* As we’ve seen, the Charlotte security game plan wasn’t a Xeroxed copy of Tampa’s. Yeah, Charlotte has all those banks, but it helps not to be the GOP–and the nerve center for the war on Muslim terrorism.
* How many more times will we be reminded that meaningful mass transit would be helpful around here?
* Not unlike Super Bowls and Final Fours, all those network cutaway shots of a downtown skyline and shimmering waterfront played well on TV. No police, plywood, fencing or barricades were visible.
* Down the road, Tampa 2012 will look increasingly impressive in the city’s Power Point presentations to prospects. If you can host one of these, whatever the onerous security tradeoff, you’re a major player.
* What a sad commentary that de facto military occupation was–understandably–considered necessary to properly host the Republican National Convention in 2012.
* To be sure, the Daily Beast, Comedy Central and even old-school, mainstream media had sport with Tampa’s reputation for strip joints and mob lore. Hey, we own it. That’s life. It’s also low-hanging fruit that comes with the media/show biz territory–as well as lazy journalism. So it was gratifying to see media periodically focus on something other than clichéd broadsides in lame pursuit of local-color angles. Here’s an example from Kate Murphy, a Houston journalist who was free-lancing for the New York Times: “The mojitos and Spanish tapas right here in Tampa at Tinatapa’s, close by the Republican National Convention venue–fantastic!”
* Early reviews are positive for Front Row Tampa Bay. That’s the cutting-edge, Web production effort put together by the Tampa Bay Partnership to market this region. TBP raised $400,000 to livestream pro-Tampa Web interviews with local business leaders.
* Paul Ryan played well to the delegates. Then, again, so did Clint Eastwood. The former was an exercise in smirky disingenuousness, sort of Eddie Munster meets Eddie Haskell. The latter a sad reminder of what remains of Dirty Harry.
* Maybe the most impressive GOP Convention speaker was former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. After referencing her inspirational story of growing up in the segregated South, she transitioned into foreign affairs. Rice then gave, as few could, a foreign policy lecture, in effect, to the assemblage. But then she had to make an awkward segue. Rice had to pivot into improbable support for the GOP ticket, the weakest in memory on foreign policy qualifications.
* New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the keynote speaker, caught a lot of flak for his so-called “Me, me, me” presentation. He’ll survive the criticism. Recall the heckling and derisive cheers that were responses to the poorly-delivered, long-winded opening night address to the Democratic Convention in Atlanta in 1988. Didn’t hurt Bill Clinton in 1992.
* Had it not been for Jeb Bush, history would have been made: There would not have been any reference at all to the most recent Republican president. George W. Bush’s brother reminded the convention of who it was that “kept us safe.”