Wow.

Is Karl Rove a genius or what?  This was only the first night, but the combination of John McCain and Rudy Giuliani -- supplemented by first hand testimony from 9/11 family members and a kick-ass acapella rendition of Amazing Grace -- blew at least this observer away.   (Daniel Rodriguez, a former NYC police officer, did the singing.)

We'll see how the "mainstream" press spins this tomorrow, but I was impressed by the centrist, bipartisan appeal to the sensible American middle.   The proceedings were a bit too liberal (if you'll pardon the use of this term) with the use of the lord's name for my taste, but I'm sure that this appealed to the religious base.

A couple of favorite moments:

• Giuliani saying that he respected Kerry for his military service, and the delegates endorsing this view by applauding.

• Giuliani making the point that there are substantive differences between Kerry and Bush on the terrorism issue.   Bush believes that terrorism is an unalloyed evil that we must confront and defeat, regardless of the short-term political cost, whereas Kerry believes, well, no one is quite sure what, depending on who asks the question and in front of what particular audience.

• Also, Giuliani's point that the choice viz a viz Saddam was not between a stable status quo of containment and a "war of choice".   He was quite correct in saying that if the US had not acted to remove Saddam, it would have been only a matter of years before sanctions were lifted and he was free to rearm.   This point was also reinforced by McCain, who said:

  Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war. It was between war and a graver threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not our critics abroad. Not our political opponents.

  And certainly not a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace when in fact it was a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls.   [Of course, Michael Moore just loved the resulting boos and catcalls from the assembled delegates.]

• McCain's heartfelt appeal for all Americans, including his Democratic friends, to stand together to defy and defeat Islamist terror.

All in all, I was very impressed by both the tone and content.   I imagine that there are lot of folks on the Upper West Side of Manhattan who are feeling a bit queasy this evening -- assuming that any of them bothered to watch the proceedings.