Are you saying you'll flunk us if we don't change the world?

I meant to hit this earlier in the day, even before John McCain dropped his bomb.

Obama's platform is obviously one of "Change." But, even if you're discontent, change comes in 2 flavors, positive and negative.

Remember, Hitler brought change to Deutschland. Castro brought change to Cuba. Lenin brought change to Russia. Coach Franchione brought change to Aggie football, taking a contending team to the heights of mediocrity. RC was starting to look pretty good, wasn't he?

Regardless of who wins in November, expect much change. It may take years or decades to know if that change was/is for the better, however.

Mr. Change looked pretty good last night, this rhetorician would say. He spoke well and his speech had some nice zingers "Eight is enough" and some good emotive aspects.

I thought he ventured into the realm of playing dirty a few times where McCain is concerned, which kind of surprised me, but overall, I was impressed with his presentation. I don't think he did himself any favors in picking Joe Biden as his running mate, but he did last night.

Today, I was shocked to hear of John McCain's running mate, or matess, Sarah Palin (seemingly no relation to Michael). I'd never heard of her and was initially discouraged by what seemed a "Hail Mary" play. I had been hoping for J.C. Watts, not because I had any notion he would be the pick, but I've always been a fan.

Mrs. Palin is staunchly pro-life, earning some real credibility in that area by refusing elective abortion on her fifth child, who has Down's Syndrome. At age 44, she has about the same amount of experience as Obama, but I like hers better being of the executive variety, having served as Alaska's governor.

She's a lifetime member of the NRA, which jazzes me as well. Who wouldn't value that in a woman?! Her oldest son is shipping out to Iraq, so she's got credibility to talk to the issue beyond, "I met this mom who has a son in Iraq" like the vast majority of politicians.

Unlike those who haven't lived outside of DC in decades, she's not a Washington insider, so I'm thinking if your thing is change, you've got a better bet with her than all these senators. Personally, I've never been a fan of a senator being president anyway.

The more I learned, the more I liked the pick. I'm sure priority #1 is not to let your VP candidate hurt you, but in my mind she has helped the ticket immensely. Not only might she appeal to women, since the Republican party now seems the one that cares about women and empowering them, unlike the Dems who kicked their female to the curb in favor of two dudes.

She might be able to score a few disgruntled Hillary supporters, but a true conservative like myself can feel a lot better about voting GOP in this election. My entrenched apathy toward this election started to really thaw today.

I'm all for change and I think she's got the capacity to bring about good change. Win, lose, or draw in November, I think she's the brightest star the GOP has where presidential politics are concerned. On his 72nd birthday, McCain gave himself and the GOP a gift.

P.S. Sarah Palin's acceptance speech this morning is linked on Conservative Reformed Mafia for your viewing pleasure.