Palin fires back at media, ‘Washington elite’

McCain gives Palins a warm welcome
Anticipation of Palin’s address overshadowed McCain’s arrival Wednesday in St. Paul, where he was to be formally nominated for president after the speeches.

Even before McCain’s plane landed at noon, his campaign struck back heatedly at persistent questions about Palin, declaring that “this nonsense is over.”

Palin was waiting at the airport to greet McCain as he stepped off his blue-and-white plane, dubbed the Straight Talk Express. McCain moved down a line of family and friends with handshakes and greetings before he got to Palin. They hugged, and McCain talked with her family.

Levi Johnston, the boyfriend of Palin’s pregnant 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, got a pat on the shoulder, as well as a handshake. McCain told Bristol Palin that he was sorry for what she was going through because of the “intrusion of the media,” Steve Schmidt, a senior campaign adviser, told NBC News.

At precisely the same time Obama was in the middle of a campaign speech in Ohio. The dual scene was captured in split-screen television shots.

“More jobs are being shipped overseas,” Obama said. “More and more people are losing their pensions. They just don’t get it,” he said of McCain and Palin.

Former McCain rivals target Obama votes
Wednesday night’s speakers also include a trio of former McCain rivals-turned-supporters: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Each had different tasks.

In his remarks, Romney lit into the Democrats as “the party of Big Brother,” the beginning of an old-fashioned rallying cry for traditional Republican issues like taxes, spending and defense.

Video   Biden's response Sept. 4: TODAY’s Matt Lauer talks to Democratic vice-presidential candidate Sen. Joe Biden about Palin’s speech. Today show

Referring to forum last month at which both candidates fielded questions from Rick Warren, a prominent evangelical leader, Romney said:

“And at Saddleback, after Barack Obama dodged and ducked every direct question, John McCain hit the nail on the head: Radical Islam is evil, and he will defeat it. Republicans prefer straight talk to politically correct talk.”

Huckabee, meanwhile, cast doubt on Obama’s lack of experience and judgment in foreign policy, saying: “Maybe the most dangerous threat of an Obama presidency is that he would continue to give madmen the benefit of the doubt. If he’s wrong just once, we will pay a heavy price.”

Giuliani leads defense of Palin
Giuliani, meanwhile, took on the burden of answering the controversies over Palin’s background, which have led to widespread questions about the process that led to her selection

Saying Palin had more “executive experience than the entire Democratic ticket combined,” Giuliani said, “I’m sorry if Barack Obama thinks her hometown isn’t cosmopolitian enough.”

Earlier, Giuliani, in an interview with NBC’s TODAY show, called reporting on Palin’s daughter “indecent and disgusting.”

“Everything’s that come out is almost silly,” Giuliani said. “The whole thing with her daughter is just absurd.”

Still, the disclosure Monday that Palin’s daughter is five months pregnant — adding to a continuing drip of potentially embarrassing details — had threatened to knock the convention off message.

Obama tried to seize that opening Wednesday without piling on Palin personally. At an outdoor “town hall” meeting in New Philadelphia, Ohio, he accused Republicans of abandoning any talk of important policy issues at their convention.

“Last night when they were speaking, all these speakers came up [and] you did not hear a single word about the economy,” Obama said. “Think about it: Not once did people mention the hardships that folks are going through.”

But the official theme of the second night of the convention was foreign affairs and the “courage and service of John McCain,” not the economy. Those statements came Wednesday on the third night.

Palin led the way, boasting that in her 20 months as governor, she had given Alaska a budget surplus and delivered “nearly half a billion dollars in vetoes [of] wasteful spending.”

Romney said Americans would enjoy “expanded opportunity ... when taxes are lowered and when every citizen has affordable, portable health insurance.”

And Giuliani promised that McCain would “lower taxes so our economy can grow.”

“He will reduce government spending to strengthen our dollar,” Giuliani said. “He will expand free trade so we can be even more competitive.”

Chris Clackum, Andrea Mitchell and Kelly O’Donnell of NBC News contributed to this report.

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