Wow – last night’s speech was the best TV I’ve seen all year. To quote John McCain…

Don’t you think we made the right choice for the next vice president of the United States!

Yep – you did.  One reason that this allays some of my fears regarding McCain is that this gives us the first indication of the type of person he will choose to help him run his administration.  Had he chosen Lieberman, or another one of the names on his “short list,” there would have been little to assure conservatives that his administration would govern and nominate conservatively.

And, just for fun, some memorable moments from the Honorable (notice how few stories use that title?) Sarah Palin’s speech…

You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.

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

I might add that, in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they’re listening and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.  No, we tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor’s office that I didn’t believe our citizens should have to pay for.  That luxury jet was over-the-top.  I put it on eBay.  I love to drive myself to work.  And I thought we could muddle through without the governor’s personal chef, although I got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her.

Our opponents say again and again that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems, as if we didn’t know that already.  But the fact that drilling, though, won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.

We need American sources of resources.  We need American energy brought to you by American ingenuity and produced by American workers.

(After that applause break, I was waiting for her to come back and say “legal American workers” – but alas, it was not to be…)

(speaking of Obama)  But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the State Senate.  This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word “victory,” except when he’s talking about his own campaign.  But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot … when that happens, what exactly is our opponent’s plan?  What does he actually seek to accomplish after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet?

America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it.  Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit.  Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions.  Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.

Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election:  In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.  They are the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners or on self-designed presidential seals.

Harry Reid, the majority of the current do-nothing Senate, he not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee.  He said, quote, “I can’t stand John McCain.”  Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we’ve chosen the right man.

My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery.

For a season, a gifted speaker can inspire with his words.  But for a lifetime, John McCain has inspired with his deeds.

It’s going to be fun between now and November…