The real battle is who the voters hate more: government or business.

We had a flight out of SLC on USAirways. Flight cancelled. They did fly us to Phoenix; we had to get up at 4:30 to catch the Phoenix-Pittsburgh flight.

The reason we flew USAirways was because it had a 1:30 flight so we didn't have to get up in the morning!

Then they make us pay for water! People need water so they don't get dehydrated in airliner cabins!

Of course, then we had to go through those idiotic security lines. We had to throw out four ounces of sunscreen. Three-point-four ounces was OK. But not four.

So who is more hated -- that's the question.

liveblogging -- Romney

Schools free of porn and drugs and promiscuity? Where oh where are they?

He's a clear, forceful speaker. Decent campaigner. Decent jab: Let's keep Al Gore's private jet on the ground.

I can see why McCain doesn't want to stand next to him on a podium.

But I can also see why McCain just plain can't stand him.

Romney has Barackitis -- he can't help basking in the glow of his own admiration.

8:26 Huckabee comes out.

He is affable; as they say, he seems sincere, and if you can fake that ....

He's very good. Sly wit, good line, "tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert."

Respectful of Obama. Very good. Better than Romney's abrasiveness, here.

Quotes phony Lincoln line about what government can take.

"I didn't want to wait the rest of my life for the government to rescue me."

He's good. Too bad he's a sleazebag.

8:35 -- the McCain story. They have to beware of overusing it.

OK, the story about the teacher and the desks is corny, but it moved me. I'm a wuss, OK?

8:06 Romney on. He IS a little too slick. He's blasting the east coast elites.

Um, isn't he a venture-capital billionaire who was governor of Massachusetts?

And a little too handsome.

He's not a bad speaker. OK, he's a good one. But that question and answer schtick doesn't work.

Sarah -- and Jason?

Fascinating insights into Palin from the middle-left:

Former mayor? If you're going to skip over her job as governor and, before that, her job heading the commission that oversees production of the largest petroleum reserves in America, why not "former high school student"? Bah, what does it matter: She's just a small town mayor, just a hockey mom, just a beauty pageant queen. Palin has never shunned these belittling monikers, in part, I imagine, because the camouflage has served her so well. Soothed by the litany, her opponents tend to sleep too late, sneer too much, and forget who it is that hires them.

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And, by the way, does her big win over an incumbent remind anyone of Jason Chaffetz?

GOP spin

Don't tell me the Republicans can't work the media.

First, they ditch Bush and Cheney because there's a storm near Louisiana.

There's always a storm this time of year there.

As for N'awlins, IT'S BELOW SEA LEVEL.

Then they get the soap opera going. It's kind of fun seeing Republicans get excited. About anything.

FrontRunner

Bonanza or boondoggle?

For $100M, great. $700M? Utah has greeted it enthusiastically.

But, like the first iPhones, is it overpriced?

Nowhere man

The more I read about Obama, the more I think of the Beatles' Nowhere Man.

Or T.S. Eliot's the Hollow Men:

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

This of course is not surprising for a modern politician. Some have noted already Robert Redford in "The Candidate."

But the danger is that, like others, Obama has tried to fill the void with the energy and drama of radical politics.

Worse, he would inherit a left-wing Congress.