New York

SO FAR AS ONE CAN TELL at this moment, the Republican convention seems to have been a success. The protests were large, but not all-consuming. Most of the ugliest conflicts came in small, interpersonal doses, not en masse. The city of New York was not just host, to the convention, it was its second-biggest star, and it provided the focal point for the Republicans’ message: The GOP is the party of September 12th.

President Bush gave two speeches Thursday night. The first one was a domestic policy speech that was slow, bordering on turgid. Despite the sluggishness, though, the speech covered important ground. He proposed a major reform of the tax code and the creation of “opportunity zones,” which resemble Empowerment Zones for blue-collar areas. He called for tort reform (a subtle jab at John Edwards) and, in one particularly transparent passage, noted, “As I have traveled our country, I have met too many good doctors, especially OB-GYNS, who are being forced out of practice because of the high cost of lawsuits.”