The one moment that stays with me tonight, oddly enough, was not Palin's speech. It was a line from Giuliani, a New York mayor with a young second wife and gay friends, mocking a "cosmopolitan" who was brought up by a single mother. It was that Barack Obama's rise could "only happen in America." And it was designed to mock him, the first African-American candidate for the presidency of the United States.
I won't forget that.
I noticed that, too, but I saw it differently: I think Rudy intended "only in America" to be respectful, but a slice of the audience misinterpreted it and started to laugh. Rudy actually looked a wee confused and uncomfortable in the moment.
It was still revealing that some people took the line as an insult but from where I sat I don't think that's how Rudy intended it.
--Michael Crowley