Bizarre Speech Gets Low Marks

President reminds us of his gifts and plans

(NEWSER) - So what did last night teach us about our president? Mark Halperin runs down the list in his Time blog The Page:

• He's optimistic and realistic, and unafraid to be both at the same time.
• He's unafraid to use his wife as a political asset.
• He likes Joe Biden, really, despite his garrulousness—and the VP is happy to play sidekick.
• He understands that confidence is the key to his presidency.

(NEWSER) - John McCain’s acceptance speech was remarkable, honorable, and sometimes moving, but also sounded like a valedictory, “more the end of a career than the beginning of a presidency,” writes Joe Klein of Time. McCain was short on new ideas—the policy section "was a half-hearted and unadventurous slog through the world of policy." But who but McCain would so comprehensively admit his party’s failures? More»

Commentators weigh in on how Sarah Palin did

(NEWSER) - How’d Sarah Palin do in her convention debut? Commentators agree that she showed impressive speaking skills, but part ways on whether she was convincing as a potential VP.

• The speech was “great” but “vicious,” Dahlia Lithwick writes at Slate. Palin, uses what Lithwick calls a risky tactic: “If your opponent is larger than life, strive to be smaller than life.”

Crowd wild for 'sharpshooter' governor

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin "lit up the Republican National Convention last night,” writes Nancy Gibbs in Time. "The hall that felt like a tomb on Monday might as well have seen the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan, so ecstatic was the crowd." As the Alaskan governor spoke amid dancing, chanting delegates, “it was clear a new star had been born, one who could go places John McCain may not even know exist and say things he could never confess.” More»

Pundits disagree on how former McCain rival performed

(NEWSER) - Pundits from across the political spectrum were moved by Fred Thompson’s tribute to John McCain’s heroic military service. They differ, though, on how well Thompson sold McCain as the next president:

• Thompson couldn’t have done better, Peter Wehner at the National Review writes: “Fred Thompson did his close friend and former colleague proud. He made the case for John McCain as well as it can be made.”