Reflections on Palin’s Convention Acceptance Speech
I have mixed feelings about Palin’s speech last night (which is still today for me).
I’ll give her this, she’s a better speaker than I would have anticipated.
When she hit her stride (after being rushed on after a chatty, mugging Giuliani), her style was rather natural, something we’re bound to miss in McCain’s speech tonight.
As I suggested the other day, the bar was set very low for Sarah Palin. She definitely got over it, with some room to spare.
The tone, however, represented just how far this campaign has gotten away from McCain.
He wanted a moderate Republican (Ridge) or a crossover Independent (Lieberman) for personal reasons, but also to draw in independents and liberals.
The speech we saw last night was directed at the choir. Its choleric, mocking tone enthused the base, just as I’m sure it turned away some of those drawn in by McCain’s (once) maverick promise.
Part of the problem, I think, was Giuliani. He was supposed to speak on Monday, but it was moved because of the hurricane.
His barn-burning, angsty rhetoric would have been better then - crazy uncle Rudy gets ‘em all fired up, whilst McCain/Palin talk soberly about the future a couple days later.
Instead, Giuliani’s spoke tonight, and he was having such a good time that they had to cut what I’m sure was a happy-dappy video intro for Palin. So we got much of the same rhetoric back to back, without the feel-good happy in between.
What really stands out for me is the three roars of jeering laughter about community organizing within 20 minutes.
I grant you that I’m a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, but what on Earth is laughable about community organizing? It’s the ultimate ‘pull yourself up by your bootstraps’ activity.
I can see them hitting Obama on the experience angle, but the laughter during all three mentions seemed to be directed the idea of it. It was the one slam of the evening I found truly baffling (aside from Romney calling the Democrats the party of Big Brother, in what I assume was a misspeak).
Anyway, if McCain’s speech is in anywhere near the same vein, I think the Dems will have a compelling argument that he isn’t even driving this flying number of them anymore. I’m really surprised that the story about McCain losing the battle for selection of his own veep isn’t getting more play.
What’s the point of experience if you’re not allowed to use it?
Oh, well, Josh Marshall at TPM said almost exactly the same thing, but more concisely. My blog, living up to its name once again.
Here, read this article instead about the complete lack of elected officials currently running Alaska. My favorite line:
If a special election ensues, look for a comeback of former Gov. Tony Knowles (D), who served from 1994 to 2002, or Mr. Knowles’s lieutenant governor, Fran Ulmer, now chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage, says Marc Hellenthal, a pollster and political consultant who works mostly for Republicans. [Or
…
“After that, it drops off,” on both the Democratic and Republican sides, he says.
Hellenthal added Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich to that list, but Begich is running against Ted Stevens for his Senate seat. Three politicians on this side of the ‘drop off’ - that just makes me laugh.
Speaking of Alaska politics, my Alaskan aunt says that while Palin did put the plane up on E-bay, it didn’t sell. And they eventually sold it for a loss to a private buyer. She’s right.
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