Now that the dust has settled and all the reviews have come in, it is clear that Sarah Palin had a stellar performance during last night's convention coverage.  Most all political analysts across the board agree that, not only did she do exactly what she needed to do during her presentation, but she did it with an exact precision that would be impossible improve upon. Further adding to the impact of the Palin speech and the ramifications it is sure to have on the dynamics of this presidential campaign, the Nielson ratings have now come in from last night and 37.2 Million viewers across America were introduced to the Republican vice-presidential nominee while giving one of the most highly praised political performances in recent memory.

During FoxNews' analysis of her speech, with a laugh, Chris Wallace had to remind longtime Democratic Party operative and current FoxNews contributor, Howard Wolfson, that the reason he is getting paid by FoxNews is to offer criticism and disagreement directed towards the opposing Republican Party, their candidates, and elected officials.  Wolfson said, “Well, I think Senator Biden’s got to bring his 'A Game' when he comes to this debate. She gave a heck of a speech and what I was particularly impressed with was her ability to stick the knife into Barack Obama with a smile, do it effectively. She was very, very good.”

Of course, over at MSNBC, Keith Olbermann did not appear to shed any tears brought on by her speech, as appeared to occur last week in Denver following Obama's words at Mile High Stadium.  But, that wasn't really to be expected anyway.  There was actually a point though during MSNBC's coverage though, that I was seriously expecting some more sparks to fly between Olbermann and Chris Matthews.  There was a point during the speech deconstruction where Matthews in heaping a surprisingly amount of praise for Palin stated that her presentation had an aura of a "Norma Rae" type of empowerment to it, whereafter Matthews quiped that, perhaps, it was a combination of Norma Rae and "Tracy Flick", as portrayed by Reece Witherspoon in the movie, "Election".  Anyone familiar with that film is aware just how much of a snarky comment that was.  With Matthews and Olberman just a few days removed from some serious on-air friction, I really thought for a second there Matthews was going to mix it up again with his on-air partner, with such a quick, sarcastic retort to the highly analytical and vast amount of praise he had just  devoted to Sarah Palin. 

So, despite such a commanding and poised performance to which she is being credited, it still doesn't look like some in the media are prepared to give up on the pettiness and cheap shots.  And that may just play into the Republican ticket's favor.  It's not really certain how much that "us versus the media" factor can play into the success of a presidential campaign.  It didn't end up working for George H.W. Bush in 1992, but some say it was affective for Richard Nixon in 1968.  It's unclear this early how the media's handling of Governor Palin is going to end up playing out in the longrun. 

Though, we do have an early indication from Rasmussen that seems to indicate that the American voter is not taking the actions of the media in a positive manner, at all.

Over half of U.S. voters (51%) think reporters are trying to hurt Sarah
Palin with their news coverage, and 24% say those stories make them
more likely to vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in November.

Thirty-nine percent (39%) also believe the GOP vice presidential nominee has better experience to be president of the United States than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Wow.  51% of American voters not only think that our major news media is being unfair to Sarah Palin; they actually believe that they are essentially trying to hurt Sarah Palin.  That seems to be a pretty clear indication that the perception is pretty strong about what we already know about the liberal press.  

As occurred last night, it was to the advantage of McCain-Palin to go into last night from the position of underdog.  It surely seemed to draw the crowds to watch what was to be said in reaction to the events of the last week.  If the media doesn't get their acts together and start acting like legitimate journalists, those numbers tuning in could equally relate to the numbers that take to the polls in November by way of a backlash to their clearly unfair actions we've seen to date.

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Update: From StopTheACLU we have a bit of number crunching of the Nielson ratings that have been reported from last night.

* The Sara Palin speech generated 37.2 million viewers, just a 1.1
million viewers short of Barak Obama’s record-breaking speech on Day 4
of the Democratic Convention. The Palin speech was carried on only six
networks while the Obama speech was carried on ten (including BET, TV
One, Univision and Telemundo).

* Palin attracted a large female audience (19.5 million women, or 4.9 million more than Day 3 of the Democratic Convention).

* Ratings for viewers 55+ (25.2) continue to be about ten times higher than for teens (2.2)

* Day 3 for the GOP attracted more Hispanic viewers (1.4 million)
than Day 3 of the Democratic Convention (1.2 million), even though
Univision and Telemundo did not carry the speech.

 Very interesting stuff, indeed.

Day one is here, and the first thing on the agenda is Gustav watch.  As a result of the storm's arrival, the first day's convention schedule was cut short and will run from 2:30 to 5:30...which means no primetime coverage tonight.  Not sure what's planned to try and take up the slack from a message standpoint, but we'll see.  We're assuming there will be a video message from Bush, given that he was supposed to speak tonight.

In the meatime, still get great reaction to the Palin pick for VP.  Haven't run into anyone, whether RNC members, delegates or just conservative leaders in general that have any problem with it.  Quite the opposite in fact.  They're pretty much ecstatic and think it's a homerun, and I tend to agree.

She checks so many of the boxes that we need - and McCain especially needed - in a running mate.  And the demographic angle gives the Dems fits.  She's sort of like a Swiss Army knife of candidates - she's got a little bit of everything. 

The other important thing about this pick is that it gives social conservatives a high level of confidence now in what type of judges McCain would appoint to the judiciary.  Picking the wrong person here would have undermined any faith in his promises to appoint judges like Alito and Roberts.  And given that the next President will likely be able to appoint one to three members of the high court, that issue is what will move conservatives to work on behalf of the ticket more so that anything else this fall.

It's like a political version of "Survivor".  All we've been hearing is who's been "voted off the island", so to speak.  Pawlenty tells a reporter it's not him.  Fox reports that Romney's nowhere near Ohio and not going there.  So the former top two picks are out.

But now we hear that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin flew from Alaska overnight with two of her boys.  Could it be Palin?  Sure.  She's a solid, pro-life, pro-family conservative.  Picking her avoids ticking off Romney people by picking Huckabee...avoids ticking off Huckabee people by picking Romney, etc...  But she is a first term governor.  But then again, she IS a governor.  And would be the only person on the ticket with chief executive experience.

And then there's the obvious.  She's a "she".  Which is aimed straight at the women out there who really wanted to see a woman on somebody's ticket...and are put out with Obama for not taking Billary.  Which means Barry will spend the next few days being asked if he regrets not putting her on the ticket now.

And it would have the virtue of countering Obama's "first" (as in first black nominee), with the potential of the first female vice-president.

It would also be fun to watch Joe Biden try and attack a woman in a debate.

Personally, I still would have gone with Mitt.  I think he brings more to the economic debate because of his experience.  But Palin would be a solid (and strategic) choice.

More to come.

UPDATE:

Palin gave a great speech I thought.  Really made a good impression (which is crucial right now, since she has such a low national profile).  And did a good job showing herself to be a real conservative and a real reformer.

This does put the Dems in a bit of a box now.  How do you attack her?  Surely not for inexperience, as it just highlights Obama's own inexperience.

I'm up in Minneapolis for the Republican National Committee meetings this week, leading up to next week's convention and will be blogging daily while I'm up here.  I've also set up a Twitter feed (sign up here) so I can pass things along between trips to the hotel room...and a Flickr feed to pass along some interesting photos.  Those will be available up at the top of the homepage for the next two weeks, so check back often for updates.

For the next few days I'll be working with fellow RNC members to try and reform our primary schedule for the 2012 primaries and beyond.  The general consensus is that, with so many states continuing to rush to the front of the calendar in each cycle, we're moving towards what will soon be tantamount to a national primary - which pretty much everyone agrees is an awful idea.  (I've written more on that previously here and here).  The problem is getting enough states to agree on the solution.

The Rules Committee meets today, so more on that later.

In the meantime, we're having a great time watching the entertainment from Denver...and waiting to see if Bubba continues to stick it to Obama tonight.

Stay tuned.

(Don't forget, you can sign up for the daily email summary feed from Feedburner, if you'd rather have these updates sent to your inbox)

We've had over 1,500 people participate in the GOP "Veepstakes Survey" so far and there's only 3 days left to have your say.  We'll be totaling up the results and announcing them this coming Monday morning.

So, if you haven't yet, take the survey and let us know your opinion.  Who do YOU think McCain should pick as his running mate?  Who shouldn't he pick?  What issues are most important to you? 

Click here to participate!

Latest comments and numbers from the trail... 

Karl Rove sees the key battleground coming down to 4 states:

Other states will see serious competition, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Hampshire, Missouri and Wisconsin. But Colorado, Virginia, Michigan and Ohio are likely to be the center of the action. To win, Mr. Obama needs to pick up 18 electoral votes more than John Kerry received, meaning Mr. Obama must carry Colorado or Virginia and add another small state to his column. If Mr. McCain carries Michigan as well as Ohio, it would make Mr. Obama's Electoral College math very difficult. And if Mr. McCain can limit GOP losses to one or two small states from those won by the GOP in 2004, he'll be America's 44th president.

The latest polls:

Rasmussen puts it this way:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows Barack Obama attracting 43% of the vote while John McCain earns 42%. When "leaners" are included, it’s Obama 47% and McCain 46%

The race for the White House remains remarkably stable. With leaners, Obama’s support has stayed between 46% and 48% every day for the past two weeks. During that same time frame, McCain has been at 46% or 47% every day.

Even the favorable numbers are neck-and-neck at 55% for McCain and 54% for Obama.

From Gallup:

Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Aug. 10-12 gives Barack Obama a six percentage point lead over John McCain in the race for president, 48% to 42% among national registered voters. 

From Pew:

With less than two weeks to go before the start of the presidential nominating conventions, Barack Obama's lead over John McCain has disappeared. Pew's latest survey finds 46% of registered voters saying they favor or lean to the putative Democratic candidate, while 43% back his likely Republican rival. In late June, Obama held a comfortable 48%-to-40% margin over McCain, which narrowed in mid-July to 47% to 42%.

Pew also notes that McCain's gains have come from consolidating GOP support...while the Dems - meaning former Hillary supporters - haven't closed ranks quite as much for him.  (No wonder he doesn't want that roll-call in Denver).

Keep in mind that Rasmussen polls "likely" voters...Gallup and Pew, just "registered" voters.

Meanwhile, it appears that the drilling issue continues to cut well for Republicans and is gaining traction.

Veepstakes:

McCain doesn't "rule out" Ridge:

Republican John McCain says he has not ruled out choosing Pennsylvania's popular former Gov. Tom Ridge as a running mate despite his support for abortion rights, a hot-button issue that could inflame some voters among the party's conservative base. 

Malkin sees a trial balloon.  Urges conservatives to visit McCain's blog and shoot it down.  Ditto.  Just when the polls show the base coming around, the last thing you need to do is punch them in the gut.  Yes, yes, we know we have pro-choicers in the party that we need to "work with", etc..., but that doesn't mean you put them in key leadership positions...much less potentially make them Vice-President and give them a leg up on future leadership of the party.

The Michigan GOP'ers want Romney.

John McCain came to Michigan on Wednesday to raise money. But some Michigan Republicans had another agenda: lobbying for native son and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as McCain's running mate.

U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, for example, once a Romney-for-president supporter who faces a tough re-election battle in the fall, said he was going to recommend Romney to McCain. He is among Republicans who believe Romney would not only help put McCain over the top in Michigan — a key state this fall — but also could boost Republican candidates down the ticket.

Romney "could really help things here and (in) four or five other states in the Midwest," Knollenberg said at a McCain fundraiser in West Bloomfield.

They're right, (IMHO).  For all the talk about how Romney's Mormonism might hurt McCain with evangelicals, I don't buy it.  Those folks (myself included) are more apt to focus on the social issue positions of the candidates when it's all said and done.  Further, I don't think you can point to a single state where Romney might "cost" McCain enough votes to lose...whereas you can more easily point to a few he might help make competitive.

Meanwhile, the Dems have picked former VA Governor and Senate candidate Mark Warner for their keynote address...which some think diminishes the chances that the Veep will be current VA governor Kaine.  Fine by me.

And the speculation continues over whether or not Powell will endorse Barry O.  (That's loyalty for you)

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More: Sister Toldjah - The Fix - Polipundit - Hot Air - Outside the Beltway - WaPo

Just one week left to take our GOP "Veepstakes" survey and particpate in the summer's most popular guessing game.

Who do YOU think McCain should pick as his running mate?  Who shouldn't he pick?  What issues are most important to you? 

Click here to participate!

UPDATE: click here to follow the campaign to support the House Republicans and the "don't go" movement on twitter, (#dontgo). 

Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know that energy policy has become a big issue lately.  And you don't need to look any further than the gas pump to know that it has a huge impact on our economy.

Well, now the Republicans have finally gotten their act together and taken the bull by the horns, so to speak, and are promoting an "all of the above" strategy to solve our energy problems.  It's called the American Energy Act, (H.R. 6566).

In short, it really does seek to do "all of the above" when it comes to addressing our energy needs.  Meaning, all of the proposed solutions that have been offered - more drilling, more refineries, more nuclear, more wind, more solar, more hydrogen research, more conservation, more tax incentives, etc...

It's one of those "about time" ideas, and it deserves our support. 

Unfortunately, Nancy Pelosi and the Dems have decided it's more important to go on vacation right now than deal with this issue.  So now's our chance to let them know how we feel.  We've set up a petition and a fax campaign on this issue here. 

So be sure to show your support for the American Energy Act - and tell Congress to get back to work!

We've got a new survey up.  This time it's on the latest, most popular guessing game - who will John McCain choose as his running mate. 

Click here to participate!

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Other sites talking Veep: The Fix - The WaPo - more Fix - Polipundit - Powerline

This really gets on my nerves:

If anyone could lay claim totheir state's Republican Party, it's Deborah Burstion-Donbraye of Cleveland. The 53-year-old international business consultant is the former outreach director for the Ohio Republican Party, for starters. She helped deliver the swing state to President Bush in his 2004 re-election bid in which he garnered 16 percent of the black vote. ...

During the 2008 primary season, Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye cast her conservative lot with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. She staunchly opposes abortion.

"But there's been an 'Obama' sign on my lawn since Super Tuesday," she readily admits about her unusual support for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama. ...

Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye can be counted among the growing number of high-profile black Republicans, including Gen. Colin L.Powell, commentator Armstrong Williams and former congressman J.C. Watts, who say they might not vote for the Republican candidate this fall.

These black Republicans are struggling with the historic significance of the Obama candidacy. Their conflict is just one example of the ways in which race will affect the outcome of the general election between Mr. Obama and Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

I'm sorry, but if your conservatism is truly that shallow and easily abandoned based on skin color, then everyone has a right to question what you really truly believed to begin with...or what your motivations were for professing those beliefs.

They deserve any derision they receive.