Day 2 of the RNC

I had a fantasy football draft last night at 10:30, so I didn't listen to Ryan as closely as I would have liked. He seemed to be fairly energetic, although his eyes were unusually red and he seemed to have a lot of trouble reading off the teleprompter. It looked like he had not practiced his speech enough and that he had been weeping. His voice inflections at times were off and it was distracting. Also, get some Visine dude.

The speech was probably good for the base, but I'm not really sure how it played to independents. It lacked specifics and was like a stereotypical, boilerplate political speech that is unlikely to move undecided voters and independents. In addition, there are plenty of reports today from various media outlets - including Faux News - about inaccuracies in what he said. That won't help as people hear about them today.

All that said, I don't think people cared that much about Ryan and what he had to say anyway. The RNC is all about Romney and the first two days haven't done much to help his image. His speech tonight is critical. People will watch and I believe people want specifics about his agenda going forward. If he can lay out a positive vision he may be able to move polls. If he gets up and is stiff and just bashes President Obama, it won't do much of anything.