Scene from Xcel Energy Center last night
-Feel the excitement!-
The numbers are in and the TV ratings for last night's Republican National Convention were...
*DRUMROLL*
...lousy.
According to Nielsen, the "three broadcast networks combined racked up a viewership of less than 11 million viewers, compared with the 14.8 million viewers who watched the networks’ coverage on the comparable night of the GOP gathering in 2004. That's also down from the 12.48 million who watched Senator Hillary Clinton’s call for unity among Democrats last week at that party's convention in Denver."
Among the problems, Hurricane Gustav's interruption of the first day and Joe Lieberman. No seriously, Joe sucked.
The report tells us that Joementum's speech "was not expected to be a stem-winder -- and it lived up to expectations." I was watching it last night and I had to switch over to The Daily Show before he finished -- I was falling asleep on the couch. Hell, I got bored reading it this morning.
If you could bottle a Lieberman speech and sell it to insomniacs, you'd make a bundle. (TVWeek)
-Headline of the day-
"McCain had criticized earmarks from Palin."
Seems GI Johnny had a little problem with Caribou Barbie at one point. Maybe "at one point" isn't all that accurate, it was actually three points. According to the report, "Three times in recent years, the Arizona senator's lists of 'objectionable' pork spending have included earmarks requested by his new running mate."
Yikes! Now that's all mavericky and stuff. She even opposes the stuff she used to argue for. In an op-ed earlier this year, Sarah Palin wrote, "The federal budget, in its various manifestations, is incredibly important to us, and congressional earmarks are one aspect of this relationship."
Earning McCain's wrath were half a million dollars for a public transportation project in gubernatorial hometown Wasilla, $1 million for an emergency communications center that local police said was "redundant and creates confusion," and $450,000 for an agricultural processing facility. All while Sarah was mayor.
According to the report, "Wasilla had received few if any earmarks before Palin became mayor. She actively sought federal funds -- a campaign that began to pay off only after she hired a lobbyist with close ties to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who long controlled federal spending as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He made funneling money to Alaska his hallmark."
It's looking more and more like McCain just drew a random name out of a hat. (LA Times)
-Feel the excitement! (pt. II)-
Wonkette reports that there were a lot of empty seats at the RNC last night (with photographic proof). I guess Republicans really like their elbow room -- they've sure got a lot of it.
Writes Jim Newell, "If we had shown up at 8 p.m. local time looking for a seat at the Democratic convention, there would have been no seats or oxygen remaining anywhere for three hours already. It would have been an insult to God to show up at 8 p.m.! Denver was so awful like that, the people and the what not."
"It's not what you think," explains RNC spokesperson B.S. Loadmore. "Joe Lieberman was here, so we reserved empty seats for Elijah, the prophet. And there's this stomach flu going around. And an ice cream truck went by. And someone said Toby Keith was in the lobby..." (Wonkette)
