Wow...Never thought I'd see people "explaining" 9/11 to a New Yorker

Talk about "not getting it".
As to Shrub's speech last night, it was pretty good, for him. The first half was awful, and you can certainly tell that this president has no clue when it comes to domestic issues. I particularly liked the poor grammer while discussing the educational system in this country, but I'm sure that irony will be missed by many on this thread.
As to the second part of the speech, I thought he did a very good job. He presented his case for his method of fighting the "war on terror", and did so without seeming like he was trying to scare people into voting for him (a first for this administration, and certainly this convention). But, out of curiosity, has the president's speech writing staff been watching too much blue collar tv ? From Ahnold's "You might be a republican if..." laundry list to last night's " "I believe..." riffs, it sounded like the convention speeches were written by Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Ingvall....The only thing missing would've been if Rudy Guiliani had ended his speech with "Git 'er done !"

Not exactly highly intellectual rhetoric
I particularly liked the magic act that he used to come out on stage, if for nothing more than it's metaphoric possibilities. Since his lead up to the war in Iraq was mostly smoke and mirrors, it was fairly appropriate, I guess, that he use a bad magic trick to appear on stage

Oh, and as for the flags he was hiding behind to walk out and magically "appear"....what great symbolism for a president that hides behind the flag every chance he gets while his attack dogs accuse anyone criticizing him of lack of respect for that flag and for "the office".
This whole convention, seems to me, was just more of the same, boring MO from the right. The president and Cheney hiding behind other people attacking their opponent so that they can feign innocence. It may appeal to the redneck vote, but I'm still holding out faith that the American people will see all these promises Bush is making and wonder where all these great ideas have been for the last four years.