I was not a big admirer of Rudy Giuliani on the campaign trail, since (as Joe Biden pointed out) his foreign policy boiled down to variations on: "9/11 -- any questions?"

But he is by far the most joyously effective speaker so far in making the anti-Obama/Biden case. His little riff on "Maybe Gov Palin's home town is not .... cosmopolitan enough for Senator Obama" had its nasty undertone but as delivered was pretty funny. If the Republicans know what they're doing, they'll have him as point man of the attack machine for the next two months.

OTOH: By the logic of his "zero" passage -- Obama has never led or run anything, zero, a passage that was wildly popular in the arena -- what, exactly, has McCain ever run? Unless he was head of a unit of naval aviators, it would seem that his managerial experience is identical to Obama's: They biggest thing each has run is a nationwide campaign this year. Still, an effective job by Rudy.

UPDATE: Did I hear this right? Early in the speech, Giuliani quoted the old saw about jury trials, which usually goes: "If the facts are against you, cite the law; if the law is against you, cite the facts." But as I heard it, Rudy said: "If the facts are against you, change them."

Could he really have said that? Freudian slip??