Last night was a better night for the Republicans than tonight.

Let's see if I can criticize McCain's constant invocation of his POW experience without driving an angry mob to chant "USA! USA!" outside my window: Might we agree that by having every single surrogate tell the tale of McCain's imprisonment, torture and resistance in hushed, dramatic tones, he has allowed the story to be robbed of some of its power?

I wish I could offer more specific observations, but I'm going to have to read the text in the morning. I will confess that I fell dead asleep twice and probably missed about 10 minutes. It wasn't entirely my fault.

Anyway, it's over. He'll get his bounce. And on we go.

John Carroll, one of the sharpest media observers I know, has signed on as a commentator with WBUR Radio (90.9 FM). Here's the press release from WBUR:
"Beat the Press" panelist John Carroll will beat a familiar path back to WBUR in the role of senior media analyst starting next week, announced Sam Fleming, managing director of News & Programming at Boston's NPR news station.

Carroll, a regular WBUR commentator for more than 10 years prior to moving to WGBH-TV's "Greater Boston" in the mid '90s, will analyze electoral and print media during the presidential race, and following the election, he will dissect issues related to advertising, politics and culture.

"Our listeners have longed missed John's wry observations about media and advertising, particularly commercial messages peddled by candidates of all persuasions in the midst of elections," said Fleming. "We look forward to his return."

In addition to serving as a regular panelist on WGBH-TV's popular Friday night program "Beat the Press," Carroll was the executive producer of WGBH-TV's "Greater Boston" for five years. An assistant professor of Mass Communication at Boston University, Carroll has won numerous national and regional journalism awards, including the RTNDA's Edward R. Murrow award for writing, the National Press Club's Arthur Rowse award for press criticism, and multiple New England Emmys for commentary and news writing.

Over the past 20 years, the Xavier University alum has also written extensively on advertising and the media as a regular columnist for The Boston Globe and Adweek magazine. He also spent nearly two decades as a creative director and consultant in the advertising industry.I've got a lot of respect for John, and I wish him well in his new venture.

O'Reilly let Obama get in a few words, but he didn't get carried away. After all, if Obama had been allowed to speak a complete sentence, it might look like O'Reilly was losing control of the show.

I'll be on "Beat the Press" tomorrow (WGBH-TV, Channel 2, 7 p.m.). Among the topics we'll be discussing is Sarah Palin and the media.

Also tomorrow, I'll be wrapping up media commentary on John McCain's big speech for the Guardian.

For several days now, I've been thinking about the notion that Sarah Palin is just as experienced as Barack Obama — or, for that matter, more experienced, since she's got executive experience and he doesn't. I find it ludicrous, so it took me a while to wrap my arms around it.

Though "experience" and "qualifications" are being treated in this campaign as though they are the same thing, they are not. Experience is one of the things you look at — an important thing — in deciding whether someone is qualified. But there are other factors, too.

Let's stipulate that Obama is less experienced than would be ideal, though I would argue that his years in the legislature of a large industrial state is vastly more relevant than Palin's time running a tiny town, followed by her cup of coffee as governor. Despite Obama's lack of experience at the national level, few people in public life today have done more serious reading, thinking and speaking about the wide array of national and international issues that will face the next president.

Thus the question with Obama is whether his deep knowledge of the issues, much of it theoretical and academic, will hold up once he gets slapped in the face by reality. It's a legitimate concern. Ideally Obama would have run in 2012 or 2016. But politics is never ideal, and he took the risk — a smart risk, in my view — that it was better to run before he was as experienced as he ought to be than become just one of the Washington crowd.

Obama's qualifications are his experience, his knowledge and his judgment. Voters have been probing those three elements for many months now and have gotten to know quite a lot about him.

Then there is Palin, who was thrust upon the nation less than a week ago. Most of Palin's experience is virtually identical to chairing the board of selectmen in a small New England town. Sorry, but Obama's years as a community organizer and as a state legislator, and his short time in the U.S. Senate, are vastly more relevant than Palin's years as mayor and her brief stint as the governor of state with the population of Boston — a state awash in so much oil money that the only question is how to spend it.

So what about the rest of her qualifications? Her knowledge and her judgment? That's what we're all trying to find out now. I've made it clear that I think she comes up short on both fronts. There is no evidence that she's ever given more than superficial thought to any national or international issue other than energy, and I'm not sure how her ideas differ from Obama's except that she wants to drill, drill, drill. And why not? She thinks the views of the vast majority of the world's atmospheric scientists — that humans are contributing to global warming — are mere opinions with which she is free to agree or disagree. And she disagrees.

Jon Keller, in his commentary on WBZ Radio (AM 1030) this morning, argued that experience is overrated, and that both Palin and Obama have enough. I don't quite agree, but I agree with him that that's not how voters will ultimately make up their minds.

People will vote for the Obama-Biden team or the McCain-Palin team on the basis of issues, values and party identification. In the end, experience is just something to talk about.

Budget-slashing at newspapers continues, both locally and nationally.

At the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 36 positions are being cut and zoned local editions are being eliminated, according to the Daily Worcesteria, which adds: "This is the journalistic equivalent of bunkering in at the last, strongest point and abandoning the outposts."

Ironically, the Daily Worcesteria is part of Worcester Magazine, which is shedding positions following an ownership change, reports the, uh, Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

The T&G, as you probably know, is owned by the New York Times Co., whose New England Newspaper Group (the T&G, the Boston Globe and Boston.com) suffered a 24.5 percent loss in advertising revenue in July as compared to the same month in 2007.

Things are at least as grim on the North Shore and in the Merrimack Valley, as CNHI, the corporate owner of the Eagle-Tribune papers, announced this week that it is eliminating 52 jobs, writes Boston Herald media reporter Jessica Heslam. The chain comprises the Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, the Daily News of Newburyport, the Salem News and the Gloucester Daily Times.

And it's no better elsewhere. Alan Mutter, who writes the Newsosaur blog, tells us today that newspaper revenues are down $3 billion over the first six months of 2008, bringing revenues to their lowest level in a dozen years.

Even online revenues are slipping, Mutter says, which shows that what's happening now has as much to do with the economic recession as it does with the stampede from print to the Web.

Warning: Hankie Alert

A very touching story in today’s Boston Globe. I couldn’t help but be reminded what a central role the game of baseball played in my childhood, and in my relationship with my father.

A die hard Red Sox fan from Utah promised his sons that he would take them to Fenway Park to see a game this summer. The father, James W. Taylor, Jr. was killed in a helicopter accident in Arizona in June. He worked as an emergency room nurse, served as a first lieutenant in the US Army Reserves and worked part time on Life Flight. He was on a Life Flight, working to save a life, when the accident happened.

The Taylor family was struggling financially, but they wanted to let the boys live out this dream of seeing their team at Fenway Park. James sister posted a message on a Red Sox fan site asking if anyone could help her make this dream a reality.

Well, Red Sox Nation, the players and some local businesses stepped up big time.

“I’m writing in hopes that there will be someone, somewhere that will read this story. Somehow, someway our family will find a way to get my brother’s boys to a Red Sox game. With all the expenses of the funeral we may need help . . .”

And Red Sox Nation took it from there.

“I was suspicious at first,” said Tom Nardozzi, a Red Sox fan from New Hampshire who quarterbacked the drive. “I asked her what she needed and she said, ‘Damn near everything.’ ”

More than $2,000 in donations from as far away as New Zealand and Denmark were collected by Cyn Donnelly, a longtime Red Sox blogger. JetBlue donated eight round-trip tickets from Salt Lake City to Boston. Fight promoter Al Valenti took the family to Regina’s in the North End but when he tried to pick up the check, the restaurant told him there would be no check.

Nardozzi bought the Taylor family eight box seats just up from the Red Sox’ on-deck circle. But he didn’t want to talk about his act of kindness.

“Whaddya mean why am I doing this? It just seemed the right thing to do. A 10-year-old boy loses his dad. The common connection is Red Sox baseball. I love the Boston Red Sox. Why not?”

Do yourself a favor and read the full story, and don’t miss the photo gallery either.

Charley has a smart post about Palin's effective speech and skills as a candidate. Democrats underestimate her at their peril. But there's a huge difference between a good attack-dog candidate and competent president during wartime. As Joan puts it:Palin can give the speech of her life at the Republican National Convention. It won't beef up her resume and it's amusing to watch top-tier Republicans like Rudy Giuliani insist otherwise. BTW -- Besides recently thinking of H.L. Mencken, I should note I've also been thinking about Rome, as in, "Hmmmm. So this is how empires crumble from within." ... It's not just Palin, though she really does come across as the heart's desire of the plain folk. It's the entire country. The country seems whacked out these days. It's almost depressing. I should find a way to enjoy it more. ...

Update -- Reader No. 1 reacts to the post immediately below:'C' sounds frustrated. I am fascinated by the delicious Hive-like echo chamber of voices shouting about who really wrote the speech. Of course, there has been great admiration for the Candidate as Memoirist...

My favorite (of many) lines from last night: "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. "

Do you really think any of this year's candidates for President and VP are "downright morons?" Our household thought last night was a remarkable demonstration of poise and toughness. What did you think?This was my response:I thought the speech was fine. ... But the jury's still out on whether she's a downright moron like Jane Swift. Sorry we disagree. But I'm not jumping on this bandwagon. None of us know how she'll do as a vice president -- or president. Not you. Not me. No one. Experience doesn't count for everything (see George Will column). I just would have preferred having a chance to better assess her qualifications via a longer track record. It's one of the reasons I'm hesitant about Obama, BTW, not to mention hesitant about his tired liberal track record. I'm very disappointed in McCain. ...

An old Hub Blog friend, C, not to be confused with the Globe's G, writes in:
Since most of my friends are conservatives (or at least vote that way for wealth protection), I have decided to pay closer attention to the heroes of the Right. I particularly enjoyed watching Sarah Palin (the new darling of the “Hypocrite-i-can” party) read the attack speech that was written for her last night by Bush’s speech writer.

Speaking of last night, there were some classic moments at the RNC:

1. Cindy McCain waving around the Downs Syndrome baby we are not supposed to talk about (seated next to the model American family).
2. Mitt Romney’s speech about how the liberals have been in control of Washington since Reagan. Somehow he overlooked the Supreme Court, the last eight years of the Bush presidency, and the last 6 of 8 years of the Republican congress.
3. Rudy Gulianni bashing the same elite press corp that elevated him from a philandering unpopular Mayor to the former front runner for the Presidency.
4. The former minister Mike Huckabee’s outrageous claim that Palin got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, than Joe Biden got running for president (Biden had about 80,000 votes and Wasilla has a population of about 9,000).

It reminded me of the Karl Rove days. I heard nothing about what they will do in office but just what you should be afraid of. I guess it is better not to hear promises they have no intention of fulfilling (just like Bush claiming to be a non-partisan and against “nation building”). I am betting on McCain in Vegas today. McCain will get the Independents due to the fear of the inexperienced, raise your taxes, liberal bogeyman and Palin has locked up the stupid vote once again.I'd say it's a smart bet. Can get good odds while the Palin storm still rages. ...

Did you catch Joe Biden making the rounds on the morning shows today? He obviously jumped out of bed this morning and said, “I have to start lowering expectations for the VP debate NOW!.” He looked like someone stole his puppy.

These quotes from his CNN live shot are representatibve of his morning,

“Boy she’s going to be a tough debater, she’s going to be a skillful debater.”

Here are a couple of exchanges,

Biden: “What I’m going to try to do, and I may not be able to get to because she’s so good, but I’m gonna try to point out where we want to take the country and how they don’t have a single answer to dig us out of the hole we’ve been dug into the last eight years.”

“If it comes down who can deliver the toughest lines, she’s going to win the debate, but I’m not going there.”

John Roberts: “I can see that you are already playing the game of raising expectations for her.”

Biden: Hey look, you watched her last night she was good, she was really good.”

Roberts: I’m looking forward to that debate on October 2nd

Biden: I’m not sure I am now after seeing her.

Is Biden afraid of Pailin? No, of course not. Yes, he was being gracious, to an extent. It showed me that he is unsure of how to effectively go after her.

Considering the circus-like atmosphere of the Republican convention, I couldn't help but think of H.L. Mencken. Here's Mencken on the nature of national elections:... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. Peggy Noonan alluded to the same thing by noting what a "fabulous freak of a campaign" we've had this year. Michael Savage, who I rarely agree with, was hilariously fuming last night about the "hacks" and "garbage" both parties were serving up, calling both Democrats and Republicans "political cross-dressers" over the Palin-pregnancy flap. Good stuff. ... Speaking of Peggy Noonan, she appears to have expressed her true feelings about Palin when she thought the mike was off. I'll accept her explanation that her "it's over" remark wasn't a reference to the Palin pick's impact on the McCain campaign. But this Noonan line about Palin is rather straight-forward: "The most qualified? No! I think they went for this -- excuse me-- political bullshit about narratives." ... She confirms my contention, expressed below, that many Republicans, deep down, know they're trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse on the Palin pick. ... Modern Republican Hack Playbook Rule No. 2: Blame the media for Republican blunders. What's Rule No. 1? Defend Republican blunders at all costs. ... Speaking of Noonan again, Reader No. 1 writes in about my post immediately below:
... I think your choices of the Will and Noonan columns were superb. Here's my take on the real breakthrough insights in Noonan's article (BF emphasis added):

"And when you forget you're a Bubblehead you get in trouble, you misjudge things. For one thing, you assume evangelical Christians will be appalled and left agitated by the circumstances of Mrs. Palin's daughter. But modern American evangelicals are among the last people who'd judge her harshly. It is the left that is about to go crazy with Puritan judgments; it is the right that is about to show what mellow looks like. Religious conservatives know something's wrong with us, that man's a mess. They are not left dazed by the latest applications of this fact. "This just in – there's a lot of sinning going on out there" is not a headline they'd understand to be news." Actually, I've argued in recent years that the hard-core left and right are just mirror images of each other. Looks like they've switched mirrors on this issue. But they're still mirror images. ...

According to the Washington Post, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sent e-mails from her private Yahoo account to ask the state public-safety commissioner, Walter Monegan, why her brother-in-law was still working. Monegan, whom Palin fired, showed the e-mails to the Post, but wouldn't provide copies.

Is it legal under whatever open-access law is in effect in Alaska for the governor to use her private e-mail account while conducting official business? An e-mail from the governor to the public-safety commission could be obtained under a freedom-of-information request in many states. How about Alaska?

I've sent an e-mail to the AP's Larry Campbell, who's listed as the contact for the Alaska FOI Coalition. I'll let you know what I find out.

One of the key roles in hockey is the enforcer, the skater who keeps his or her blades sharp, stick high and plays the aggressor looking to drop their gloves and mix it up with the other team''s star.

Sarah Palin lived up to her self-styled hockey mom roots last night in a speech that was long on chutzpah and short on substance.

The Killa from Wasilla was in classic vice presidential attack mode, lambasting Barack Obama on his substance and experience. It would have been more effective if she had some of her own.

The speech no doubt energized the troops in St. Paul and we will need to see what it does for the viewing audience. (I wasn't one of them. Like Dick Cheney and the draft, I had better things to do -- like sleep).

The speech frames the McCain-Palin campaign's theme -- attack Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the media and sidestep the mess that eight years of GOP White House ownership. As the Washington Post's Dan Balz summarized it:
Palin knew her targets and went after them one by one. It was an us-vs.-them attack, designed to attach Obama and the Democrats to the cultural elite and to tie herself and McCain to the values of the hardworking, God-fearing, patriotic middle of America. But while her speech seemed aimed at energizing the Republicans' conservative base, Palin also sought to introduce herself as a fellow reformer with a maverick's spirit to match the message that McCain hopes to send from here on Thursday night and through the rest of the general-election campaign.We know the party faithful soaked it all in:

David Stokes, 69, wore a newly popular button with a picture of Palin that said, "The hottest VP from the coolest state."

"I have been hoping beyond hope she would be in this position," said Stokes, an Alabama delegate. "She is the best thing going. She is profamily, prolife."

His wife, Martha, added: "Alaska is a state very, very close to Russia. That gives her foreign policy experience."

Forget Biden's years as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. His state only neighbors on New Jersey.

Steve Schmidt, the McCain campaign manager who cut his teeth as a Karl Rove minion, has clearly outlined the GOP strategy: mockery and faux outrage. All of that is on display at the GOP convention: blame the media for focusing on the Palin family and trot them out to play a starring role. Claim Obama is an elitist dilettante with no judgment and experience and then mock him with a surrogate who has even less of those attributes.

And the ultimate contrast: Palin will swing freely and wildly, but woe unto any man who dares swing back. It's just those sexist Democrats again. No recall about the type of campaign they were planning against Hillary Clinton. Remember McCain's response to a questioner during the primary?

Schmidt found the perfect embodiment of that tactic in the high-sticking hockey mom.
Whether a country tired of all words and no results is happy with the decision and having her a heartbeat away from the Oval Office is the question we will debate for the next two months.More blogs about Politics.
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She was great. Confident, poised, solid. Some absolutely great zingers against Obama and Biden. Some deft clicker work showed great reviews on CBS from Jeff Greenfield, from CNN’s AC360, David Gergen and Amy Holmes, MSNBC’s Ann Curry and less surprisingly, the Fox News crew.

That said. As we’ve learned throughout this election, giving a good speech is easy. The real test for Sarah Palin has yet to begin. The interviews and most importantly, the debate, are the real tests. Anyone who doubts she is up to the job is fooling themselves. Is it any wonder why the left is so apoplectic?

Here’s the speech.

She projected strength but not authority. She made a reasonably good case for herself, but grossly exaggerated her reformist credentials on the "Bridge to Nowhere." She was charming and well-spoken. Given that no one knows who she is, I suppose she had to go on about her family longer than most politicians would.

Surely Palin had a more difficult task than Joe Biden, who delivered a "B" speech last week. Biden's been around forever, so no single speech was going to make or break him. Palin, too, turned in a "B" performance, or maybe a "B-plus," under much more challenging circumstances.

I think Palin established herself as potentially an effective surrogate for John McCain, but she's got a ways to go before she establishes herself as a credible potential vice president. Is she now going to do the Sunday shows? Hold a press conference? Given the McCain campaign's blame-the-media strategy, maybe they've decided to skip all that.

The speech of the week so far, by the way, was Rudy Giuliani's.

Yes, I’m loving every second of it. Just freaking awesome.

The former Arkansas governor reminds us that he is a masterful political performer. The desk bit went on too long, though.

Good grief. That was awful. Something about liberals and pornography and terrorists, all served up in comic-book caricatures. I know I thought McCain should pick Mitt as his running mate, but I confess I'd forgotten what a terrible speaker he can be. Tonight we were all reminded of why nobody voted for him.

Josh Marshall puts forth a provocative argument that I half-agree with: that it's the McCain campaign, not the media, that has wallowed in Bristol Palin's pregnancy, while the media have been drilling down on the investigation into Sarah Palin's firing of the state-police commissioner, her hypocrisy over the "Bridge to Nowhere," her and her husband's ties to the wacky Alaskan Independence Party and the like.

I think Marshall is on to something, but it's not as clear-cut as he makes it sound. I have seen a lot of coverage, nearly all of it stupid and irrelevant, about Bristol Palin, her pregnancy and her self-described "redneck" boyfriend. It's not all coming from the McCain camp. But the campaign is clearly exploiting it.

Josh Marshall puts forth a provocative argument that I half-agree with: that it's the McCain campaign, not the media, that has wallowed in Bristol Palin's pregnancy, while the media have been drilling down on the investigation into Sarah Palin's firing of the state-police commissioner, her hypocrisy over the "Bridge to Nowhere," her and her husband's ties to the wacky Alaskan Independence Party and the like.

I think Marshall is on to something, but it's not as clear-cut as he makes it sound. I have seen a lot of coverage, nearly all of it stupid and irrelevant, about Bristol Palin, her pregnancy and her self-described "redneck" boyfriend. It's not all coming from the McCain camp. But the campaign is clearly exploiting it.