And from sunny Denver we go to rainy St. Paul to see how the Republicans will be countering the Democratic Lovefest of last week...

John McCain must be thinking that God may actually be a Democrat - seems that every time he wants to make a dramatic and bold point, a hurricane gets in the way - from the first time he tried to promote drilling in the gulf, to trying to get the convention off on the right foot.

In a confusing gesture, McCain pretty much canceled the first day of the convention. This had the look of politics - as if to counter the perceived Bush response to Katrina - and appear engaged. As the day wore on it became apparent that rather than "appearing engaged" he actually was engaged. He chartered a plane to deliver any delegates who felt they were needed "back home" at his campaign's expense, and went down himself to be briefed by the concerned governor's as to recovery needs and emergency response. This could have been dismissed as a photo shoot opportunity, as all 5 governors were Republican, but for McCain's above-and-beyond the call of duty response. He coordinated with the governors a relief effort, and promoted it via the RNC convention using Laura Bush and his wife Cindy as spokespeople on opening night. The relief effort was to be privately funded through donations, in addition to federal disaster relief, and underscored the McCain theme of "serving a cause larger than your self-interest". Even if it was a political ploy, it was well played.

What makes it seem genuine was the continued promotion and appeal for funds on Day 2 - re-emphasizing that relief in this situation requires something beyond partisan politics. In what was billed to be a "business as usual" day at the convention, most of the speakers referred to the relief fund and reminded conventioneers and home viewers that they could assist in the effort.

The official theme of Day 2 was "Service" and the speakers were a steady stream of regular citizens, and long standing friends of McCain. Among the more moving speeches was a female firefighter who was working rescue on the day that the I-35 bridge collapsed, and a tribute to Navy Seal Michael Mansoor, a native of Long Beach, CA and recipient of the Medal of Honor, who gave his life in Ramadi to save his comrades. Honors and recognition were also given to 5 Medal of Honor recipients attending the convention, 24 Viet Nam Veterans who shared accommodations at the Hanoi Hilton with McCain, and finally all veterans present.

The highlighters were Laura Bush (who remains consistently liked and admired) introducing her Husband (who seems to have difficulty in that area), for a live feed from the White House address from President Bush advocating for John McCain. The heavy guns rolled out to close off the evening with Former Senator Fred Thompson both endorsing John McCain and landing some substantial hits on Senator Obama. Finally, Senator Joseph Lieberman came out to endorse John McCain and appealed directly to Democrats and Independents to join him in voting for McCain. The Lieberman speech can be viewed at gopconvention.com or in edited form at cnn.com. The Thompson speech will also be available at both. One slight disadvantage to the Republican Convention over the Democratic one is that they are slower to have postings available on their website - we are told that they are improving that capability.

If tonight's mission succeeded at anything, it fired up the conservative base. The feeling is that they still aren't 100% sold on McCain, but at least now, they are keeping a collective open mind. We'll see how the week works out.

RLB