The "second" night of the Republican national Convention was even better than the first, with four great speeches closing out the night. Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and Rudy Guliani fired up the crowd and when Sarah Palin took the stage, the audience thundered in applause. All four speakers did a good job of skewering H. and Biden, but Palin also had the job of introducing herself to the country, and she did a magnificent job.

Particularly amusing throughout the evening were the chants of "Zero" while holding up the Obama closed fingered circle.

Some standout lines from Palin's speech:

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening."

"Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems - as if we all didn't know that already. But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. "

"...there is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate."

"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

"Among politicians, there is the idealism of high-flown speechmaking, in which crowds are stirringly summoned to support great things. And then there is the idealism of those leaders, like John McCain, who actually do great things."

"Harry Reid, the Majority Leader of the current do-nothing Senate, not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee. He said, quote, "I can't stand John McCain." Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we've chosen the right man."

Speaking of liberals, a quick breeze of Daily Kos shows them pouting and basically ignoring the content of the speech. Instead they're gloating over how the Democratic Convention got higher ratings than the Republican Convention, at least through Tuesday night. Well, people do tend to prefer bubble gum over actual politics.

Huffington Post looks like a scandal rag, and if it looks like a duck... well, you know the rest. They are trying to do everything they can to discredit the choice of Sarah Palin. Rather than mention glowing reviews of the speech, such as in The (UK) Sun or CNN's nearly perfect report card of the speech, they offer a "fact-checking" exercise by an AP reporter who tries to discredit the speech by taking things out of context and offering the usual liberal talking points in response. I'm just curious -- do they ever give a speech by H. the same kind of scrutiny, or claim he's "exaggerating?" I don't think so.

In addition Huffington Post features what I assume they believe is an unflattering image of Palin. Of course, I think it shows her grit and determination, so I used the image at the top of my post to recall the scene from Dirty Harry, where Clint Eastwood is pointing the gun at the criminal.

The liberals are flustered. And I don't think they're feeling too lucky. They are going to try to discredit this woman, using all the gestapo propaganda tactics we've come to recognize from them. But America saw last night that this is a woman who will not back down. She can field-dress a moose, and last night, she field dressed H.