What I should be writing about today is the end of the Democratic National Convention. I should be writing about the moment that Barack Obama took the stage last night at Invesco Field, with U2's "City of Blinding Lights" playing over the loudspeakers (and let me tell you, they were LOUD), and how that one moment in history, no matter how scripted or staged, broke this cynical reporter down to tears.

I should be writing about the mass exodus at Invesco after the benediction, where 80,000 people clogged the streets at the one exit to the light rail, holding up busses and making the wait to get out of Invesco enough to make us all forget about the amazing speech we were just a part of. I should be writing about how people in wheelchairs couldn't get out of the cage that had become Invesco. I should be berating the convention planners who failed to think about what would happen after the convention was over and all 80,000 people they brought into Invesco through a very well-thought out entrance strategy decided they wanted to go home. I should be ashamed of the police, who up until that point, had done a fantastic job in keeping our city secure and the people safe. We were all tired guys, but we still needed to get home safely "” 80,000 of us actually. So while you were standing on the sidewalks (all except for that one genius of an officer who drove his motorcycle into the crowd), lazily watching people tear down fences and running each other over, we were forced to police ourselves. Thank god there wasn't a riot last night.

But no. What I must now turn my attention to is a bigger task at hand. I'm calling it, "Hurricane Palin," otherwise known as John McCain's choice of first-term Alaskan Governor Sarah "I Can't Believe It's Not Moose" Palin as his candidate for Vice President of the United States of America.

By now (I began this blog at 10:00 a.m. and have been putting it off ever since), you're all aware of this woman's "qualifications" to be VP "” and by qualifications I mean she ran a pretty fierce campaign to be Miss Alaska in 1984 (alas, she took home the silver). But did you also know:

a) Mrs. Palin plays the flute.
b) And that she won Miss Congeniality in that same 1984 pageant.
c) And that the winner of Miss Congeniality has no immediate relation to Sandra Bullock.
d) She was a sports reporter for an Anchorage, Alaska television station with hopes of working for ESPN.
e) She catches fish!
f) She likes moose burgers.
g) And that she really, really, really dislikes her ex-brother-in-law.
h) Her nickname in high school "“ Sarah Barracuda.
i) Sarah Barracuda bears no resemblance to an actual barracuda.
j) Palin is now the inspiration for a whole new category of "“ilf. Check out vpilf.com for more details.
k) John McCain had met Sarah Palin twice before naming her his running mate.
l) Speaking of running, Mrs. Palin loves it so much she named her first-born son, Track.
m) Her daughter, Piper, is mad at her crooked tiara in the above photo.

Sigh. Just two days left until the Republican National Convention. Two days before we find out what the new face of the Republican party has to offer and just what this new political storm brings to the Twin Cities.