The week before the convention Governor Palin was picked as Vice President. Conservatives were excited and the media freaked. While I had heard of her (because of a blogger who advocated for her tirelessly), I really didn’t know much about her, but the pick seemed to make sense, and I was excited by the selection. She’d have to perform, but she fit the ticket for several reasons. She made the ticket historic and exciting. She appealed to the right, which was never really fully behind Senator McCain, and she had the potential to appeal to women and a variety of niche groups. The ticket seemed to be an, ‘I am what I am ticket,’ as neither candidate seemed interested in pretending to be something they were not. Her selection refocused the message of the ticket on reform, putting a more pointed spin on the theme of change.

She clearly brought a lot of excitement to the ticket and the convention. The first day of the convention was seriously scaled back due to hurricane Gustav. This basically bumped the President, which had its advantages politically, and left Mrs. Bush and Mrs. McCain to make short statements, which were well done and well received. Senator Lieberman had the prime time speech the second night, and there was a focus on pulling in groups like Hispanics, Independents, women, and others.

Then there was Thursday. The crowd was already charged up for the night of headliners. Michael Steele came out and made a speech that really engaged the audience, and revved up the room even more. Mayor Giuliani then made a strong speech that led into Governor Palin’s speech.

Governor Palin then blew the roof off the place. Everyone knew she had to perform and boy did she ever. Line after line she had every one in the arena jumping right out of their chairs. The media had spent the week slamming her, investigating her family, and exhibiting a level of unprofessionalism previously unmatched. When she ticked off a line about not caring about being accepted by the media elites, the crowd went crazy and started chanting, ‘NBC, NBC…’

I sat with a fellow blogger up in the nosebleed seats being both thrilled and stunned. I was just hoping she’d perform well, but had no expectation for her to deliver like that. It’s a speech I will remember to the day I die; it was that good.