According to this AP article, this week’s Republican National Convention was the most watched political convention in history. Of the four major party candidates, only Sen. Biden didn’t attract 40 million viewers the night of his acceptance speech. Here’s a portion of the AP’s reporting:

The GOP presidential candidate attracted roughly the same number of viewers to his convention acceptance speech Thursday as Obama did before the Democrats last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.

It marked the end of an astonishing run where more than 40 million people watched political speeches on three nights by Obama, McCain and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The Republican convention was the most-watched convention on television ever, beating a standard set by the Democrats a week earlier.

Three times in two weeks, political speeches were watched by more people than the “American Idol” finale, the Academy Awards and the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics this year.

“It clearly suggests that a great number of Americans think that who will be the next president is important and worthy of their time,” said Tom Rosenstiel, a former political reporter and director of the Project for Excellence in journalism.

While I agree with Mr. Rosenstiel that most Americans are interested in this year’s election, I think the main reason why people tuned into the Republican National Convention was because of how the hatemongers in the Agenda Media treated Sarah Palin. This is anecdotal proof that most American voters rejected the elitist comments made by Sally Quinn, Andrea Mitchell and Campbell Brown.

Another reason why a record number of people watched was because of America’s fascination with Sarah Palin. She’s taken the week by storm. People wanted to see if her introductory speech in Dayton, OH was the exception or the rule.

In that speech, she talked lovingly about Trig, the Palins’ newborn who was born with Down’s Syndrome, as “a beautiful baby boy.” She talked about fighting hard against corruption in Alaska and winning those fights. She talked about her husband Todd’s being a union member working on “Alaska’s North Slope” working on oil rigs. In other words, she described her family as the prototypical American family.

Wednesday night, they wanted to know more about this woman who was causing a firestorm in the media. They wanted to know that she was more than just another pretty face.

What the sane portions of America found out was that Gov. Palin is intelligent, tough, poised and charismatic, traits that they’re drawn to. They also found out that she’s as plain-spoken as the neighborhood’s hockey mom, something else that people connect with.

What America saw Wednesday night caused them to see how Sen. McCain would follow up that performance. though he didn’t deliver the type of speech that Gov. Palin gave them Wednesday night, he finished with a flourish that had people standing up and cheering all across the nation.

At first, I thought of the speech as workmanlike. I’ve since concluded that it was inspirational, too. How could you not be inspired when Sen. McCain said this:

I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.

The more I pondered that paragraph, the more I started being inspired by the speech. I suspect that a great many people reached that conclusion, too.

It’s safe to say that the enthusiasm gap that was appallingly apparent in January has disappeared, thanks in large part to the Agenda Media’s adoration of Sen. Obama and their reviling of Gov. Palin. People know that their views aren’t objective. They know that they want Obama to be our 44th president so badly that they’ll do or say anything that they think will put him over the top.

In taking that approach, they’ve turned people off. They’ve pushed people away from Sen. Obama. They’ve caused people to rally to Gov. Palin’s defense while uniting the Republican Party in the most ironic of ways.

Now the race begins in earnest. Rest assured that the McCain-Palin ticket will take the fight to the Obama-Biden ticket. What the final outcome will be is still to be decided, of course, but I can’t wait for Election Day.

Technorati Tags: Media Bias, Agenda Media, Nielsen Ratings, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, Acceptance Speech, Enthusiasm Gap, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. Go ahead “mainstream media”, keep the slime balls coming. I cant wait til the first time one of these mealy mouthed smirky twerps get their bloody entrails handed back on a silver plate.

   Comment by T A Gray — September 6, 2008 @ 9:28 am