Derb: Smaller government will never be a rallying cry that will garner much support. The appeal has to be for more freedom – and then you have to make clear why only smaller government will achieve that.

Mark: When I was at the RNC I was surprised by how little attention was paid to voter fraud – which everyone knew was an important issue. I suspect folks were afraid that to take it on would bring accusations of racism with which no one is prepared to deal.

Re: New Hampshire: I wonder if there wasn’t an “observer effect.” The media told everyone that Hillary was going to lose and that this was the fall of the House of Clinton. That thought – welcome as it may be to conservatives — caused many Democrats who had been inclined to vote for Obama to change their minds at the last minute. (Also, as Rich has theorized, many independents may have thought Obama didn’t need their vote so they voted for McCain instead.)