John McCain laid out his case to be President. He worked to re-brand the Republican image by telling the American people they can trust them again to lead on energy and the economy. He gave more details in his speech than Barack Obama did in his last week.

But whereas, Vice-President nominee Sarah Palin appealed to the base, McCain was talking to the broader electorate asking for one more chance at the helm.

I think it was rather ironic that the man so many Republicans despised because of things like McCain-Feingold . Ann Coulter said she would campaign for Hillary Clinton if McCain became the nominee. They went nuts over his illegal immigration reform plan. And they frequently called him a Rino (Republican in name only).

He manged to get through it all. He beat Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani.

And with the incumbent President’s approval rating at about 25 percent, that “Rino” may be the GOP’s only saving grace.

My, how times have changed.

Last night, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took the stage at the Republican National Convention to accept her nomination as John McCain’s running mate.

Here’s what we learned:

Palin talks pretty. Palin is pretty. And though she hasn’t spent her life in Washington, she rambles and fibs like she’s been there for years.

Palin got off to a strong start with lots of applause and few funny one-liners. She spent lots of time talking about her family, including her four-month-old special needs son, Trig, and her pregnant daughter, Bristol, whose boyfriend accompanied her to the arena.

After throwing a few ‘bows at Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Palin seemed to lose her mojo. You could tell they were trying to shore up her image on foreign affairs by dropping in the names of a few international problem children, and she spent a long time talking about energy, once again invoking the creepy “drill, baby, drill” cheers that had erupted earlier when former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani took the stage. (For the record, Giuliani and fellow failed presidential candidate Mitt Romney stole the night away from Palin with their hard-hitting, entertaining speeches. In my opinion, either would have been a better veep pick/attack dog than Palin.)

It was at this point that most of America probably started to nod off. Palin’s speech extended a good three-quarters of an hour, drifting past the start of the 11 o’clock news on the East Coast.

She’d have been better off keeping it short and resisting the temptation to augment her thin CV with romantic tales of fighting for ethics reform (she’s currently under investigation for canning her public safety commissioner for failing to get involved in an ugly family situation), taking on the good ol’ boys (who gave money to her mayoral campaign and worked in her gubernatorial administration) and standing up to special interests (as Mayor, she hired a lobbyist to go fetch her more earmarks in Washington and she was for the “Bridge to Nowhere” before she was against it).

Overall, it wasn’t a bad speech. There are no bad acceptance speeches. But I think they left Palin out in the sun a little too long for her debut performance. Just as they did springing the pregnant daughter story on the public without thinking it through, Team McCain seemed to want to cram every rebuttal to criticism of Palin’s selection into one long, drawn out speech.

As a Republican friend of mine texted me, “It felt like a book report…by the naughty librarian!”

In the end, I’m not sure it makes any difference. The bad ol’ liberal media are still going to dig through records and try to find out more about McCain’s Mystery Pick, and I have a feeling less-than-flattering things are going to continue to trickle out. Die-hard Republicans will praise the speech for its brilliant honesty; Dems like me will fact check it for accuracy.

Real people probably tuned in for the first 10 minutes and then flipped over to catch “The Daily Show” or the evening news.

My friends on the right are cheering the rather dull speech given last night at the Republican National Convention by U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Warsville). Lieberman used to be a Democrat, but he [hearts] the ongoing conflict in Iraq and John McCain’s support for it, so he decided to switch sides and root for Republicans this year.

That’s fine, but there ain’t no coming back.

That’s not to say that you can’t, as a partisan, disagree with things that happen on your side of the aisle. But saying that Jill Long Thompson’s campaign ads are terrible or that City-County Council Democrats have an image problem is not the same as endorsing Mitch Daniels or running as a Republican.

Lieberman made his bed; now he gets to lie in it. Maybe his decision to play on the GOP team will inspire some in the middle, but I’d argue the issue that he’s championing — George W. Bush’s endless war — isn’t a terribly popular one.

Whatever happens, he’s either going to be a Republican or stuck somewhere in the middle. I don’t think there are too many Democrats who’d accept him back with open arms after he cheated on them and bragged about it on national television.

The GOP may have finally started to turn a corner last night at the Republican National Convention.  Joe Lieberman’s appeal to independent voters may just be what the Republicans need to stay competitive.

Lieberman’s speech came on the heels of some badly needed good news.  Hurricane Gustav did not New Orleans,  oil is hovering back towards $100 a barrel and the Al Anbar province in Iraq, one of the most violent, is now back in control of the Iraqis.  And despite a media blitz (including the National Enquirer about to get into the act), Sarah Palin continues to energize social conservatives. 

Lieberman’s best line was that these are not “ordinary times and John McCain is not an ordinanry candidate.”  He acknowledged the mood of the country but still managed to make a strong selling point for McCain.

The big question now is how will Governor Palin play tonight?  I’ll be watching.