Day 3 - the sun rose in the east and John McCain had a pretty good day.

Today's theme was "Reform", and all speakers stayed with the theme. This was also the heavy-hitters night, and if the venue was moved to Metropolitan Stadium (home of the Twins) you would have lost count of the balls flying over the wall.

The featured speakers were the also rans. Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani - each played to their constituencies, and to the television audience to bring them on board for Senator McCain, and that task seemed well accomplished. All 3 spoke from their experience - Mitt Romney of his time in business as well as governor, Mike Huckabee of his working-class roots and Rudy Giuliani of the toughness required to serve in elected office. It is highly recommended if you missed any of the speeches to get them in their entirety at gopconvention.com. They are all available at this time, and worth your time to see unedited. If you  don't have the time, clips are posted at cnn.com and foxnews.com . Each speaker built on the energy of the previous one so that the room was pretty much in a frenzy for the highlighter - Sarah Palin, nominee for VP.

If Palin's goal was to minimize the mud tossed at her, one would have to admit she succeeded. She proudly introduced her entire family and shared stories about them, and then proceeded to speak at length on John McCain, the call to service, and the challenges and choices  facing America. She put forth her story of middle-class roots and how rising energy costs and a stumbling economy have affected her family. She demonstrated the "common touch" of empathy and likability, and a good grasp of policy and what is important to the American voter in this election cycle. By any accounts she closed the deal with the crowd at the Excel Center, and had the crowd pumped up for the obligatory surprise visit by John McCain.

All speeches were slightly more specific than at the DNC convention, but not by much. That's what the debates will be for. All the major speakers tonight took swipes at the Obama / Biden ticket and landed solid hits. It's going to be interesting when the Dems take the gloves off. The crowd was energized by the end of the program. The wheels appear to be back on the Straight Talk Express - now it's up to John McCain to close the deal for himself at Thursday night's proceedings.

RLB