A lot of attention is being paid to the speeches delivered by Ann Romney and Chris Christie during the GOP Convention last night in Tampa. 

I thought Ann Romney's speech was okay.  I wasn't moved to tears (like Erin Burnett of CNN) but I didn't think it was horrible, either.  The woman is not a practiced public speaker and was obviously uncomfortable reading the teleprompters.  She mentioned how she met Mitt at a dance.  She also promised that her husband "will not fail" and that we can trust him.  She also mentioned a dance where she met Mitt.  At the beginning of her speech I thought it was quite obvious that she was making a play for the ladies in response to that whole "war on women" thing.  And then she mentioned a dance where she met Mitt. 

The surprise of the night was Artur Davis - the former Democratic Congressman from Alabama - who ripped into the President and the Democrats.  It was the rhetorically hottest and most partisan speech of the day, I thought. 

Conservatives and Republicans will love it.  I thought it was the best speech of the night.

Another good one - Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love, who is running for Congress in Utah. 

The theme of the whole day was a riff on the "You didn't build that" line from President Obama.  The unsettling thing was how the soundbite used was an edited version of it.  Also, after sitting though almost 4 hours of speeches, I'm pretty tired of the slogan now.

House Speaker John Boehner gave, what amounted to, the world's longest and least-funny "guy walks into a bar" joke.  However, the Ohio republican managed to not cry on stage. So, he had that going for him. 

Former Senator Rick Santorum talked about shaking a lot of hands as he ran for president and how those hands helped build this nation.  He then talked about holding the tiny hands of his special needs daughter. As he did, he got choked up and I thought it was one of the most moving parts of the entire night.

Ohio Governor John Kasich surprised me with his enthusiasm.  He was pretty energetic and gave a good speech (despite the initial awkward Black Eyed Peas reference). At the end of his speech he basically accused Vice President of being a liar, because when the two men played golf once, Joe Biden bragged about being a good golfer... and he's not.  Low blow, Governor!  Insulting a man's golf game?!