Thompson Feeds the Base the Red Meat

Finally, the concern over Hurricane Gustav has passed, and now the convention can actually go back to being a convention. The schedules have all been jockeyed and speakers that were supposed to present on Monday night have been shifted to other slots throughout the week.

The sacred hour for both conventions is 10pm-11pm EST. There was a time where the networks would cover the conventions for more than just one hour a night, but with the explosion of other media outlets like FOXNEWS and CNN covering the conventions, and even C-SPAN providing unfiltered coverage gavel to gavel, there is no need for the major networks to hand over more than that one hour of prime time.

The conventions then save their major star power for that one hour. Tonight's speakers were Fred Thompson and Joe Lieberman, in that order.

Thompson came out with the speech that the convention hall had been waiting two days to hear. He came out with red meat under both arms for the delegations to feast on and that's exactly what they did. He spoke about Governor Sarah Palin, taxes, life among other subjects.

The commentary on the taxation of businesses was probably the most cleverly articulated lines I have yet heard. To paraphrase, taxes on businesses won't hurt you as long as you don't buy anything from a business, sell anything to a business, are employed by a business or employ others through your own business. If you don't fit into any of these categories, taxes on businesses do not affect you.

The crowd ate this up.

Without mentioning Barack Obama once, he clearly outlined the strengths of John McCain and in doing so effectively contrasted the two.

It was a different Fred Thompson than the one I saw last summer, when he hemmed and hawed his way from being the presidential front runner and perceived savior of the party to dropping out of the race after a early primary defeats in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. His aimless fall doomed his campaign, but tonight he was resolute.

His speech also gave the prime-time audience a real understanding of John McCain. He gave viewers at home a biography of a man who really has life experience. I have to admit, while I am familiar with a good number of the anecdotes relating to McCain, I hadn't heard until tonight some of the most impressive ones. I knew he had resisted the beatings of the Viet Cong but for five and half years. This takes an amazing amount of will.

When Thompson declared, "It's pretty clear there are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, 'Who is this man?' and 'Can we trust this man with the Presidency?,'" it was clear exactly how the McCain campaign would continue this them throughout the convention and into the fall.

Lieberman finished with a call for independents and Democrats to think beyond party and consider which course is better for the country. He said that after asking himself this very question, it was clear his allegiance was to John McCain. The arrangement of the two speeches seems to have gotten some flack. The stronger presentation from Thompson would have been the better to close the evening.

I disagree. You can't have a partisan speech like that come after a request by Lieberman to cross party lines.

Before the two prime-time speeches, there were a series of people from different times in the lives of both John and Cindy McCain. They each told the delegations how the pair and dramatically impacted their lives, from former POW's who served with McCain, to a father and his daughter from Bangladesh, whom he adopted through Cindy McCain.

These testimonies added an overall depth to the evening.