I have to admit I was skeptical before the night starting.  The stakes for Sarah Palin’s speech were so high yet someone thought it was a good idea to put her speech after three of the best speakers the GOP has – Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani.  I wasn’t sure there was anyway this could go right.  Thankfully, I was wrong.

The evening started off on a very Arizona note.  John Shillington and Ruby Brown, personal friends of the McCains, sang “America, the Beautiful.”  They did an amazing rendition that brought tears to the eyes of many at the Excel Energy Center and to me.

Meg Whitman was the first speaker of the night.  If you spend a lot of time on the internet, you may know Whitman as the former CEO and founder of eBay.  She is national co-chair of the McCain campaign.  She spoke to the economy.  She spoke of the anxiety and hardships that the economy is causing.  She reiterated time and again that the ticket has the answer to these problems.  She talked about what a McCain administration will do in its first 100 days. 

A McCain administration will start the US on a path toward energy independence.  In my mind, this start should have taken place over 30 years ago.  If it had, as I have said many times, we would be in much better shape economically and as far as national security is concerned at this juncture in our history.  Whitman pointblank called energy independence “the moonshot of our generation.”  She also said that a McCain administration will lower taxes within its first 100 days.  In McCain’s plan are proposals to double the child tax exemption, incentives so all Americans can purchase health insurance and plans to simplify the tax code. 

She ended by sayin a McCain administration would be guided by simple beliefs.  The belief that if you work hard, you want to keep, and should, keep more of your hard earn money and the belief that the federal government cannot spend more than it takes in would guide McCain.

Whitman was followed by another female, business powerhouse – Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard.  She is chairman of RNC Victory 2008.  She stressed many times that she knows John McCain.  She started with a statement, and I admit I was not prepared for a quote worthy comment right off the bat and cannot find text of her remarks, that John McCain has the courage and resolve to do the tough things and the character and “fill in the blank as I didn’t get it down” to do the right things.  The speech started off, prior to this remark, with a series of a questions that were suppose to point to how American will look after John McCain’s first term ends in 2013.  I don’t know that the format benefitted Fiorina.

When Carly Fiorina started with specifics, she acknowledged that today Americans are concerned.  Will their government stand by their sides or get in their way?  A McCain administration will simplify the tax code and lower the tax burden.  There was a discussion of working towards energy independence – a term I don’t recall hearing at the DNC at all. 

A McCain administration will demand the federal government be transparent and accountable to the people.  McCain will require a top to bottom review of all governmental agencies.  The results will be posted on the internet for all to see.

A McCain administration will balance the budget by 2013.  John McCain has the courage of his convictions and the wisdom to act on them.

Another jab at the 24 hour cable news networks as they did not play on television former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland Michael Steele’s remarks.  I did catch most of them on PBS.  He layed out the campaign’s theme of “country first” and then started a rousing exchange with the convention attendees of “do you want to put your country first?” followed by a “yes” response from the crowd and then a point in the McCain domestic policy.

Then, the big guns started to come out.  Mitt Romney was the first of the former GOP potential candidates to speak.  He has over 25 years in private business experience and was governor of Massachusetts for one term.  I have to agree with the majority of media pundits that it was odd to hear Romney talk about Eastern elites who see the sun rising in Washington.  His next scenario – the sun about to rise and shine from Arizona and Alaska – was more believable coming from him.  His discussion of Washington being too liberal and having been that way since the 90’s was pushing it.  I believe that he had some valid points but it is hard to see Washington as having been liberal during the Bush administration.  He closed with two quoteable points.  Now is the time for the party of big ideas, not big brother which did go back to many of his points.  The American people have always been the source of this country’s strength and always will be.

Mike Huckabee was up next.  Huckabee also tried, unsuccessfully, to get the GOP nomination for president.  He was the governor of Arkansas from 1996-2007.  He started off with some humorous remarks about how this was not the speech he really wanted to be making at the convention.  He was hoping the speech would be the Thursday night acceptance speech.  He thanked the “elite media” for unifying the GOP.  He had some good “slams” on the media prior to a small tribute to the historic nature of Barack Obama’s candidacy.  He is probably one of the few Republicans that could pull this off as he grew up in a segregated South and could point out that this is what makes our country great.  He even agreed with Obama’s acknowledgement that the campaign is not about him.  It is about you, the voters and the American people.

Huckabee paraphrased Abraham Lincoln in saying government that can do everything for you – as the Democrats want – is also the goverment that can take everything from us.

Huckabee concluded his speech with the story of a teacher in Little Rock.  The teacher, with her school’s principal’s permission, had all the desks removed from her classroom on the first day of class.  She told her students, period after period, that when they could tell her how they could earn a desk, she would give it to them.  Students replied with standard teenage answers – get good grades, behave in class.  Parents called and complained.  When the final period class came in, the teacher stood in front of them and told them she would give them the answer as she knew none of them would get it.  She opened the door to her classroom and in came veterans of all ages, sex and race carrying the desks.  She went on to say that the students did not need to earn their desks as these people had already done so for them.  She said that things we take for granted and think are free or expected were earned for us by those who went before us and served our country.  The story impacted all in the hall, especially when Huckabee concluded with he was where he is as people like John McCain had earned his desk for him.

Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City, was up next and Huckabee was a hard act to follow.  He started with the observation – made by many on both sides of the political spectrum – that this election represents a turning point.  Will we choose substance over style?  This is no time for on the job training.  This election is not about change versus more of the same.  It is about good change versus bad change.  Hope is not a strategy.

Giuliani said that a McCain administration will lower taxes.  A McCain administration will reduce government.  A McCain administration will expand free trade.  A McCain adminstration will move us towards energy independence. 

Giuliani dug into Obama a lot.  He dug on Israel.  He dug on flip flops – which we hadn’t really heard much about except from Bill Richardson at the DNS.  He rambled in my mind and lost me totally towards the end.  Giuliani, while not as unbelieveable in some of his statements as Romney, should have stuck to a speech that went about half the time he actually spoke.

Because the warm-ups took so much longer than intended, Sarah Palin took the stage following Giuliani, not a music act by John Rich, Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy.  This is probably a good thing but she stood on her own so even following greatness would have been okay.

I was slightly annoyed that a speech writer could start Palin’s speech with an acceptance of a nomination that the convention has not yet made.  While it made crystal clear that she is on the same footing at Joe Biden, it was not a good remark as the nominating of the GOP VP will occur today.  She took care of some business – showing one reason McCain chose her.  She discussed McCain and her admiration for him and his points of view. 

Palin introduced her family.  While family, especially children, should be off limits for pot shots from anyone, they do deserve to be recognized.  While one in the family is serving the country, as it is with the military, the entire family sacrifices.  She explained that while they may look like the typical family from the outside, looks can be deceiving.   They are not a typical family.  They have a special needs child.  She made sure that parents, advocates, guardians of special needs children know they will have an advocate in the White House when she is elected.

Palin told of her rise in politics.  She made, well publicized in advance, the comparison of a small town mayor to a community organizer – except mayors have actual responsibilities.  Palin took a swipe at the media.  She said she is not going to Washington to seek the media’s approval.  She is going to serve this great country.

When Palin started talking about energy, she showed how it has helped the economy in her state.  She admitted that drilling offshore will not solve every energy problem the US has.  There is no reason to do nothing at all.

Palin spoke frequently of our “opponent,” while not naming Barack Obama.  This move is a savvy speech move – no reason to give your opponent free time in your spotlight.  Her opponent has authored two memoirs but not a major – and my guess is major is in the eye of the beholder – piece of reform legistlation even in the state senate.  One of her quotes of the night came when Palin said, “Some candidates use change to promote their careers while others, like John McCain, use their careers to promate change.”  She also indicated that the American presidency – not the vice presidency – is not suppose to be a personal journey of discovery.

All in all, Palin did hit a home run with her speech.  She was confident, ad libbed a bit with her quip regarding hockey moms and pit bull which is sure to become a standard joke now.  She presented accomplishments from her administrations – as both mayor of Wasilla, Alaska and governor of Alaska.  I am not sure she presented enough of the record but she has quieted a lot of fears that seemed to come from the announcement of her nomination.