5 GOP Convention Viewing Tips

With the Republicans set to turn on all the lights at their convention tonight, Martin Kady II of Politico runs down five things to watch for:

• Palin’s shadow: “The theme of tonight’s convention is ‘service,’” Kady notes, “and the trick for the GOP is to focus voters’ attention on the question ‘Who is John McCain?’ when everyone is still asking, ‘Who is Sarah Palin?’”

• Hurricanes, plural: “Will any network air the shot from the day Katrina made landfall—the one in which President Bush and McCain pose, smiling, with McCain’s birthday cakes?”
• What will Dubya do? Can he pump up McCain “without providing Democrats with more fodder for their McSame theme?”
• What will Joe Lieberman do? He “can underscore McCain’s appeal to swing voters and moderate Democrats who feel distant from their party’s liberal wing.”
• History lesson: McCain’s military past will be on display,  but “will Americans look up from their ‘Bristol Palin’ Googling long enough to notice?”