• Hip to be square: They loved Ah-nold. They liked Laura. But oh, those twins! Bloggers at the Republican National Convention groused online about the Tuesday night appearance by Jenna and Barbara, the president's twin daughters, whose scripted dialogue introduced their mother, Laura. The general blog sentiment can be summed up thusly: What were they thinking? One target was the twins' lame joke involving their grandmother, former first lady Barbara Bush, and the TV show Sex and the City.

Attorney/public policy expert John H. Hinderaker on PowerLine (www.powerlineblog.com) had this reaction: "Who wrote that script? Fire him." He elaborated: The problem wasn't so much their performance as their script, which basically confirmed their image as immature airheads. Why this would be seen as a good thing is anyone's guess. It is an iron law of politics that it is pointless and counterproductive for a Republican to try to be 'hip'. To the extent that some strategist thought the twins could reflect some sort of hipness on to the president, he was wrong."

• In this corner...: Thanks to the con-blog-erate Blogs for Bush '04 (www.blogsforbush.com) , we learn that famed boxing promoter Don King - he of the hysterical hairdo - is actually a huge George W. Bush fan. An audio clip of King at the convention has him taunting John Kerry in typical style: "Please, Mr. Kerry, don't take offense, don't take umbrage ... (but) you have two chances to win, slim and none - and slim's out of town."

• The 'enemy' within: Believe it or not, Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic National Committee chairman, was given credentials to attend the GOP convention. He's been making the rounds - and doing his best to make the case for the Democratic ticket - with the bloggers at Madison Square Garden, at one point acting as a "guest blogger" for RedState (www.redstate.org) . Asked why Democrats are generally so much better than Republicans at blogging, he responded: "We are a younger party; there are more young people in the Democratic Party. They grew up online, they are comfortable online, and the natural extension of that is to move their political activity online. The blogs are a big part of that, and will play a big role this year in electing John Kerry and John Edwards."

Meanwhile, law professor/columnist Hugh Hewitt (www.hughhewitt.com) offers a transcript of his own interview with McAuliffe.

Other bloggers got an apparent news "scoop" Wednesday when McAuliffe was caught on tape saying John Kerry went to Cambodia twice during the Vietnam war (www.powerlineblog.com/archives/007689.php), further muddying the waters over the Democratic nominee's military service.

If you spot any convention-related blogs we should check out, particularly by bloggers with ties to Greater Cincinnati, let us know. Send your suggestions to Ray Cooklis at rcooklis@enquirer.com