Former US Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) opened his speech on the legacy of his friend John McCain with the following statement :

We are going to nominate the next President and Vice President of the United States of America.

We do so while taking a different view of our country than that of the other party.

Listening to them you'd think that we were in the middle of a great depression; that we are down, disrespected and incapable of prevailing against challenges facing us.

We know that we have challenges ... always have, always will.

But we also know that we live in the freest, strongest, most generous and prosperous nation in the history of the world and we are thankful.

I was completely taken aback by that part of the speech. It seems to suggest neither the United States nor the global markets have not been affected at all by the implosion of the sub-prime mortgage industry and the subsequent credit crisis that is affect international markets. It also seems to say there that it is "disrespectful" an henceforth anti-patriotic to even suggest the United States is losing it's political and economic stature in the world.

There was no better moment that illustrates the disconnect among the GOP faithful and the reality of what's happening around them. Take for example what the "Obama Bin Biden" t-shirt vendor told me yesterday.

There is no shame in wanting to make an extra buck or two but our friend here was kind of embarrassed about the message he was selling. "Am just trying to make a living", he said. And it was the same line I was given by 3 other buttons and t-shirt vendors in the area.

While waiting for the rain to subside another gentleman had told me that work was hard to come by and that he really didn't care about either republicans or democrats. "I just sell the t-shirts, I don't care about the message. I'll sell to democrats what they want to hear and I'll sell to republicans the same way. It's called marketing."

Both gentlemen were disappointed at the lack of crowds for this convention. One of them said that he always seemed to sell out of stock at Obama rallies. Not so much at the McCain ones. All seemed to agree these are tough economic times and that Republicans seemed to be out of touch with that reality more so than Democrats.

When I asked him who'd he vote he couldn't seem to decide on either. And that seems to be a theme among a lot of St. Paulites I've spoken to. They can't vote for the black guy (one gentleman truly believes Obama is a crypto-muslim). Yet they don't care at all for John McCain.

If these conversations are any indication of the obstacles both nominees will need to overcome to get to the White House, I feel it will be a close race.