Doesn't this have incredible backfiring potential? Eventually, you work the refs too much and they turn around and give you a technical. I'm just not getting it.

The media is already bowing down to them by airing all of the speeches. Last week during the Dem convention they were talking over all of the speeches.

I'd like to see the media finally stand up to the right wing hacks who pick on them all the time. The media folks should just stop booking Republicans, they should pull their people off the campaigns. Let them see what it is like without the "media elite."

Why didn't McCain pick Lingle? More experienced, just as out-of-nowhere, and maybe they could've stolen Hawaii. Oh, and she's Jewish too.

I think they may have more to worry about from the non-elite Boca Raton media than from the "elite" New York media.

But they really are working the refs for all it's worth, and it usually comes through for them. With Klein off the bus, however, maybe others will see through it more easily this time.

Sarah Palin is going to stand on stage and read a the words someone else wrote on a teleprompter, and expectations are now so low that if she doesn't drool, she'll be fine.

Of course, if she bothers to put in any facts, they'll be fact-checked and half of them will be false.

Hmmm. Low expectations. Makes stuff up. Decent presentation that exceeds expectations.

It's the Bush playbook.

They attack the "elite media" because (a) the media has been beating the pulp out of Palin and, whether you think it's justified or not, clearly the base isn't going to be quite as sanguine about the pummeling Palin's been getting . . . thus it would be foolish for them not to rag on the "elite media".

Plus, most conservatives see the mainstream media as having a liberal bias and ignoring "their issues" and being extra-special hard on Republicans and conservatives and Christians, so it's an easy target. Low hanging fruit. And if nobody took it, the crowd would be disappointed. Especially given Palin's reception in the MSM.

Lingle is spending a lot of time defending Palin. Smart? We'll see.

She's raggin' on Obama's and Biden's experience! Hah! Still going the experience route: that takes some major league balls. Maybe McCain should have gone with Lingle.

Some of these folks making their own signs should stop and think how certain phrases might come across when rendered in rough letters on fluttering signs . . . saw one that said "We Struck Oil With Sarah", and that's not what it looked like it said at first blush. The "st" of struck looked a lot like an 'f' . . .

Just an observation.

Oooh! Guiliani just said "left wing media"! Everyone take a shot.

The cameraman, around 9:03 PM CST: "I found an Asian woman in the crowd! Zoom in! Quick, cut the camera to her! We have diversity, people!"

News flash from Rudy: McCain was a POW!

Elite media and celebrities aren't Americans?

Rudy's attacking Obama. Apparently they decided Rudy would be the attack dog. I'm biased, but I think he's doing all right at it. He's also pimping himself a little bit, too, I think: "He's never had to lead people in crisis."

"The least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least 100 years!"

The Republicans aren't dropping the experience thing. They've got bigger balls than I thought. Good for them.

"Doesn't this have incredible backfiring potential? Eventually, you work the refs too much and they turn around and give you a technical. I'm just not getting it."

No because, see, that would just prove that the media is just a bunch of liberals and horribly biased against Republicans.

That's the great thing about the "liberal media" myth. It renders you invulnerable to criticism in the minds of those on your side; anything bad they say about you is just due to the fact that they're "biased."

I'm convinced they have a cameraman roving around whose job it is to find attractive women, and get them on the TV for a few seconds. To prove, I guess, that there are indeed more than a few smokin' hot conservative chicks in the Republican party.

Camera shot of Huckabee while Guiliani is speaking. Huckabee looks very displeased. Either someone just pissed in his rum and Coke, or he's unhappy with Giuliani.

BTW, a large portion of the RNC apparently wants to start drilling for oil in the middle of the convention.

"Islamic Terrorists!" Rudy's on fire. Some Repubicans are feeling sorry they didn't nominate Rudy. I'm betting. I'm kind of sorry we didn't, I always liked Rudy, his views on abortion not withstanding.

Could I be forgiven that I was watching a petroleum convention, not the RNC?

"Drill, baby, drill!"??

This whole thing is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Drill, baby drill?

I can't imagine that plays well with Americans. These soundbites are just so bizarre.

"Drill, baby, drill!"??

This whole thing is leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

It's an acquired taste. I love the "drill, baby, drill". I don't care much for the boos everytime Rudy mentions Obama, but this is a standout speech of the evening so far.

Rudy gives a great speech. His campaigning for McCain will help him.

The cameraman, around 9:03 PM CST: "I found an Asian woman in the crowd! Zoom in! Quick, cut the camera to her! We have diversity, people!"

That was Elaine Chao, you idiot.

Camerman: Look, I found a Mexican. There's a Mexican here! Get that on air!

Look, another woman with a baby. See, women can have babies and go to a political convention.

I gotta question some of the camera cut decisions they're making. Could the "look, it's a minority! look, another mother with a young baby!" thing be any more transparent?

"Experience! Experience!" Man, they are hammering on the experience thing. I feel a flash of brilliance in that. "Barack feels Sarah's hometown is not cosmopolitan enough . . . maybe they cling to religion there" . . . brilliant. Good stuff. Good attack dog stuff.

I haven't seen all the convention, but Rudy is the best thing I've seen so far. McCain can't possibly live up to this.

That was Elaine Chao, you idiot.

I stand by it. They seem desperate to show racial diversity. And women with children.

The shot started with a zoom out of Mitch McConnell, panning to his wife, Elaine Chao, the current Labor Secretary. Yup, a diversity shot I'm sure.

Stand by it-- that is exactly what I would expect.

he shot started with a zoom out of Mitch McConnell, panning to his wife, Elaine Chao

The shot I saw was not a pan-and-zoom. It was a direct cut. Maybe we're talking about different things . . . or maybe not, it was Elaine Chao, but I didn't see the pan and zoom.

Okay, so maybe they weren't desperate to show diversity. They just looked like they were desperate to show diversity.

Stand by it-- that is exactly what I would expect.

Why? Do you know me well enough to have expectations?

Palin/McCain 08!

I wonder if you have any comments on the culture war theory being advanced by Jay Rosen and Digby.

I'm trying to figure out if this blog has merged with Red State or NRO or Little Green Footballs or all three.

Kevin S. Willis has Nine (9) comments in this post. Doesn't he deserve his own blog (and his own audience, if he can get one)?

What's your problem, Kevin? Does whoever pays you for comments pay better for posting blather on progressive blogs than for having your own blog and your home-grown audience of whatever size you can attract? Maybe Pajamas Media might take you on.

The attack-the-media strategy will work as well as McCain polls. Commercial news media are now, desperately, all about numbers - eyes on pages and screens - and the candidate with the numbers will get the deference.

Even Fox may not be an exception. Read into the entrails of this:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/10/wolff200810

I thought it was Obama who was elite. Now it's the media? What's funny is that, as a student of language, I know that elite is a word not in normal conversational use. In fact, it's likely that less than 50% of the population could define it or identify a synonym. By saying it snearingly about people they dislike, the Rovians supply it with a meaning it simply doesn't have. "Elite" is a positive word. Who wouldn't want to have the best, select, top-notch? So they've taken this orphan of a word and given it a new meaning: "something that we don't like."

And what with this arugula stuff. I don't know anybody who even knew what it was before it was launched against Obama. Maybe it tastes good! Is it expensive or just foreign sounding? Another orphan word the Rovian-guided propagandists have simply appropriated and given a new meaning to: "accessory of someone we don't like." All very Orwellian, but after all 1984 is Rove's manual.

Both the 'attack the media' theme and the 'hit experience' move are entirely predictable.

Attacking the media has always worked in the past, and this convention is a 100% exercise in repeating past strategies, not trying anything new.

The difference is that quite a few media voices (from commentators in their own name to those who do the work) seem much more annoyed at the attacks and angry at their former buddy McCain than in the past. We'll have to see how that one plays.

As for 'experience', the one constant in the Rove playbook is attack exactly where you seem weak, not where you are strong. If the Palin choice made the previous 'experience' attack nonsensical, redouble the attack.

If John McCain has no 'executive experience', then double the attack on Obama and Biden for lacking executive experience.

But again, this year I do see a difference: all presidential campaigns have to cover gaps and contradictions, of course, but the self-contradicting point of the entire structure of the McCain campaign is so glaringly obvious that it's hard to believe some people won't see it.

"The corrupt Washington politicians, the Republican President and the (until recently) Republican dominated Congress, have ruined everything, and we need outsiders!" So elect a Republican Senator? (Remember, a recent poll I saw indicated that a large number of voters thought that the Republicans still controlled Congress.)