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And now, a brief interruption in our secular political programming for some ecclesiastical politics.

Yesterday, Bishop David L. Ricken took the chair as bishop of Green Bay Wisconsin. In a ceremony involving Cardinals Maida of Detroit and George of Chicago, the diocese was passed from the apostolic administratorship of Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan to the new incumbent, Bp. Ricken.

The 55-year old prelate comes to Wisconsin from Wyoming. He also did a stint in the Vatican bureaucracy. His initial statement of priorities is very heartening:

“I would say things I’m very interested in are Catholic education; promotion of vocation to the priesthood; enabling the laity to grow spiritually, to grow intellectually with the great treasury of knowledge of the church, and to be able to live their faith in our world today,” the bishop said.

We are reminded this week that Bp. Ricken has big shoes to fill, as his predecessor in Green Bay, Bishop Zubick, now bishop of Pittsburg, issued a statement critical of Speaker Pelosi’s MTP comments (much much more on that sometime this weekend).

I have previously reviewed Bp. Ricken’s record in Cheyenne, and found much of it encouraging. We wish him well, and encourage him to be a strong voice for truth in Wisconsin’s civil dialogue.

It seemed to me like there were two goals for the Dem Convention last night. One was to show that Obama and Biden together could be leader of the free world and competent as commander in chief. The second was to show that the Democratic vision of multilateral engagement and international institutions is a superior policy to the Republican vision of a coalition-of-the-willing Freedom Agenda.

Bill Clinton certainly did his part on the first count. He proclaimed that, in his judgment, Obama was ready to be president and commander in chief. He also gets a 8.5 for delivery - it was very good, but not on the top of what he’s capable of. And a 9 for appearance - the short haircut and makeup made him look a lot younger, but the flag lapel pin was missing when he’s looking out on an audience waving flags. As for message, I give it a lower score - only an 8. He was good on the experience imprimatur, but failed to sell any sort of vision on foreign policy and diplomacy. He talked more about domestic policy than foreign policy it seemed (I note that The Fix disagrees with me - he thought it was a stellar speech).

As for Joe Biden, I agree with Hotline On Call - the speech was “middling.” He rambled, he roamed, and he didn’t convince me Democrats have a better approach to foreign policy. A few lines we really bad, like calling for two more combat brigades in Afghanistan - more troop deployments is just not an applause line at a gathering of Democratic activists.

We’ll see how Obama does tonight. I hope the McCain VP name does not leak - that would be kinda classless. (For the record, I’m pulling for Romney or Pawlenty or Cantor). I also am anxious to see the Greco-Roman temple in all its glory. What an embarrassment.

Of course, my offerings on these matters are nothing compared to the brilliance and insight of the one and only Peggy Noonan.

DAY 2:

Janet Napolitano, Governor of Arizona: 5. It is often the job of the officeholder from the other party’s nominee’s home state to play attack dog, because presumably you know the opponent more intimately than the rest of the country because he’s from your state. Gov. N. failed miserably in this task. Her worst line was “Arizona has seen lots of native sons run for president. Barry Goldwater. Mo Udall. Bruce Babbitt, and now John McCain. Goldwater Lost. Udall Lost. Babbitt lost. Now that’s one Arizona tradition I’d like to keep going this year.” AWFUL! Who claims as a virtue that your state has a poor track record for presidential candidates?

America’s Town Hall: 6. I just can’t keep a straight face listening to Jennifer Granholm of Michigan talk about creating jobs. It’s clearly a subject she knows NOTHING about.

Federico Peña: 7.5. Why wasn’t this guy leaked as on a VP list? He’s Hispanic, from a swing state (Colorado), and a former Clinton Admin. sec’y of energy and transportation, which means he can talk about nuclear non-proliferation, high gas prices, and crumbling infrastructure.

Bob Casey: 6. Abortion gets one-sentence. So much for outreach to pro-life Catholics uneasy about the war and the economy.

Lilly Ledbetter: 7. I felt like I was watching the Democratic version of Suzette Kelo. Sure she’s got a compelling story. But I don’t see that just because a legislator opposes a particular bill, say the Fair Pay Restoration Act, they are automatically anti-woman.

Mark Warner: 7. He looked good, but the speech rambled a bit. At this point, I’d like to offer a brief discourse on Democrats’ vision for energy, the economy, and global warming. Warner said “[W]ith the right policies, within 24 months, we’ll be building 100 mile-per-gallon plug-in hybrid vehicles right here — with American technology and with American workers.” Now to me, that seems slightly pie-in-the-sky. The Congress need merely wave a wand, and within 2 years all our energy troubles will go away. Biden hit on similar themes on Wednesday - promising these 5 million “green collar jobs.” Again, it just seems implausible to me that Congress can simply pass a bill, and from the ground will miraculously sprout forth 5 million new family-supporting jobs that can be held by 45-year old unemployed assembly-line workers in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Unless they’re planning for straight-up FDR-style CCC type jobs.

Hillary Clinton: 9. She gave a GREAT speech (here I second Larry Kudlow’s assessment). First off, I liked the orange outfit a lot - wasn’t red or blue like everyone else, looked good against the background. Her “sisterhood of the traveling pantssuit” and “twin cities” lines were both great. It was mostly about her, not much about Barack, but I think she said the right things - particularly the “Were you in this for me or for the mom on minimum wage?” set of lines.

We are excited to announce that two of our bloggers here at Gop3.com will be attending the Republican National Convention in St.Paul, MN. Sarah Kirby and I have obtained special press passes and we will both be blogging and taking pictures at the main event as well as a number of peripheral events. I will be covering September 1-3 and Sarah will be covering some of September 1st and all of the 4th.

For a full schedule of events, see the Republican National Convention blog.  If you see something you would really like to have us attend or you just have suggestions for us while we are there, please make a comment on the post.

I’m starting a new feature here on GOP3, which will continue for the next two weeks. It’s a scorecard of the primetime convention performances, Olympic judge style.

Jesse Jackson Jr. gets an 8.5 overall - his delivery was good, message was decent.
Mike and Cheryl Fisher get a 7. Clearly they’re nice people, real people, but one lunch with Barack Obama does not give you a definitive judgment of his character and personality.

Caroline Kennedy gets a 5. The speech was really stilted and scripted - it was like a 4 for performance and a 6 for writing. She may be a very smart attorney and author and veep vetter, but not much of a stage presence.

The Ted Kennedy video gets a 6. It was well done, clearly well-produced. But it was also off message - John Kerry got beat in 2004, and nothing says “out of touch” like a movie about sailing their beautiful huge sailboat from Nantucket to Hyannis Port.

Ted Kennedy himself gets a 9. His presence was electric - the crowd went wild. The clear missing patch of hair was a powerful visual reminder of his illness. He gets a 9 for speech delivery - he stepped on a few lines, and when he leaned into the mike at big moments it was muffled rather than amplified. The speech gets an 8.5 for writing - one of the commentators said it was a Bob Shrum speech. There were parts that were really disjointed, but I assume that was Kennedy failing to read the lines right, not Shrum’s writing. But he gets a 10 for visuals - the place was rocking.

Claire McCaskill’s kids did a decent job - that’s a lot of pressure to be under for that young age. Sen. McCaskill herself only get a 7. For performance, a 7 - she tried hard to balance being on the attack and being positive, and it didn’t work that well. For writing, a 6.5 - the “that’s my American story. That’s my husband’s American story. That’s Michelle Obama’s American story” got old and wasn’t very interesting. And a 7.5 for appearance - I thought the blue dress clashed too much with the red of the background - I wish the backdrop was a little softer red. And the V cut on her dress could have been up an inch or two, more rounded.

The Michelle Obama video was nice … the focus on her father caught me a little off guard. The brother gets an 8 - he did his job just fine. Michelle gets a 9 - I liked her outfit, I liked her speech, I liked her podium presence. She needed to deliver a good speech that humanized her and her husband, and most pundits agree she did just that.

Greg Borowski of the Milw. Journal Sentinel reports:

Credentials: Every day, once all the credentials for that evening have been distributed, there is a drawing for any extra passes to get on the floor and sit with the delegation. They are distributed each morning, with this sign meeting delegates: “Photo ID required.”

Of course, photos IDs should only be required for voting on the next president at the convention, they should NOT be required for voting for the next president in the primary or general elections. Puh-lease.

Emergent Church pastor Brian McClaren is under fire for appearing in an election commercial supporting Barack Obama. He should also be under fire for saying silly things, like he did recently:

“Christians, Muslims and Jews are, in some ways, the most dangerous people on the planet, and probably Christians being the most dangerous because their fingers are closer to the most nuclear weapons,” he told an audience here at Baker Book House. “If (Muslims, Christians and Jews) can find points of contact, maybe it will help us avoid pressing these buttons,” he said.

This is a silly thing to say when “the Muslim bomb,” i.e. the nukes in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, are under command-and-control transition as Musharraf leaves office.

Georgetown has hired the first director of its LGBTQ Resource Center. She is the former associate director of the University of Maryland’s Office of LGBT Equity. According to the report,

Harrison said GU Pride [the LGBTQ student group] is looking to launch efforts this year to make the campus more “trans-friendly” by working to provide bathrooms and better housing options for transgender individuals. In addition, he said he believes it is important to bring more diversity to the organization, particularly in bringing a greater variety of political views to the group. Harrison said Subbaraman’s work as the first director of the center will help to catalyze these efforts. “Having a person who can advocate for our issues is a big achievement,” he said.

Don’t think for a minute that this could not happen at Marquette - the GSA has already brought it up at a forum with Fr. Wild… While he feels the Counseling Center is currently sufficient, if pressure from the politically correct crowd mounts …