After watching the convention speeches of Palin and McCain, I was eager to get out and tell everyone what I think. However, laziness, football and a desire to see the latest tracking polls kept me from doing so until now.

I have to admit, I have been drawn to the idea of a McCain/Palin ticket since I first heard that she was going to be McCain's running mate. Her personal story is intriguing to me and I have to admit that I'm excited about a NRA-friendly VP. However, I wanted to hold back my enthusiasm until after her speech.

I have my own political leanings but I'm not going to get into the accuracy, content, or appropriateness of her speech (at least for now). However, I think she did an incredible job of rallying conservatives and brought a level of excitement to the convention that I honestly didn't see coming. Agree with her or not, she did a great job of introducing herself to the American public, sending powerful attacks toward the Obama camp and setting the stage for McCain's acceptance speech on Thursday night.

Oh Yeah. I forgot! McCain had a speech the next night. I guess with all the media coverage and excitement over Palin, people forgot about ol' Mac. Personally, I don't think he lived up to the previous night's fervor, but I think his speech was good overall, despite the fact that he missed some opportunities when discussing his economic plans. He lost the audience a few times and his plans sounded more like a high school economics report than anything else. However, I was impressed by how he concluded the speech and rallied the members of the audience. He captivated me, although I have to admit that I'm easily captivated.

I guess the real reason I wanted to talk about the convention is because I wanted to see how much of a bump McCain would get in the polls. If memory serves, Obama was tracking constantly about 7 0r 8 points higher than McCain after the Democratic convention. After Palin and McCain's speeches, many people in the media seemed to think McCain would be able to overtake Obama by this weekend. However, according to the latest Gallup Poll, Obama still leads by two points ( 47-45), which is within the margin of error. McCain was able to close the gap after the convention, but this is McCain at his best and I find it odd that he wasn't able to take at least a slim lead.

Is this a bad thing for the Republicans? I'm not sure and time will only tell. Polls don't count for anything but they do shed a little bit of light onto the trends of the American public. Whatever happens from here, I can say the convention did excite me and the table should now be set for the highly expected debate.

Oh by the way. Did anyone see the debate T-shirt during the ABC broadcast of the Reb's game today?....nice....