A G.O.P. Drilling Machine

Matt Cooper reports from St. Paul: When you cut through he clutter of Sarah Palin's night at the convention, the optics of the first woman to be nominated for vice president on the Republican ticket; when you get past the drama of her qualifications and her family—the births and teenage marriages—you have to wonder, if you're in business or concerned about the economy, where this party is heading and what's likely to happen come the fall or next January.

On the third night of the convention, Palin took center stage, but so did the economy. Small business owners, mostly Hispanic, were stacked up at the podium like flights at O'Hare. There were captains of industry. The net worth of the corporate speakers ran into the billions. There was former eBay C.E.O. Meg Whitman, former HP Chairman and C.E.O. Carly Fiorina, and a fellow from Bain Capital named Mitt Romney. Most of what they offered was standard Republican fare: pledges of lower taxes, less regulation, less spending. Romney of Harvard Business School and Belmont, Massachusetts denounced "eastern elites."

The evening was also testimony to the degree to which Republicans think they've found a winning issue with drilling. Michael Steele, the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, fired up the crowd with the phrase "drill, baby, drill." And throughout the evening, speaker after speaker paid homage to more domestic oil exploration in places where heretofore it's been banned by Republican and Democratic presidents alike.

Even though oil has plummeted to close to $100 a barrel, the G.O.P. remains wedded to this issue and they think they have a winner. Indeed, it's not impossible to imagine a McCain-Palin administration taking office and not making this one of the highest priorities it brings to office in 100 days. Even more than tax cuts, drilling is now the central organizing issue in the Republican coalition.

For a Portfolio.com video report about how Republican delegates think about the oil issue, click here.

With a vice-president more wedded to the energy industry than even Dick Cheney, it's hard to see how McCain could dial back on these promises. I wouldn't start buying nuclear power stocks. The opposition to nukes is still formidable, but drilling feels like an inevitable product of a Republican win.

On the political front, the G.O.P. effort to go after rural, agrarian Americans was up front tonight. Palin's speech extolled basic mores and even Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, ridiculed Barack Obama for seeming to sneer at small town values. I spoke with a leading Republican organizer from a swing state tonight who noted that Obama's rural numbers remain amazingly low in this person's Midwestern state. If Obama fails in his bid to win red states like Virginia, Colorado, Montana, Nevada and Ohio it will be because they failed in the rural vote and instead pursued a strategy that was urban and suburban heavy. Some Democrats are fighting back with a strategy that emphasizes McCain's opposition to farm subsidies and ethanol production.

Of course, the drill-now, tax-cutting message of this convention is at odds with a lot of what McCain stood for. He opposed—and still opposes—drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, although he's backing off of that. And he famously opposed the major Bush income tax cuts. Now, he's for a plan that would keep income tax rates at their current levels but he'd cut capital gains taxes, repeal the alternative minimum tax, and slash a number of business taxes, most importantly to vastly speed up depreciation schedules. Tax cutting is still at the center of the party.

As for other things business cares about? Well, immigration reform and health care reform got short shrift tonight. There wasn't a lot about the liquidity and mortgage messes either. It was really a gas pump night, a Palin night. And in that sense it was slightly dated, about a problem that seems to be correcting itself.

No matter. The Republicans are fired up and ready to go, to quote that other guy.

Matt Cooper

Photo caption: Sarah Palin speaks to the audience during the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Photo by Melissa Golden / Rapport.

Get more from the Republican convention in St. Paul with these:
-- Should We Take Economic Advice From Fiorina?
-- Republicans' Bizarre Night
-- Mr. Rove, They're Ready for You in Makeup
-- The G.O.P.s Gov Child.
-- The Republicans Get a Mulligan With Gustav.
-- McCain's Pick of Palin a Game Changer.
-- Drill, Baby, Drill!
-- Where to Eat in the Twin Cities.
-- How to Party Like a Rockstar TV Star With Republicans.

Get a recap of what happened with the Democrats in Denver:
-- The End of the Affair.
-- Obama Gets Down to Business.
-- Are Obama's Donors Tapped Out?
-- Google's Schmidt: "They Have Guns and We Don't"
-- Why Does Everyone Want In on the Act?
-- I'm T. Boone Pickens and This Will Save America.
-- The Election According to Mr. Burns.
-- The Portfolio.com Capital Index.