Governor Chris Christie is scheduled to deliver one of the most anticipated prime-time speeches at the GOP Convention tomorrow night. But apparently, he believes it's all for naught.

Gov. Chris Christie wasn’t willing to give up the New Jersey statehouse to be Mitt Romney’s running mate because he doubted they’d win, The Post has learned.

Romney’s top aides had demanded Christie step down as the state’s chief executive because if he didn’t, strict pay-to-play laws would have restricted the nation’s largest banks from donating to the campaign — since those banks do business with New Jersey.

But Christie adamantly refused to sacrifice his post, believing that being Romney’s running mate wasn’t worth the gamble.

“[Christie] felt, at one point, that [President] Obama could lose this. And, look, there still is that chance. But he knows, right now, you have to say it’s unlikely,” one source said.

Whoops.

Christie, who is a darling of establishment conservatives, flirted with a run himself, but must have made the calculation that Obama was going to be too difficult to beat, and decided to sit 2012 out. If that was his thinking about his own run, then he certainly wouldn't want to go down in flames as Romney's number two, especially since Team Willard wanted him to give up his post.

In any event, this is not the story Mitt Romney wanted plastered all over the media going into the convention.

Maine Politics has the story about how this wackiness is spreading:

An overwhelming majority of delegates to the Maine Republican convention tonight voted to scrap the the proposed party platform and replace it with a document created by a group of Tea Party activists.

The official platform for the Republican Party of Maine is now a mix of right-wing fringe policies, libertarian buzzwords and outright conspiracy theories.

The document calls for the elimination of the Department of Education and the Federal Reserve, demands an investigation of "collusion between government and industry in the global warming myth," suggests the adoption of "Austrian Economics," declares that "'Freedom of Religion' does not mean 'freedom from religion'" (which I guess makes atheism illegal), insists that "healthcare is not a right," calls for the abrogation of the "UN Treaty on Rights of the Child" and the "Law Of The Sea Treaty" and declares that we must resist "efforts to create a one world government."

It also contains favorable mentions of both the Tea Party and Ron Paul. You can read the whole thing here.

Dan Billings, who has served as an attorney for the Maine GOP, called the new platform "wack job pablum" and "nutcase stuff."

Despite the document's crazy content, Maine Republican Party Chair Charlie Webster insisted to the AP that all of the elements in the platform are things that Republicans support. He claimed to the Press Herald that these issues reflect the values of working-class Mainers.

The teabaggers helped fuel Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, but when he was asked to appear a a Boston-Palin-Tea Party rally he declined.

Scott Brown and Sarah Palin are the stars of the Republican Party, but you won't be seeing them together anytime soon.

Brown is passing on the opportunity to appear at a Tea Party rally this week in Boston along side the former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Michael Graham: show some courage, Scott Brown. Come to the Tea Party.

An earful of criticism from Boston conservative talk radio host Michael Graham and his supporters aimed at Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown following word that Brown will not be attending Wednesday's Tea Party rally on Boston Common - featuring Sarah Palin and expected to draw thousands of people.

Peter on Cape Cod: I'm going to harbor a guess that Scott Brown isn't going to be there because Sarah Palin is going to be there.

The Tea Party is a populist protest movement that promotes fiscal conservatism --national attention grew last year as members became vocal opponents of health care reform at rallies around the country.

Mass. Republican convention delegate: I'm not afraid to ask his people, what is this all about. These are the very same people who got you elected Mr. Brown.

It looks to me like Scott Brown has his eyes focused on the ultimate prize, the White House, and I think he's realizing that if he wants to achieve that goal, then linking himself too tightly to the Tea Partiers will have a negative impact on his overall credibility. He'll keep saying positive words about them so he can keep some of their followers at bay.

Brown already disappointed teabaggers by voting against a GOP filibuster on a jobs bill.

In addition to offering its support, the Tea Party Express PAC spent nearly $300,000 backing Brown or attacking his opponent Martha Coakley. “If it wasn’t for the Tea Party movement, Scott Brown wouldn’t have gotten that seat,” said one Tea Party activist.

But after Brown voted to block a GOP filibuster on a $15 billion jobs bill, tea partiers shot back with charges of “letdown,” “betrayal,” “sellout,” and “RINO” (”Republican in name only”). The Boston Herald reports that Brown has now “snubbed” the group:

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, whose stunning victory in January was fueled in part by Tea Party anger, has snubbed the fiery grassroots group and declined its invitation to join Sarah Palin Wednesday at a massive rally on Boston Common, the Herald has learned.

Brown’s decision to skip the first big rally in Boston by the group whose members are credited with helping him win election has some experts saying he’s tossed the Tea Party overboard, as he prepares for re-election in 2012.

--

Tea Party Express chairman Mark Williams downplayed Brown’s move, saying, “It’s not about paying favors back.” And Brown’s spokesperson said the Senator is simply too busy to get away from the Senate. But experts called Williams’ view “naive” and questioned whether Brown has to stay in Washington

Mark Williams is playing the useful idiot game at this time and he's good at that. Sarah Palin couldn't care less if he's there because she's found that being a quitter can really pay off: $12 million worth, that is.

Scott Brown voted yesterday with the Democrats again on a jobs bill that included a year-long extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits.

In two cases now Brown joined several other Republican moderates to buck his party and help Democrats narrowly defeat filibuster.

The most recent occurred Tuesday afternoon – a cloture vote on Democrats’ most recent jobs bill, which has a year-long extension of unemployment and COBRA benefits as well as extending popular tax credits for a host of issues. Cloture was invoked 66-34.

The problem is that the bill adds $100 billion to the federal deficit. And Brown said today he doesn’t support it.

Brown sounded downright Senatorial explaining his vote on the Senate floor, explaining that while he opposes the bill in its current form, it has been debated for a week and he feels like it is time to “move the process forward.”

He has to win reelection first in 2012, so I imagine he'll straddle the fence on a lot of these votes to make Massachusetts happy and for now many in the teabagger movement will suck it up.

Hey, the Sally Quins in the media won't mind as long as he remains a beefcake. Maybe he'll do a Christmas calendar just for her.

The Republican Party has a huge problem on their hands. They are quickly being taken over by the most extreme, paranoid, fringe elements in our society and this case is just another glaring example of the path they are on:

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho Republican Party leader who helped oust the state GOP chairman in 2008 faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after an altercation escalated while he photographed a home with a delinquent mortgage.

Challis McAffee, 33, the GOP chairman from the Boise suburb of Garden City and one of 231 voting members of the Idaho Republican Central Committee, was in Ada County jail after being accused of pointing a gun at the homeowner.

McAffee, a backer of libertarian-leaning former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul and an activist in this year's anti-big-government "Tea Party" protests, helped organize Paul backers who aligned at last June's Idaho State Republican Convention in Sandpoint with other foes of then-state GOP Chairman Kirk Sullivan. Sullivan was voted from office in favor of Norm Semanko.

According to police in the Boise suburb of Meridian, resident Robert Lutes called officers just before 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to report McAffee had pointed a .357 Magnum handgun at him during a verbal confrontation. McAffee acknowledged he pointed the gun at Lutes, according to the police account.

"I'm unarmed, I'm an old man," Lutes, 51, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "I'm trying to find out why he's taking pictures of my house. I said, 'Knock on my door, let me know what you want.' Then, I think he's reaching for his business card and he pulls out a concealed weapon and I think he's going to blow my head off." Read on...

A group calling itself Idahoans for Liberty is trying to raise bond money for McAffee, but their version doesn't line up with the police account.

Charges are being dropped against over two dozen journalists, including Amy Goodman and her two producers, arrested during the crackdown on protests at the Republican convention in St. Paul. Goodman's charge of "obstructing the legal process" has been dropped, as have felony riot charges against her colleagues Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Other dropped charges are mainly for "unlawful assembly".

The city's mayor had a truly gag-worthy Orwellian statement on the subject:

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said Friday that the city attorney's office recommended against prosecuting reporters for the misdemeanor charge.

"This decision reflects the values we have in St. Paul to protect and promote our First Amendment rights to freedom of the press," Coleman said in a statement.

He added, "At the scene, the police did their duty in protecting public safety. In this decision, we are serving the public's interest to maintain the integrity of our democracy, system of justice and freedom of the press."

One has to wonder if this was the plan all along, and the real intention was simply to inhibit reporting of abuses against protestors. Or maybe they're hoping that with the reporters out of court, the media won't be so interested in covering the 800 or so other arrests. With over forty journalists arrested, there should surely be at least some investigation of police officers involved for trumping up charges too:

Upon learning of the news, Democracy Now! Host, Amy Goodman said, “It’s good that these false charges have finally been dropped, but we never should have been arrested to begin with. These violent and unlawful arrests disrupted our work and had a chilling effect on the reporting of dissent. Freedom of the press is also about the public’s right to know what is happening on their streets. There needs to be a full investigation of law enforcement activities during the convention.”

But I'll bet that won't happen.

Brilliant. The only thing missing is the 4,528 POW references.

Open thread below....

In the most biting of satire, Stephen laughs along with Rudy Giuliani as he disparages Barack Obama's historic campaign, and agrees with Sarah Plain that Barack Obama is a nobody who's only popular for giving great speeches (or in her case, a single speech.)

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Palin: What exactly is our opponent's plan?

Colbert: Exactly! We know nothing about Barack Obama. Only that he can give a great speech... and that is not enough. By the way, Governor Palin, great speech last night.

Apparently Kelly has been held captive for five years, too. There simply is no other explanation.

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"Well I want to tell you in about nine months of traveling with John McCain and hearing hundreds of speeches I have never heard him talk in such great detail about his own personal story with respect to his time as a P.O.W. He has been resistant to do that over time."

That was a joke, right?

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MediaMatters has more.

I think Jeff and I are on the same page here.

"I thought it was the worst speech by a nominee that I've heard since Jimmy Carter in 1980. I thought it was disorganized, I thought it was it was themeless, I thought it was very, very boring [...] I personally cannot remember a single policy proposal that he made because they had nothing connecting them. I found it shockingly bad."

Not only was the speech poorly delivered and mind-numbingly boring, it was without substance. Obama's speech was a generational call to arms to disaffected Americans who are sick and tired of the paralyzing partisanship and unacceptable status quo. Mccain's was boilerplate

While he tried his damndest tonight to distance himself from the past eight years, at the end of the day, John McCain has voted with George W. Bush more than 90% of the time. Hell, we have him on tape bragging about it.

It remains to be seen if the GOP can successfully convince a majority of Americans that John McCain is not responsible for the Bush/McCain legacy.

AP reporter Jim Kuhnhenn tears apart piece by piece all the lies told by the Republicans at last night's convention. In other words, every word spoken is debunked.

HuffPo:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

Make sure to read the whole thing.

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin does a little demolition of his own.

And Will Bunch calls it Sarah Palin's Speech to Nowhere.

I hope America wakes up tomorrow and realizes that Sarah Palin's words were rousing -- and completely empty, that they offered no road map (let alone bridge) for America other than more of the bogus partisan name-calling that has gotten us into the mess that we're in now.