Morning Coffee at Xcel

Morning coffee in the square just outside the Excel Center. MSNBC was broadcasting there and I watched John Harwood, CNBC's chief political correspondent being interviewed on air. I actually watch CNBC quite a bit but not Olbermann's crew. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) was fit in for MSNBC's little bit of balance. Past security, on the way in to file this first post, I nearly tripped over a bundle of Roll Call newspapers outside the booth of a Japanese newspaper. Harwood happened to be passing by and steadied me so I didn't fall flat. So I've had my first brush with celebrity of the day:) (I did see the NY Times' David Brooks yesterday in Radio Row and went over to shake his hand, then turn to the man next to him, not wanting to be rude you see, and said you look familiar. He laughed and said he was Alex Castellanos. (GOP media guru, CNN commentator)

It was a late night, an early morning. Sarah Palin took the place by storm last night with humor and some tough love for America. She connected with conventioneers, and her down to earth, common sense judgment in tackling problems as Alaska's governor will wear well with Americans. Palin defined herself as someone who has worked hard and worked her way up, successful at every level, and achieving as much in two years as governor as many have yet to achieve in a full term. Gov. Palin ousted unethical players of both parties, cut spending, rebated fuel taxes, and achieved bipartisan approval of a project that had languished for 30 years--"the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history", "a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence". In one of her best lines of the night, Gov. Palin directly addressed Barack Obama:

I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better.

When I ran for city council, I didn't need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too.

Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.

Unlike Barack Obama who has no executive experience other than running his own campaign, Sarah Palin is a decisive and confident executive, and it showed in her speech last night. Before sitting down to write this I went down to the floor, delegate-free. I saw them put the podium in place for tonight, in the closest they could get to a town-meeting friendly format. The McCain straight talk express poised for prime time tonight, with key swing states Michigan, Missouri and Ohio right up front. (And Oregon in play?)

--crossposted at BlogHer