It's bad enough that the Mayor of the host city was so lame at the podium at this convention: negatively compounding this is that the governor of the host state added an equally lackluster attempt at public speaking. Both of these guys are not only lame as leaders and public administrators, but also totally lacking in any charisma or palpable appeal. Both came off as a couple of boring hicks from some horrid place like Nebraska or Alabama, rather than the titular heads of the world's greatest city and one of the top states in the U.S. Hopefully Bloomberg will be a one-term wonder (this looks pretty likely as the people can't stand him here) and Pataki, who's always been a creepy and shady character, will be shown the door next time around, as well. It's pretty funny that some GOP dreamers were bandying this clown's name around for a Presidential run in 2008, when the big doof isn't even that popular in his home state.

Thank God Dubya cleaned up his mess. Boring speech. Horrible cadence. Emotionally adrift at times. There's people who actually floated the idea that HE could be president? I would definitely sit that election out.

Pataki's speech was ridden with cliche; totally lacked any substance. It made too many symbolic references rather than addressing the issues at hand. The official party line seems to be that Bush is the right man at the right time, that history threw 9/11 on him, and that Kerry is a flip-flopper. The occasional reference after that event makes it into fray; in Pataki's case, he egregiously made it a central part of his speech. It also seems to me that Pataki, like other speakers have made much about the Iraq-9/11 connection. It has been proven that Saddam had little, if nothing to do with the attack. Bottom line, we're going after the wrong people. The amount of hot air in Madison Square Gardens exceeds that of the Democratic National Convention and the highly contrived scenes of bonding between Kerry and Edwards. Really who buys all this clatrap lock-stock-and-barrel. But then again, this is yet another political convention that doesn't serve any useful purpose for the citizen, whose taxpayer dollars subsidize this tribute to the tin-horn politicians.