El Paso delegates to the Republican National Convention mostly were energized by the speech from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee, on Wednesday night.

One delegate said it was a good speech, but he's still in a wait and see mode.

"It was a lot of frontier fighting words … and I'm still kind of digesting it. We hear a lot of talk. Now we got to see some walk," said Malcolm McGregor, a first-time delegate to the convention. He said he didn't know who Palin was before she was announced as the vice presidential nominee Friday.
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"Most people are very enthusiastic," McGregor said. "Christian conservatives and other Republicans seem to be very warm to Sarah Palin so I'm taking that as a good sign."

Nationally, most analysis was that Palin gave a rousing performance, from the cheers of "drill baby drill" that preceded and interrupted her speech to her assault on Democratic nominee Barack Obama and members of the "elite media." [striking back at critics, one by one, washington post]

It definitely ramped up the convention, which had been interrupted by the threat from Hurricane Gustav earlier this week.

McGregor said the convention is fairly controlled, anyway, and contrasted the activities at the national level with the state convention. At the state level, much more is decided in terms of platforms and other issues, whereas, the national convention is more about getting the party fired up for the presidential nominee.

"What we have are working breakfasts and lunch," McGregor said. "(Generally, a company has sponsored a lunch or breakfast, and they introduce a speaker -- a future candidate or sitting senator or congressman -- and they will either express the need for certain policy or endorse a certain candidate or rally the troops or things like that."

He said some work took place at the convention, but that it preceded the arrival of delegates.

"The real nuts and bolts, such Platform and Rules committees, that was the week before," he said.

McGregor said outside the convention there have been protests and other street scenes.

Before the speech, he said that he expected Wednesday night to be "the red meat night."

In addition to Palin, former presidential contenders Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee spoke. [a href=" http://portal.gopconvention2008.com/speech/details.aspx?id=43" target="_blank">Giuliani] [a href=" http://portal.gopconvention2008.com/speech/details.aspx?id=51" target="_blank">Romney] [a href="http://portal.gopconvention2008.com/speech/details.aspx?id=53" target="_blank">huckabee]

"The last few days it's been 'hooray' and a lot of cheerleading but now we're going to hear some real meat. So I'll have to wait and see what they put up. But I would argue that what will really happen is the government, that Congress realizes … that we have some real serious problems that cannot be put off," McGregor said.

While at first glance that may appear to play into the theme put forth by Obama, he's not the one for the job, McGregor said.

"I would say Obama has no real experience," McGregor said.