The sky is falling!!!!

I posted the following after the Palin speech, and it went pretty much unnoticed considering how quickly threads were moving off the front page. I am reposting it now, because some people don't seem to understand what a convention does:

I am amazed at some of the negativity being expressed in this forum. This is a convention--it is designed as a way for a party to strengthen its base and appeal to undecideds. On average, if I remember correctly, the party that goes first tends to get a 5% bounce while the second party tends to get a 4% return. Now, it looks as if Tuesday did not help the republicans, but to expect McCain to come out of the convention in a worse position than when he went in is simply naive (If, by some stroke of luck, he does end up with a negative bounce after the convention I will dance a jig.).

The repubs have decided to appeal to voters by going negative in a way that is ugly, shameful, and incredibly partisan in nature. Time will tell how well that will play with the voting public, though first indications seem to show it could massively backfire (At the very least, it should galvanize the Democratic base to ensure we get out the vote). If you cannot stand the insanity that is the republican convention and don't understand how the media can cheer speakers spouting nasty rhetoric, I suggest you turn off the news until next week.

Please relax and let this play out. Even the Buchanan debacle from '92 took some time to have a negative effect