I just saw a blurb on Drudge Report, comparing the ratings of the DNC's second night versus that of the RNC. Recall that DNC had Hillary Clinton as a headliner. Ratings were very high, with just under 26 million viewers. Compared to 21.5 million for day two of the RNC, I have to believe they are very pleased with the results - there were no headliners speaking yesterday, and the convention was still slow to pickup after Hurricane Gustav. In any event, tonight is THE night for the RNC. Forget about John McCain's speech for the time being. Tonight has the big speakers - Romney, Huckabee, Giuliani and the most important - Sarah Palin. Barack Obama's historic speech had 38.4 million viewers. After talking with friends and family, Democrat and Republican alike - they are all interested in seeing the Palin speech. Drudge briefly had the headline:

All Eyes on Sarah; Nets Prepare for Record Audience

Now, the ratings matter for one very good reason in my book - If the ratings are near that, or surpassing that of Obama's speech, it will not guarantee anything with the election, but it will show that the Republican ticket has officially got the mojo back is was missing. Demographics hint that the Palin speech could indeed have those ratings. Lets face it, women outnumber African-Americans by a large margin in the country, and many of us are too young to remember the last time a Woman was in this position, as Geraldine Ferraro was in 1984. Yes, Hillary was close this year, but she wasn't actually on the ticket. I expect the Palin speech tonight to push the night over 30 million viewers. Should it push that number to 35 million, the Obama camp should be extremely worried by the shift in momentum - not in the polls, but in the interest of Americans. If it somehow *gasp* passes the Obama speech which was so lauded in the media, the Democrats will officially have wet themselves. Of course, this is dependent on Palin delivering a rousing speech. Anything other than contempt from the media will be a success for someone who they are looking for any reason to claim failure, which is shown from all of the shameless attacks. This is the make or break night for Republicans. Either McCain was a genius, or we've all been played the fool.