Rudy & Sarah on stage

I was driving on I-10 while I listened to Giuliani's convention speech. It was hard not to grind my teeth into smithereens as the master blowhard railed against Barack Obama with a truckload of sarcasm, mockery and insults.

Sarah Palin followed. She is obviously a very confident contender, and her family ruminations ("hockey mom") will probably get her a lot of votes. But tonight she picked up on the Giuliani sarcasm. Both of them had a jolly time making fun of Barack as a "community organizer." They made it sound like two dirty words.

But the health care crisis, the economic plight of tens of millions of Americans, complex foreign policy questions? Gone with the wind.... Instead, Palin unloaded the usual Republican blather about Barack the Evil Taxer. Et cetera et cetera.

Time's Joe Klein has just written in his blog that "it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is 'a task from God.' The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme."

Eight long eight weeks to go, folks. Actually eight weeks and four days.

If McCain and Palin win, I think I am going to volunteer for a four year stint as janitor on the International Space Station.