The line-up’s noticeably weaker than last night’s, consisting mainly of the host governor plus McCain’s inner circle/cronies: Mel Martinez and Pawlenty in the eight o’clock hour, Grahamnesty and Ridge at nine, then Maverick at 10. Totally disinterested after last night’s blowout? Don’t be. Remember, something like 70 percent of the public says the VP choice is irrelevant. If there are votes to be swung, tonight’s speech may well do more to swing them than Palin’s did.

If you missed Ed’s post about the contrast with Obama’s speech that they’re trying to draw through the staging, here it is. “There will be no negativity,” says Mark Salter, apparently not taking Limbaugh’s advice to have McCain come out and say, “I’m looking forward to working with Democrats in November — those that are left, anyway.” (Follow the link for video of that during his appearance on Neil Cavuto today.) Instead, they’re going to emphasize … change. Exit quotation from Spengler’s cynical optimism about McCain’s chances:

Obama will spend the rest of his life wondering why he rejected the obvious road to victory, that is, choosing Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential nominee. However reluctantly, Clinton would have had to accept. McCain’s choice of vice presidential candidate made obvious after the fact what the party professionals felt in their fingertips at the stadium extravaganza yesterday: rejecting Clinton in favor of the colorless, unpopular, tangle-tongued Washington perennial Joe Biden was a statement of weakness. McCain’s selection was a statement of strength. America’s voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.

That is why McCain will win in November, and by a landslide, barring some unforeseen event. Obama is the most talented and persuasive politician of his generation, the intellectual superior of all his competitors, but a fatally insecure personality. American voters are not intellectual, but they are shrewd, like animals. They can smell insecurity, and the convention stank of it. Obama’s prospective defeat is entirely of its own making.

Update (Ed): We may indeed get a second dose of Palinmania, although indirectly. Word is that the GOP will play the bio video that got scratched last night when Rudy Giuliani’s speech ran too long.