By Lisa Mascaro (contact)

Sun, Aug 31, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Denver — While I was traveling through Northern Nevada this month, a casual conversation with a Republican-leaning small-business man offered a glimpse of the political mood in this state: People are tired, he said.

Tired of the war.

Tired of watching the economy’s free fall.

Tired of the dogfight in Washington that leaves so many problems unfixed.

Of all the soaring rhetoric that filled Mile High Stadium as Sen. Barack Obama accepted his party’s presidential nomination, one word said so much.

“Enough.”

It’s perhaps the simplest talking point ever.

As the Republicans prepare for their national political convention this week in St. Paul, they have a tough act to follow. There will have no football stadium filled to capacity. Probably no fireworks in the night sky.

A balloon drop over a 72-year-old candidate will seem old school compared with the spectacle in Denver where, as so many T-shirts at Invesco Field pointed out, “American history was made.”

On the other hand, the tried and true is a form of comfort food — and a lot of country may well be hungry for that. Already Republicans are saying that theirs will be a more folksy convention, one where their candidate won’t be a rock star emerging from a temple but will connect on a personal level with voters.

From what we’ve seen in the Republican opposition work in Denver, as well as in previews for next week, the party is reviving so many themes that have been successful during the past eight years.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney warned last week of the security risks to the country of an Obama administration he fears is not ready to lead. Nevada Sen. John Ensign will help open the convention on Monday with a speech about freedom.

“I want to share with the American people that Republicans understand the importance of freedom in these coming elections and in our future as a nation,” Ensign said in a statement about his speech. “It is an easy formula — when we side with freedom, we thrive.”

But the Republicans are only partly able to mask the deep divisions in their party.

Although much of the focus in Denver was on the split between supporters of Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, the deeper division in American politics today is for the soul of the Republican Party.

After dominating Washington for 25 years, the Republican Party’s marriage between social conservatism and fiscal restraint is on the rocks.

Polls show that many voters are weary of the social values agenda and its attention on gambling and gay rights, especially at a time housing foreclosures are the worst since the Great Depression and military families are struggling with multiple tours of duty. They are skeptical of Republicans’ claim to fiscal conservatism after the lobbying and spending scandals of the past several years.

Nevada’s own difficulty in being able to agree on a delegation to send to the convention captures part of the divide between party faithful and supporters of Ron Paul, who want a party revolution.

The day after Obama spoke to more than 80,000 in Mile High Stadium, Nevada Senate Minority Leader Steven Horsford, a delegate who was on the field, reflected on difference between the parties.

“There’s no way they can even attempt to match the energy and enthusiasm that was felt at this,” he said.

A black man, with three small children at home, Horsford, too, focused on Obama’s best talking point.

“The word ‘enough’ and the way he said it, captures, wherever they are, the way people feel about the government,” Horsford said. “Enough with not solving America’s problems. We are better than that.”

And then Horsford did something politicians don’t usually do on the phone.

He cried.

“I have two young boys and a little girl. I tell them every day they can be anything they want to be in life. I believe that,” he said. Obama “demonstrated that.”

After McCain accepts his party’s nomination this week, it will be interesting to see whether any of the Nevada Republicans are moved to tears — and whether it matters nine weeks later.