Editor 's Note : Award-winning journalist and best-selling author Carl Bernstein , best known for his reporting work with Bob Woodward about the Watergate scandal , serves as a political analyst for CNN . Most recently , Bernstein wrote `` A Woman in Charge : The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton , '' a detailed portrait of the junior senator from New York and former Democratic presidential candidate . Carl Bernstein says Republicans returned to old themes , including patriotism , to attack Democrats . ( CNN ) -- Democrats take note : the Republican convention was resolutely on-message Tuesday night , sounding old themes and buzzwords that have worked for the GOP in the past . It 's those same themes that John McCain , who once rejected the approach , has now embraced as the only way to the White House . `` The Angry Left , '' `` Liberals , '' `` The Media , '' -- the familiar litany of right-wing Republican demons -- rocked the house in St. Paul , Minnesota . The message : McCain , Sarah Palin and the Republicans are the true party of patriotism , as if the Democrats are n't . In the repetitious theme of the evening , the Republicans would `` Put Country First , '' as if the Democrats would n't . The Democrats ' first response to the evening , in a statement from the Obama campaign about the GOP 's failure to address economic problems in the country , said nothing -- perhaps at its peril -- about the real Republican message . The theme was first sounded by actor Robert Duvall in the short film he narrated ; followed by speaker after speaker and later interspersed in filmed tributes to Ronald Reagan and to a Navy Seal hero who died in Iraq . That is the theme invoked as the motif of John McCain 's life . Perhaps the most extreme example of the implication that the Republicans have a lock on patriotism and `` Putting Country First '' came in video footage of a first-responder going underwater to rescue occupants of a car that plummeted in the Minneapolis bridge collapse . ( No word at the convention about problems of infrastructure in the country -- just people ( apparently only Republicans ) who would `` Put Country First . '' Meanwhile , consistent with the demonizing subtext of this theme , President Bush attacked ( rather incongruously , but with plenty of antecedents in Republican history ) `` The Angry Left '' -- perhaps an attempt to stigmatize those who would question Sarah Palin 's credentials . A quick video tribute to Ronald Reagan referred to `` the media [ who ] despised him . '' Former Sen. Fred Thompson pounded Barack Obama as `` the most liberal '' presidential candidate in history , and brought the convention to its feet . He also warned of losing the Supreme Court to the Democrats and `` liberalism '' ( to delirious applause ) . Thompson said McCain 's pick of Palin had thrown the Democrats ' `` friends in the media into a state of panic '' ( pandemonium in the hall ) . John McCain , in a different time in his life ( i.e . running against George W. Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000 ) , specifically rejected this approach . He courted and charmed the dreaded `` media '' monolith and enunciated a post-partisan vision ( yet definitely consistent with conservative orthodoxy on many big questions ) . McCain also railed against the culture wars that his party and campaign are now intent on stoking as the way to victory . ( Remember , only months ago , when the promise of this election was that there were two nominees who understood the enduring damage of the culture wars to the country and its political system ? ) Will the Republican message on display last night work ? It was essential to George W. Bush 's defeat of John Kerry and pulled Bush to parity with Al Gore in 2000 . George H.W . Bush relied on the approach in 1988 . Bill Clinton recognized the strategy , addressed it substantively and forthrightly and buried it . The McCain campaign and the Republican Party of 2008 are betting that Barack Obama wo n't be nimble enough to repeat Clinton 's feat , and that they have found the formula ( including putting Palin on the ticket at a moment when the election seemed to be eluding them ) to victory . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer .
Tuesday 's themes at GOP convention dealt with patriotism , `` Putting Country First '' President Bush attacked `` The Angry Left '' at convention . Bernstein : " It was a very strong speech by the president and it really hit home for me because I have been in politics all my life