The words "fun" and "political speech" usually don't go together - unless you, like me, watched John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday with the members of the Salt Lake City chapter of Drinking Liberally.

The group, which is as dedicated to liberal causes as it is to having a good time, gathered at Saints and Sinners, a private club in South Salt Lake, to watch McCain's speech. About 30 or 40 people showed up - including the Democratic challengers for governor and lieutenant governor, Bob Springmeyer and Josie Valdez.

Drinking Liberally was born in New York City in May 2003, and boasts 293 chapters in all 50 states. The Salt Lake chapter has been around for about three years, according to Heather Culligan, one of the three "hosts" of the McCain event. (The chapter meets regularly on the second and fourth Fridays of the month at Piper Down, 1492 S. State St., Salt Lake City.)

Valdez, who was in Denver the previous week for the Democratic National Convention, remarked on how disorganized and dispirited the Republican rank-and-file looked on the floor of Xcel Energy Center. "We had better sign flow and coordination at our party," Valdez said.

Once McCain's speech started, everybody was gathered around the TV with their beer glasses ready. Culligan had passed out copies of a drinking game (devised by Drinking Liberally's Portland, Ore., chapter) to go with the speech. Most got into the game with good spirit, though there was one loud angry guy who kept getting louder and angrier as his beer intake increased. I hope he got home OK. Here's the drinking-game scorecard, as I tallied it:

- Sip when McCain says taxes should be cut: 6

- Sip when he mentions Barack Obama by name: 6

- Sip when he talks about his bipartisan record: 3

- Sip when he refers to his running mate, Sarah Palin, as a reformer: 1

- Sip when he talks about the "surge" being a success: 1

- Sip when he says we have to stay in Iraq until we win: 1

- Drink when he mentions he's a POW: 1

- Drink when he refers to Palin's "executive experience": 1

- Drink when he acknowledges that most Americans think the economy is in bad shape: 3

- Chug when he calls himself a maverick: 2

And we didn't even make it to the end of the speech, because the bar's regular Thursday night reggae band, Soul Redemption, started playing at 10 p.m. Those who wanted to catch the rest of the speech did so without sound, with the closed-captioning on.

As it turns out, good reggae music is the perfect way to relax after fiery political rhetoric.

vulture@sltrib.com