OIL PRICES CLOSE at a five-month low.

MORE ANALYSIS: Running Palin and McCain’s’s speeches through the Word Cloud.

DAVID BERNSTEIN ON RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE IN AMERICA: “Even though studies consistently show that conservative evangelical Christians are no more likely to be anti-Semitic than others (the ADL, for example, notes based on years of study that neither religion nor political ideology drive anti-Semitism), many American Jews, especially liberal, secular American Jews, have a disturbing tendency to suspect all evangelical Christians of being hostile to Jews.” I wonder why that is?

DELL ENTERS the tiny laptop market.

JIM TREACHER SPOTS SOME ASTROTURFING. Plus this: “Hey, you know who else was a community organizer? Don Corleone.” Ouch.

UPDATE: Reader Thomas Prewitt emails that the astroturf is biblically inaccurate: “Jesus was actually not a community organizer. He was the Messiah, and he left the organizational stuff to the apostles who started the early church. The true organizer of the New Testament was actually Paul. His letters to the different churches mentored those communities. And, he lived a life much more like that of John McCain. Many of his letters were written from prison where he was beaten.” Well, that last comparison may be a stretch . . .

EXCLUSIVE PJTV VIDEO of last night’s Code Pink protester at the RNC being escorted out. It’s free, but you may have to register. Though I understand that some lefty blogs were claiming she was mishandled, the video — which tracks her for quite a while — demonstrates otherwise. Plus, some comments by James Lileks on the lameness of the antiwar protests in St. Paul.

HMM: Height Linked With Prostate Cancer Risk.

AN EMAIL FROM MICHAEL YON IN AFGHANISTAN: “Lots of fighting here. In some areas (for instance where I have been), there is about 80% chance of getting into combat when you step off the FOB. Morale among British soldiers is very high. Even higher, I would say, than I saw in Iraq.”

MCCAIN’S SPEECH: Not bad. But, like Obama, he was overshadowed — Obama by Bill Clinton, McCain by Sarah Palin.

UPDATE: Thoughts on the speech from Professor Bainbridge. And more from Megan McArdle. Meanwhile, on TV Karl Rove is saying “It’s the best speech he’s given on a Teleprompter, but it’s not that great. . . . It was a workmanlike speech but it’s not what we saw last night.”

John Hinderaker on PJTV: “This was not a speech that was pitched to political sophisticates at all. It was aimed at the middle.”

HERE’S THE FULL TEXT OF MCCAIN’S SPEECH. And I didn’t have to go to The Corner to get it this time! Click “read more” to read it.

OKAY, THE MCCAIN BIO VIDEO was pretty weak. I can’t believe they didn’t do a better job given what they had to work with.

UPDATE: On the other hand, Ann Althouse liked it: “Excellent film presentation of the story of John McCain.” Seemed weak to me.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Megan McArdle liked it too. Maybe it was designed to appeal to women?

ANN ALTHOUSE IS liveblogging the RNC.

UPDATE: Josh Trevino: “I am considerably less excited about his big speech this evening than I was about Sarah Palin’s. This partly because we know McCain, and there is no anticipation of the new; and it is partly because I am doubtful that he can match Palin in delivery or ease.”

OBAMA: SURGE SUCCEEDED BEYOND ‘WILDEST DREAMS’:

“I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama said while refusing to retract his initial opposition to the surge. “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”

Actually, I think it succeeded in ways that John McCain anticipated. And General Petraeus, who was mocked by Obama-supporting MoveOn as “General Betrayus.”

WELL, JOHN MCCAIN MAY HAVE A HARD TIME outshining Sarah Palin, but he shouldn’t have much trouble outdoing Tom Ridge.

VIRGINIA POSTREL on Sarah Palin and Cowgirl Glamour.

UPDATE: Sportschicks for Palin.

FINISHED NEAL STEPHENSON’S ANATHEM a bit ago, which is a good thing since I have a review due tomorrow. It’ll be a positive review.

A GOLD MEDAL for Joe Biden.

DANIEL DREZNER on Russia, Georgia and the balance of power.

WITH VIOLENCE, AND AN IRRETRIEVABLY CORRUPT POLITICAL LEADERSHIP, I think we should just pull out of Chicago: “Nearly 125 Shot Dead In Chicago Over Summer. Total Is About Double The Death Toll In Iraq.”

A BIG SALE OF DVDS for Emmy-nominated TV shows.