The media has always been a convenient pinata for politicians but the level of vitriol aimed at the media during the Republican National Convention signals a renewed assault on what the GOP considers bias - or a red-meat campaign issue with the byproduct of taking some heat off Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

Speaker after speaker pounded the media Wednesday night, accusing news organizations of slanted and sexist coverage in their reporting about the 44-year-old Alaska governor and her family.

"I'd like to thank the elite media for doing something that quite frankly I wasn't sure could be done: and that's unifying the Republican Party and all of America in support of Sen. [John] McCain and Gov. Palin," said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to wild cheers in Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. "The reporting of the past few days has proved tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert."

John McCain stressed bipartisanship during his acceptance speech last night.

M.E. Sprengelmeyer reports:

After a week when other speakers, including his self-described "pit bull" running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, unleashed a constant barrage of attacks on the experience, character and readiness of Democrat Barack Obama, McCain spent more time in his speech trying to create an image as a nonpartisan problem-solver.

"The constant partisan rancor that stops us from solving these problems isn't the cause. It's a symptom," McCain told the crowd at the Xcel Energy Center. "It's what happens when people go to Washington to work for themselves and not you."

Recycling some of the very same themes that helped McCain turn around a campaign written off for dead in the summer of 2007, he told fellow Republicans that their party was part of the problem.

Sen. John McCain promised the nation, "I will not let you down" as he accepted the Republican nomination for President.

McCain asked undecided voters "for the opportunity to earn your trust. I intend to earn it."

To repeated cheers from his delegates, McCain criticized fellow Republicans as well as Obama as he reached out to independents and disaffected Democrats.

Ted Nugent thinks she rocks.

Ann Coulter says the best man turned out to be a woman.

Jeralyn Merritt at TalkLeft.com links to an item that says Palin's first use of the line-item veto, which she praised in her speech, was to cut funding for a state program for unwed mothers who need a place to live.

Andrew Sullivan links to another Palin speech, this one in the Assemblies of God church.

A business coalition that had hoped to head off a fierce fight over labor issues in November's election has failed to convince supporters of a right-to-work amendment to pull their issue off the ballot.

If the right-to-work issue had been pulled, labor proponents would have yanked four initiatives of their own.

Joanne Kelley reports:

Coloradans for Responsible Reform, a campaign group organized by Denver's business chamber and economic development arm, said proponents of the "right-to-work" initiative have concluded they will forge ahead instead of working out a compromise ahead of the November election.

Rocky columnist Mike Littwin says Sarah Palin didn't look like a small-town mayor who had just become one of the first 21st-century governors to dine on moose stew.

She sounded pretty much like the rest of the Republicans on Wednesday night - even if she looked decidedly different from any of them who had ever been a vice presidential nominee.

Mike will be online to talk about his reaction to Palin's speech and how her candidacy will affect the race. E-mail questions/comments in advance and join the chat here at 11.

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska introduced herself to a national primetime audience with a speech that was part biography, part issues and part attack on the Democratic ticket.

"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers," she said in a barbed reference to Barack Obama's campaign theme.

"And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change," she added in remarks prepared for tonight's prime-time address to the Republican National Convention.

Barack Obama will sit for an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly on Thursday, following a secret clear-the-air meeting with Fox News executives three months ago.

During the sit-down in a Waldorf-Astoria hotel suite in Manhattan that included Rupert Murdoch, the network's owner, Obama expressed concern about the way Fox was covering him. "I just wanted to know if I'm going to get a fair shake from Fox News Channel," Ailes recalled him saying.