"Fight For You"

12.46 pm. I can see the logic of this, and she made a good speech. I'm just very unsure what this does to the race. It's a total curve-ball. Will people respond to this - essentially window dressing for female independents? Or will they consider this a trivial, headline-grabbing choice that suggests a lack of seriousness about governing?

12.45 pm. The embrace of Hillary Clinton directly - and Ferraro! - is remarkable. She is directly appealing to Clinton's female supporters to back her because she is a woman. Subtle this wasn't.

12.44 pm. "Only one candidate has truly fought for America." Oh, and she pronounces "nuclear" the Bush way.

12.43 pm. Challenge the status quo and serve the common good. This is about coopting the message of change.

12.42 pm. Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and ... Trig? Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and ... Trig? Maybe we don't need the Romneys. But she has experience on the PTA.

12.41 pm. She mentions her son going to Iraq. Biden, as far as I recall, didn't.

12.40 pm. Her husband's a snow-machine racer!

12.30 pm. Mortgage payments, groceries ... the focus on pocket-book issues is identical to Obama's. And the reference to union members is an obvious attempt to get out of the "elitist" trap.

12.23 pm. This is a populist speech. Democratic in its themes.

12.20 pm McCain's opener is borrowed entirely from Hillary Clinton.