Ron Paul's speech, and other Republican moments you probably didn't see

I'm just now catching up to the RNC after spending most of last week trying to put video together for my fall TV preview section. Once again, there were some memorable moments that GBC (God Bless C-Span) carried that CNN and MSNBC mostly talked over.

First, let's start with a Republican moment no channel other than GBC bothered with: Ron Paul's speech at the Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis. Unlike Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson -- to name two approved RNC speakers -- Ron Paul actually picked up some delegates during the GOP primaries, 29 to be exact, and raised millions of dollars in small individual contributions from thousands of disaffected Americans. But he was persona non grata across town at the RNC. He spoke before 12,000 fans at the Target Center after Barry Goldwater Jr., the former Republican congressman, introduced him.

Here are other videos, all from C-SPAN. A big tip of the hat to blaise.miller@statestreet.com.

Former House majority leader John Boehner of Ohio speaking out about corruption less than two years after misdeeds by the congresscritters he was supposedly in charge of cost his party the 2006 midterms. One of the great moments of chutzpah at either convention. (Sen. Sam Brownback's speech wins this silver in this category.)

Here's a talk from Carolyn Dunn, a Kansas family farmer. You have to wait for the gum-chewing state senator to finish speaking before she begins. Bob Dole, another native Kansan, enters the room in a big scrum just as Dunn is trying to speak.

The 3-star general who gives this speech is not a great orator, but I must say I admire her devotion to country, the Marines and McCain. She was brief, she was bold and then she was gone.

McCain's BFF, Sen. Lindsey Graham, gave a pretty good talk on Iraq and hit the Democrats on what could turn into an Achilles' heel -- their perceived refusal to acknowledge any kind of success in the war.

C-SPAN's great Convention Hub has videos of other RNC speakers, of course, but I notice even B-listers like Carly Fiorina and Meg Whitman had most of their speeches covered live by CNN and MSNBC. I'm not sure if that was because there was less behind-the-scenes drama at the RNC or because the networks felt the need to give more time to the RNC after the hurricanes cut it short by a day, but that's the way it was.