Yesterday, the Republican National Convention was convened and the evening activities suspended in deference to the threat posed by Hurricane Gustav to New Orleans. Today, with the worst of Gustav seemingly behind us, the convention went into full swing. The major guests of the evening included first lady Laura Bush, a remote appearance by President George W. Bush from Washington D.C., and on again off again Democrat Joe Lieberman.

But the star of tonight’s show was, by far, Fred Thompson. As a Texan, attempts at homespun folksy wisdom usually end up with me to grinding my teeth and calling upon every ounce of my will to avoid punching the offender in the throat with varying degrees of success. Thompson’s speech was not an attempt at homespun, folksy wisdom. It was homespun, folksy wisdom. His delivery of John McCain’s biography was exactly what it needed to be and it made a serious attempt to define McCain to those who didn’t know him and laid the groundwork quite nicely for Lieberman’s speech which reminded the audience that McCain was, before getting the nomination, a maverick who did what he thought was right, not what he thought was popular.

Tonight was all about defining who McCain is, laying the groundwork for tomorrow and Thursday where they’ll define Sarah Palin and then make the case for why we should vote for him. All in all, they’ve thus far clearly out performed their Democratic counterparts. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for tomorrow.