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A new poll out from ABC News shows that Americans haven't yet fully bought in to the arguments about Sarah Palin's experience that Republicans have been making this week.

Pollsters found that a majority of respondents think Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden has the experience necessary to be an effective president; 66 percent said he does, while 21 percent said he doesn't and 13 percent had no opinion. Only 42 percent said Palin has the requisite experience, while 50 percent said she doesn't and 7 percent had no opinion.

Come on, people -- don't you realize she's from a really big state?

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- John McCain started off slow. And for a moment, when antiwar protesters broke in and heckled him, distracting his crowd's attention, it seemed that all might be lost and that he might fall completely flat on a night in which he needed to shine.

But the Republican nominee and his speechwriter had saved the best -- in this case, the story of McCain's time as a prisoner of war -- for last. It was a moving section, one that seemed to make the entire Xcel Center go silent. And it made for a good transition into his closing argument, a call for Americans to join with him to fight for their country. Now the McCain campaign just has to hope that voters at home kept watching long enough to see the big finish.

So far, the reviews aren't good. CNN's Jeffrey Toobin calling this " the worst speech by a nominee that I’ve heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980" is one thing. But the harsh critique that former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson delivered on MSNBC (which Barack Obama's campaign was quick to blast out to reporters) was something else entirely.

"Pretty disappointing," Gerson said. "I think that was a missed opportunity. Many Americans needed to hear from this speech something they have never heard from Republicans before. And in reality, a lot of the policy they’ve heard from Republicans before."

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- When it came time for Democrats to officially respond to John McCain's speech at the Republican convention Thursday night, the task didn't fall to Barack Obama or even Joe Biden, who'll likely get called upon often to fill the attack dog role for his ticket. Instead, they turned to a figure from the recent past: Hillary Clinton. Her full statement is below. The two party conventions showcased vastly different directions for our country. Senator Obama and Senator Biden offered the new ideas and positive change America needs and deserves after eight years of failed Republican leadership. Senator McCain and Governor Palin did not.

After listening to all of the speeches this week, I heard nothing that suggests the Republicans are ready to fix the economy for middle class families, provide quality affordable health care for all Americans, guarantee equal pay for equal work for women, restore our nation's leadership in a complex world or tackle the myriad of challenges our country faces.

So, to slightly amend my comments from Denver: NO WAY, NO HOW, NO McCAIN-PALIN.

Update: The Obama campaign has now put out a statement of its own. Attributed to spokesman Bill Burton, it reads: Tonight, John McCain said that his party was elected to change Washington, but that they let Washington change them. He's right. He admonished the 'old, do-nothing crowd' in Washington, but ignored the fact that he's been part of that crowd for twenty-six years, opposing solutions on health care, energy, and education. He talked about bipartisanship, but didn't mention that he's been a Bush partisan 90% of the time, that he's run a Karl Rove campaign, and that he wants to continue this President's disastrous economic and foreign policies for another four years. With John McCain, it's more of the same.

That's not the change Americans need. Barack Obama has taken on the special interests and the lobbyists in Illinois and in Washington, and he's won. As President, he'll cut taxes for 95% of all working families, provide affordable health care to every American, end the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and eliminate the oil we import from the Middle East in ten years.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The speech was flat, the backdrop went from lime green to electric blue, and the Xcel Energy Center ain't exactly Mile High Stadium, but there is something nice about a traditional balloon drop at the end of a convention, and John McCain knows it.

The Republican convention came to a close Thursday night amid a sea of confetti, balloons and streamers, and you sort of had to wonder whether a Barack Obama victory this fall would mean an end to one of the oldest tableaus in American politics. (If the guy can pack football stadiums, he may not need gigantic balloons to rev the crowd up.) Yeah, the scene looked like it could have been straight out of 1980, and that doesn't do much to give the impression that McCain is the candidate of the future. (Or to counter the Democratic message, which was that McCain didn't spell out how he would change the direction the country's going.) Still, the whole crowd looked like it was having fun in the flood of red, white and blue falling from the ceiling. Maybe getting rid of balloon drops is one change America doesn't need yet.

The music, however, betrayed a certain literal-mindedness. "Barracuda" by Heart -- a nod to Sarah Palin's nickname. "Dancing in September" by Earth, Wind & Fire -- the perfect song to dance to, on Sept. 4! (Though it's hard to call what Republican delegates do to music dancing.) "Celebration" by Kool & the Gang, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey, "Everyday People" by Sly & the Family Stone ... every song had a message, and they weren't very subtle. But then again, neither was the convention, so maybe that was apt.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- If you're at home watching John McCain's speech at the Republican Convention and wondering why he made a few odd pauses and why the crowd broke into the occasional chant of "USA! USA!" it's because a few antiwar protesters got into the hall and started heckling him during his speech.

The first hecklers were off-camera, located conveniently above the press stands. Two men, carrying banners that read "You can't win an occupation," began shouting questions for McCain. They managed to divert the attention of the press and a substantial portion of the crowd; McCain, who couldn't see what was going on from his vantage point, seemed confused. It seems as though both men have been removed, though it's hard to be sure from where I'm sitting.

Later, a second protester, this one on the floor and not far from the podium, broke into the speech, leading to more chants from McCain's supporters and more disruption of the speech. This time, McCain was able to figure out what was going on. "Please don't be diverted by the ground noise and the static," he quipped, earning himself a big round of applause. "Americans want us to stop yelling at each other."

A fundraising letter that Sarah Palin's camp sent out Thursday afternoon tells potential donors, "Unfortunately, as you've seen this week, the Obama/Biden Democrats have been vicious in their attacks directed toward me, my family and John McCain. The misinformation and flat-out lies must be corrected."

The point, of course, is that the McCain/Palin campaign needs money to help defend against these awful "Obama/Biden Democrats."

That is, if they exist at all.

A couple reporters have now pressed various spokespeople for specifics about who's being referenced in the letter. One of them, ABC News' Jake Tapper, reports: The response I got was that Obama spokesman Mark Bubriski erroneously attacked Palin as a supporter of Pat Buchanan.

That's it. That's the evidence.

An attack on Palin herself.

In other words, they can't name one person affiliated with the Obama-Biden campaign who attacked the Palin family.

Sara Kugler of the Associated Press got a slightly different answer when she posed the same question to a spokeswoman for Palin. "Asked who was to blame, the spokeswoman said, 'You want me to tick through all the stuff that's been ticking through all the blogs the past few days? What about the stuff that was on Daily Kos, that rumor that was spread?'" Kugler says.

Actually, as Tapper notes, there are some politicians who have personally attacked opponents' family members. For instance, in 1998, it was John McCain who joked, "Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- When you cover politics (hell, if you've even paid attention to it for about a day or so) you quickly learn that politicians and their surrogates have an incredible ability to peddle utter crap while maintaining a completely straight face. Still, though, I can't shake the feeling that this sort of thing reached new heights of absurdity this week.

Maybe it's because we've really seen the curtain pulled back this week. The recording of the conversation between Chuck Todd, Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy that popped up was particularly revealing. It was a close look at the deep doubts about the Sarah Palin choice remaining in the Republican establishment and, seemingly, even among those tapped to go on television and defend her.

And, of course, the crack research team at "The Daily Show" came through with some similarly illuminating material. Check out this segment from Wednesday night's show -- among the highlights, Karl Rove gets caught in a rather radical shift in his position on the question of what kind of prior experience a vice president should have.

John McCain's campaign has released some cursory excerpts from the text prepared for his speech tonight. There's nothing all that revealing in them, though they do at least show that McCain will be hitting some of the messages he's honed about himself for years, and also pushing the reform theme Sarah Palin had in her speech on Wednesday night.

Here's the text that's been released so far; make sure to check out the neat package of irony that is the second section: --I'm very proud to have introduced our next Vice President to the country. But I can't wait until I introduce her to Washington. And let me offer an advance warning to the old, big spending, do nothing, me first, country second Washington crowd: change is coming.

--The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn't a cause, it's a symptom. It's what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you. Again and again, I've worked with members of both parties to fix problems that need to be fixed. That's how I will govern as President. I will reach out my hand to anyone to help me get this country moving again. I have that record and the scars to prove it. Senator Obama does not.

--I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn't my own man anymore. I was my country's.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Sarah Palin's speech to the Republican convention really seems to have energized people. Including Democrats, it turns out -- Barack Obama's campaign says that since Palin's speech, it has taken in $8 million, and the Obama camp estimates that number will hit $10 million by the time John McCain addresses the convention tonight.

The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, has reportedly raised $1 million in the same time period. And a McCain source told the Drudge Report, "We could not count our donations fast enough." (The McCain campaign is now restricted from raising its own money, as McCain accepted public financing.)

On Thursday, Barack Obama offered his thoughts on this week's Republican Convention. Naturally, he wasn't exactly full of praise for it.

"You wouldn't know that this is such a critical election by watching the convention last night," Obama said, adding: It's been amazing to me to watch. Over the last two nights, if you sit there and you watch it, you're hearing a lot about John McCain -- and he's got a compelling biography as a POW. You're hearing an awful lot about me, most of which is not true. What you're not hearing is a lot about you.

I mean, you haven't heard one word about how they're going to make the healthcare system work ... You haven't heard a word about getting serious about green and alternative energy ... You haven't heard a word about how we're going to deal with any aspect of the economy that is affecting you and your pocketbook day to day. Haven't heard a word about it. I'm not exaggerating. Literally, two nights, they have not said a word about it.

(Video of Obama's remarks, sent out by his campaign, appears below.)

Obama was also asked about media coverage of Sarah Palin. He responded: Listen, if they want to work the refs, they are free to do so. I think the public can make their judgments about this. The notion that any question about her work in Alaska is somehow not relevant ... doesn't make too much sense to me ... I assume that she wants to be treated the same way that guys want to be treated, which means their records are under scrutiny. I have been through this for 19 months. She has been through it, what, four days so far?

For the most part, Obama's been pretty much off the radar this week, certainly in comparison with the way McCain kept trying to jump back into the news during the Democratic convention last week. Obama is now starting to work his way back into the media spotlight; he'll be on Fox News' "O'Reilly Factor" Thursday night.

By the way, Obama was exaggerating in his description of the Republican convention. Though there hasn't been much discussion about specifics, there has been some. He can of course argue that the ideas Republicans have put forward -- like offshore drilling -- won't work, but that's different.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The NFL's 2008-09 season kicks off Thursday night, a few hours before John McCain delivers his prime-time acceptance speech at the Republican convention. The campaign was getting nervous about game coverage knocking McCain off the air on NBC affiliates around the country. But now it looks like it has decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, a member of the football Hall of Fame, will address the convention Thursday night -- possibly while his former team is playing the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. A Republican source just confirmed to Salon Mark Halperin's report that Gibbs would show up in St. Paul, though it sounds like the timing is still up in the air.

As a third-generation D.C. native and a lifelong Redskins fan, this means two worlds will be colliding while I cover tonight's convention program. I was planning to keep one eye on the game thanks to NBC's new streaming video feed for NFL coverage, but I didn't expect the game to suddenly seem relevant to the convention. Gibbs has never been shy about his fundamentalist Christian beliefs, in either his football career or his second career as a NASCAR owner. (Evidently that game last year where Gibbs might have cost the team a win by stupidly calling consecutive timeouts turned out that way because of God's will, which I suspect wasn't as much consolation to most fans as it was to Gibbs.) But he'd never been active in politics before, at least not that I can remember; RFK Stadium, when I was growing up, and now FedEx Field, always seemed like bipartisan places even as political Washington grew increasingly polarized.

Especially during a hectic campaign season, it's nice to keep sports separate from politics (even if the Redskins have traditionally been an unusually good, if completely coincidental, predictor of election results in the past). Apparently that's all in the past. Gibbs might not make McCain supporters out of every Redskins fan in the country tonight (or at least, not this guy) -- but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of Obama voters suddenly discover a newfound affection for the Giants.

There's an old saying that goes, "Never let the facts stand in the way of a good story." A little wordy, maybe, but that might be a more appropriate motto for the McCain campaign than "Country First."

John McCain and his surrogates have been making sure to mention that Sarah Palin, as governor of Alaska, is the commander in chief of the Alaska National Guard. But it turns out that such experience may not be worth as much as Republicans say it is -- in fact, it seems that during her tenure as governor, she hasn't personally issued a single order to the Guard.

Moreover, Palin does not have command over Alaska National Guard troops who are overseas. An article in Wednesday's Anchorage Daily News cites Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, the service commander of the Alaska National Guard, as saying that "the governor has no command authority overseas or anywhere in the United States other than Alaska." According to the article, Palin has direct authority over the 4,200-member unit only when they respond to in-state disasters. However, Palin has delegated the majority of those responsibilities to Maj. Gen. Campbell.

And if the McCain campaign needed any more reason not to focus on the Alaskan National Guard when talking up Palin's leadership experience, the Associated Press has now documented personnel shortages in the state's Guard "that make its aviation units the most poorly staffed in the nation." The AP quotes Campbell as saying the situation "has reached a crisis level."

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- You know, when the days get darkest for me, when it seems like there's no hope left in this country, I'm always cheered by the fact that I have real, down-home Americans to protect me from the liberal elitist elite.

I know I can always count on Rudy Giuliani, for one. He was so right when he attacked Barack Obama for his belief -- which Obama has talked about publicly so often -- that Wasilla, Alaska, where Sarah Palin used to be mayor, "isn't cosmopolitan enough." That sort of thing just feels so real coming from Giuliani, you know? Probably because he himself used to be the mayor of Grand Encampment, Wyo.

And man, Mitt Romney was great, wasn't he, when he was railing against the "Eastern elites?" If only he were still governor of Idaho.

But of course, the person who most inspires me is Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential nominee John McCain. See, I feel like I can relate to her -- because the outfit I wore to the Xcel Center on Monday night cost $300,000, just like hers did.

Politico's Roger Simon has a very sharp, very funny column today, one that takes aim at the criticism of the media's coverage of Sarah Palin. It's worth reading the whole thing, but here's some of the material I liked best from it: On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry...

We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.

We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?

Bad questions. Bad media. Bad...

[W]e should stop reporting on the families of the candidates. Unless the candidates want us to.

Sarah Palin wanted the media to report on her teenage son, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and soon will deploy to Iraq.

Sarah Palin did not want the media to report on her teenage daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unmarried.

Sarah Palin thinks that one is good for her campaign and one is not, and that the media should report only on what is good for her campaign. That is our job, and that is our duty. If that is not actually in the Constitution, it should be. (And someday may be.)

Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan had some 'splaining to do last night. On Wednesday, she -- along with MSNBC's Chuck Todd and prominent GOP strategist Mike Murphy -- was caught on a live mike calling the selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate "political bullshit," something at odds with the tone of the column she'd just published. So now she has explained herself. And apologized. Well, to a certain extent, at least.

"Well, I just got mugged by the nature of modern media, and I wish it weren't my fault, but it is," Noonan says in a new introduction appended to the online version of her column from Wednesday. She continues: In our off-air conversation, I got on the subject of the leaders of the Republican party assuming, now, that whatever the base of the Republican party thinks is what America thinks. I made the case that this is no longer true ... And when I said, "It's over!" -- and I said it more than once -- that is what I was referring to ...

However, I did say two things that I haven't said in public, either in speaking or in my writing. One is a vulgar epithet that I wish I could blame on the mood of the moment but cannot ... But, bottom line, I am certainly sorry I blurted my barnyard ephithet, I am certainly sorry that someone abused my meaning in the use of the words, "It's over," and I'm sorry I didn't have the Kay Bailey Hutchison thought before this morning, because I could have written of it. There. Now: onto today's column.