RNC2008: Day 2 - Live Blog

Opening: Star Spangled Banner and Presentation of Colors.

Short video tribute to deceased GOP leaders ending with a tribute to President Ford.

Congressman John Boehner rah-rah speech... he gets rave applause for mentioning his House colleagues who are challenging Nancy Pelosi over oil drilling in the House.

Official Delegate Picture:

Another video presentation,"Country First" this time narrated by Robert Duvall. Pictures of McCain get big applause.

I'm going to resume live blogging when the Bush's speak... and then Lieberman and Thompson.... too boring. ;)

Norm Coleman gets huge applause, and give a history lesson. St Paul is formerly known as Pig's Eye.... till renamed by a Catholic Priest.

(time goes by)

President Bush 41 and former First Lady Barbara Bush arrived to huge applause and chanting.

I'm sitting next to "Drew" from Hillsdale College during Espinoza's speech... "a lot of God talk here today... different than at the Dem convention. Where 'god' was actually there."

Rousing applause for the Bush 41 retrospective.

First Lady Laura Bush addresses the crowd. It's always amazing to me how much applause she gets from the GOP faithful.

Huge applause for President Bush's "angry left" line.

Red meat served up rare by Fred Thompson.

Speaking of the vice presidential nominee, what a breath of fresh air Governor Sarah Palin is. (cheers & applause)

She is from a small town, with small town values, but that's not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family. (cheers & applause)

Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit. Well, give me a tough Alaskan Governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state in the Union -- and won -- over the beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week.
(cheers & applause)

Let's be clear ... the selection of Governor Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. She is a courageous, successful, reformer, who is not afraid to take on the establishment. (cheers & applause)

Sound like anyone else we know?

She has run a municipality and she has run a state.

And I can say without fear of contradiction that she is the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose ...(cheers & applause) with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt. (laughter)

She and John McCain are not going to care how much the alligators get irritated when they get to Washington, they're going to drain that swamp.(cheers & applause)

What a great biopic speech on Senator McCain by Thompson.. it's a shame he couldn't seal the deal last spring.

... and now we are winning!

Chants of USA USA USA!

Sadly the applause for "no McCain earmarks" was scattered and subdued.... but Thompson did pause for it.

The respect he is given around the world is not because of a teleprompter speech designed to appeal to American critics abroad, (interrupted by rousing applause) but because of decades of clearly demonstrated character and statesmanship.

Thompson doesn't stop...

They tell you they are not going to tax your family.

No, they're just going to tax "businesses"! So unless you buy something from a "business", like groceries or clothes or gasoline ... or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small "business", don't worry ... it's not going to affect you.

They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the "other" side of the bucket! That's their idea of tax reform.

My friends, we need a leader who stands on principle.

We need a President, and Vice President, who will take the federal bureaucracy by the scruff of the neck and give it a good shaking.

And we need a President who doesn't think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade.

Awesome... awesome... biggest applause of the night.

Speech ended with chants of USA! USA! USA!

How is the next speaker, Joe Lieberman going to top that?

Was it only eight years ago that Senator Joe Lieberman was the Democrat's VP nominee? Here he is talking about Senator McCain?

"Because country matters more than party!"

"Michael Moore is a fat bastard"

I'll have to check the transcripts for that one.

Even Bill Clinton is getting applause here.... I didn't think Lieberman would be this good.

The real ticket for change this year is the McCain/Palin ticket

It's awesome that Joe Lieberman is taking his time with this speech giving a big Independent Democrat middle finger to those that made him an Independent Democrat. Better still, is that he's immune to their actions.

It's not every Republican convention that a Democrat takes the time to speak to Democrats... I bet the angry left is going bezerk.

Huge speech by Lieberman... I'm going to digest for a while on the drive back to the hotel.... should have something up by the AM.

RNC2008 Posted by AlexC at September 2, 2008 10:00 PM