Convention

SAINT PAUL—On Monday night, Internet-guru turned right-wing messiah Andrew Breitbart arrived at the National Review party wearing jeans, a lime green, open-collar button-down and the beginning of a beard. For now, his wavy gray locks were tucked behind his ears.

Waiting in line for a beer, Mr. Breitbart said that at this point he was completely comfortable with his conservative transformation.

“The only thing that still bothers me is the dearth of artists in our party,” he said, looking around the room. He was the only one not wearing a blazer.

Two months ago, he began writing a column called “Big Hollywood” in the Conservative Beltway newspaper The Washington Times, which, among other things, addresses that dearth and more specifically the oppression of artists in entertainment industry whose views don’t conform to the “Hollywood left.  read more »

City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Bill Thompson is continuing his assault on Michael Bloomberg. At a press conference yesterday, Thompson presented a study on crowding in city schools and said the administration would get a failing grade on the issue.

As the former head of the Board of Education, it's an issue on which Thompson can speak with authority.

SAINT PAUL—Ray Vanyo, the general manager of a popular Italian eatery called Cossetta’s that sits right at the security perimeter entrance surrounding the Xcel Center here, wasn’t happy as he stood outside the shop Wednesday night.

Partly by virtue of being so near the place where tens of thousands of people entered the compound housing the Republican National Convention this week, he had been expecting as many as 700 people at a time to show up demanding Italian subs and pizzas and buying Italian delicacies at his adjacent store. To that effect he had erected a giant tent in the parking lot, in which he had created a lively-looking outdoor wine-garden complete with cigar and cigarettes on sale, checkered tablecloths, and piped Italian music.  read more »

Here’s former Governor George Pataki, fielding questions from reporters after speaking to the New York delegation at the Republican National Convention this week. He defended Sarah Palin’s preparedness to be vice president, citing the fact that as governor, she was in charge of her state’s national guard.

Later, I asked Pataki to name some decisions she’s made with respect to the national guard that demonstrates her preparedness (a question that's been posed to more than one person, so far without a clear answer). Pataki did not give me a specific example.

ST. PAUL—Here's Sean Hannity, Fox newscaster and conservative hero, signing autographs on the floor of the convention as though he'd just won the nomination.

"Where in Alabama, darlin? What's your name darlin? Destiny? Your destiny is in politics."

"Where you from? I'm from Santa Barbara. High five."

Guards told the crowd to "back up. Back up. Ma'am don't push."

He was interviewed by a woman from KGMB Channel 9 Hawaii.

"If I have one word for Sarah Palin, it is 'authentic.' I love Hawaii. I can't wait to get back. Aloha," he said.

"Sean, you are a great American," said one man.

"No, you are a great American," said Hannity.  read more »

Last night, Al D’Amato had something to say the New Jersey and Wisconsin delegations. So he stood up on a chair and started yelling.

Hours before John McCain gave his convention speech, some actual non-presidential news broke: Democratic City Councilman Oliver Koppell of the Bronx said he’ll introduce a bill to extend term limits.

Term limits was a major topic of conversation in the last couple of weeks, but so far no there's been no action.

I was on the floor of the Xcel Center when I heard about Koppell's bill, and asked Bronx Republican County Leader Jay Savino for his thoughts.

He called it a “slap in the face” for voters, because they twice approved the current law, which allows city lawmakers two terms, in referendums in the 1990s. He also said any lawmaker that supports extending the limit is "self-interested.”

When another delegate asked if Savino wanted to soften his remarks, since it's totally possible that Michael Bloomberg will support Koppell's bill, Savino waved off the suggestion and turned away.

Posting will be light today as the Observer team heads back to New York.

In the meantime, I've got some convention photos here, and videos here.

For fancier camera work, Irene Liu’s photos are here.

We'll still be doing our best to keep up with the post-convention news!

One more thing: anybody know who took the New York sign last night?

John McCain delivered a speech last night that sounded as if he did not belong to the party in power.

Joe Klein writes that the speech sounded "more the end of a career than the beginning of a presidency."

Michael Crowley called it "underwhelming."

The speech lacked specifics, Taegan Goddard writes.

The New York Times editorial board thinks McCain implicitly questioned Barack Obama’s patriotism with the slogan “country first.”

Obama told Bill O’Reilly the troop surge in Iraq worked “beyond our wildest dreams.”

Here's a visual representation of key words used at each convention. It's "change," "McCain" and "Bush" versus "taxes," "God," "business" and..."change."

The Obama campaign had nothing to say about Joe Bruno equating Obama with Eliot Spitzer.  read more »

Eight years ago, when he first sought the presidency, John McCain presented himself to the country much the way he is presenting himself now—as a battle-scarred American hero who had endured unspeakable physical and mental abuse for his country and who had emerged from it to pursue a life of courageous and principled public service.

Only back then, the Republican establishment, which just spent the last three nights in St. Paul feting him as living shrine to all that is righteous and noble about this country, didn't see him in such glowing terms. They called him a Democratic plant, challenged his heroism narrative, and rallied around—like their lives depended on it—a well-connected son of privilege who had shown exactly zero interest in serving his country in Vietnam, preferring the comparative light-lift of the Texas National Guard.  read more »