.