Republican Convention Quick Hits

The quicker, the better.

• Sarah Palin's address went off just fine, as I think most people expected. She's had some experience before audiences (if not one this big), and don't forget that once upon a time she was a TV personality (if only in a small market). Although she was introducing the family to start with, she later got much more into attack mode than I expected. I could easily be misreading, but it seemed to me that she was mostly preaching to the choir. Her pick was a sop to the base, and the speech was more of the same. I'm not sure she's making any converts. I did wonder, though, what the writers cut out for being too masculine.

• Is McCain's insistence that Palin's family is off limits to the media just an attempt to keep them from seeming to be overexposed when Republican campaign uses them as props?

• Obama makes another of his patented un-Democratic moves on Thursday by appearing on O'Reilly. It will draw attention from McCain's acceptance speech. Like the Saddleback appearance, I believe this strengthens Obama's support among independents because, even if he doesn't hit a home run in an unfriendly (if not necessarily outright hostile) environment, at least he appears willing to make the effort of reaching out beyond his party. Does he win anybody on the other side? On that point, I'm not so sure.

• I've been thinking further about Orrin Hatch's statement last night that women are "mesmerized" by Palin. This must be the first time (at least in modern history) that a mainstream political party has tried to use mass hypnosis as an election strategy. In the future, I have no doubt that textbooks will refer to McCain's pick of Palin to be his VP as "The Kreskin Gambit."