For what it’s worth, apart from the autobiographical sections, the rest of the speech was written before her selection!

I thought the laundry list of foreign place names obviously thrown in to let the world rest easy, confident in the fact that she could read “Caucasus” aloud without a major FCC fine was amusing at best, a troublingly telling at worst.

Natural speaker? – Yeesh.

“I am a hockey Mom”

“I kill things”

“Obama is a bad man, I am a woman!”

Now picture it with that nails on a chalkboard accent. I thought it was awful..no cadence indeed. That speech exemplified the worst in the Bushist assault on language…non-sequitor truisms and slogans.

“Freedom is on the march. We will win. America is strong” yada yada.

Andrew, you’re smarter than this.

http://macleans.ca/world/wire/article.jsp?content=w090482A

His personal story – from his five months as a prisoner of war in Vietnam to his penchant for going against Washington’s status quo – helped earned him the moniker, the Maverick.

Should be 5 years as a prisoner of war.

Please post a correction.

Thanks

An $11 Billion State budget.

15,000 state employees.

It’s time for a Sarah Palin autobiography or two.

I don’t remember any petty snips being taken at McCain in Denver, do you? And Lord were there ever opportunities. You think if the Democratic candidate were involved in something like the Keating Five we’d ever hear the end of it from the GOP?

I understand that the Republican party is in a panic, but one of the hallmarks of a good President is calm and good judgement under pressure, and so far we’ve seen none of that from McCain. In fact, we’ve seen only desperate flailing, which, really, really doesn’t bode well for a potential Commander-in-Chief.

I disagree who started the culture war this US election has turned into. It was the belittling of Palin by Obama campaign and their media comrades that started the culture war discussion and Palin was just fighting back in her Wednesday night speech. And Palin did talk about foreign policy when she talked about making her country more energy independent.

What did Biden say in his speech, other than blow smoke up his boss’ arse, that was so enlightening? The party’s presidential nominee is supposed to lay out the vision and the vp pick is the attack dog so president can project his ‘above it all’ facade.

I think it is going to be deadly for Obama if the discussion continues to focus on Obama/Palin because Obama is running for number one job while Palin is up for number two position. Surely Obama doesn’t want discussions about who is more experienced.

“On the other hand, you have a resume from a gifted man with an Ivy League education. He worked as a community organizer. What? He worked — I said — I said, OK, OK, maybe this is the first problem on the resume.” – Rudy Guiliani

I don’t blame Sarah Palin for using her speech to talk about her family and take petty snips at Obama. What the hell else was she going to talk about? Her foreign policy views? I’m amazed we didn’t hear more about aerial wolf hunting.

Slight overreach there. What she mocked was the double standard, i.e. sneering at small town mayors (his campaign has a bigger payroll!) and pretending away her executive experience (and the $7B state budget).

Glass ceilings? They tried to stuff her in a Petri Dish. With a smile she smashed the dish, stuck in the shiv deeper than HRC managed in 6 months of trying, and compelled equal consideration for her own experience.

Today’s polls have her 1 pt ahead of Obama on favourables (same result with independents) and within polling margin of Obama on experience .

Peggy Noonan offered a caution today about the MSM and the blogsphere on left AND right making all of this way too personal:

Everyone really ought to stop, breathe deep, and think.

I am worried they won’t. A friend IM’d the day after Palin’s speech, and I told him of an inexplicable sense of foreboding. He surprised me by saying he shared it. “Calling all underworlds reporting for duty!,” he wrote. “The bed is about to fly around the room, the puke is about to come out.” He meant: this campaign is going to engage unseen powers and forces. He meant: this campaign, this beautiful golden thing with two admirable men at the top and two admirable vice presidential candidates, is going to turn dark.

First off, I wasn’t really supporting Obama, so I’m a fairly poor springboard for you to use. Political affiliation aside, I tend to respect the effort and thought required to write a book and get it published. Many Republicans seem willing to make fun of it.

As things stand, I haven’t heard much in a way of substantive policy and platform discussion from either party. If I were an American, I’d be unsure of which way to vote on that basis.

But one thing I’d be certain of – and repulsed by – is the pervasive illogic and anti-intellectualism of the Republicans.

Any journalist who examines Republican ideas or people with skepticism and dilligence is automatically written off as part of the “liberal media”. Honest questions of your candidates are seen as attacks, while you have no problem putting forward bizarre conspiracy theories about Obama’s motives.

Obama’s community service is made fun of – and discounted as evidence of meaninful involvement of public life. But at the same time, crashing a plane and getting tortured is pretty much all I hear as a reason to vote for McCain. That, and his “maverick” ways… I guess it’s good to be hard to define if you’re a Republican, but suspicious if you’re a Democrat?

My little quip about Republicans and reading was meant to be unfair for the sake of humour, but I’m starting to wonder if I was on to something.

…except, you know, for the 800+ pieces of legislation under his name in the Illinois State Senate and the nearly 600 pieces of legislation he’s either authored or co-sponsored during his time in the US Senate. But why let facts get in the way of a talking point?

If it weren’t for the fact that he has his name on 800+ laws in Illinois and nearly 600 bills that he’s either sponsored or co-sponsored in the US Senate (a few of which can be found here, this would be a totally accurate, convincing and valid point!

Alas, that’s not the case. His one and only thesis is missing in action. There’s nothing with his name attached in the edition of the Harvard Law Review he presided over. He produced no works of scholarship–or otherwise–as a professor of Constitutional law at the University of Chicago. There are no amicus briefs in the public record that I’m aware of. There is no signature legislation either in the Illinois legislature or in the US Senate. Zip. Nada. Zilch. It’s almost as though he made a calculated decision long ago to avoid a paper trail in case one day he decided to run for political office. Which is exactly what he did (he admitted as much). So, please don’t lecture us about our willingness to read.

So the line about hope not being a strategy is more than clever, it is useful. The same is true of cracks about mayors and community organizers, and what is said in Scranton versus San Francisco.

And for that matter, zingers on Palin’s claims about bridges to nowhere will also be useful. But for some reason there haven’t been many about McCain himself.

I’d rather see negative politics than critics of the government being beaten up and thrown in jail. That only happens in far away places like Zimbabwe and Minnesota.

Shouldn’t we be more concerned about what they’re offering as opposed to what they’re tearing down? At least on Obama’s speech he went to some trouble to praise McCain’s courage and devotion to America. And media aside, Obama’s campaign has said little about Palin’s experience — it’s mostly been the media that like to stir the coals of schadenfrude.. on both sides.

I was delighted by the speech. The hockey mom cross checked Obama into the boards.

You may say she has no substance but I would suggest her experience approximates or even surpasses the Obama’s.

If I were an American it would be McMILF for me.

Always thought McCain did that weird thing with his arms b/c he was an old school politician, and that was how you did it back then. How bad do I feel knowing that he can’t raise his arms above a certain point because both of them were broken while he was being tortured in the Hanoi Hilton. The guy is a veritable American hero!

There can’t be many Americans who would be aghast if their preferred candidate didn’t win. They have two great candidates fighting it out for the top job; it’s great to watch.

Going back to a previous point, I wish that someday our politics will gain a maturity that’s present in American and British politics that is sadly lacking here. I remember on E-day in 2004, and James Carville was as honest as can be about how the Dems just didn’t get it done, and that they would have to do some serious soul-searching, after that loss. Sure, they go hammer and tongs at each other, but underneath it all is a respect for the other side. Here, opponents are afraid to say ANYTHING nice about their opponents, somehow thinking that by doing so they’ll appear weak or not serious, and that their election depends on every word or comment. It’s ridiculous.

I fear if Obama were to run in Canada, he would be smeared with the “far right” handle. A renewed call for self-reliance Obama? A self-professed aversion for chronic complainers?? Who do you think you are, Obama?? Shows how left-of-centre our “centre” is in this country, relatively speaking to the world.

It’s clear from the comments from the lefties here that the speech made an indelible mark on them. I was taken aback, watching CNN, at just how desperate Paul Begala and Donna Brazile (both of whom I normally admire for being partisans who 99% of the time can admit a spade’s a spade, as can most of the partisans on both sides on CNN, something sorely – and strangely – lacking in Canadian politics) were getting.

The whole spectacle, her family, the youngest daughter fixing her younger brother’s hair, the guy from Ohio that was John McCain’s cellmate in Hanoi, it was quite the spectacle. The cut-up’s of Obama (who doesn’t agree that the “… when the styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some production lot …” bit was prime Grade-A ZING! material?) were delivered with great humour, making them even more devastating.

I suspect we have a great race on our hands down south, which is totally surprising. No doubt McCain is the only Republican out there who ever stood any chance of winning in November, and it’s game on.

Lastly, and contrary to such geniuses as Larry Martin in the G&M, and others, who thought there could be a “halo” effect for the Liberals with an Obama win (has anyone other than me marvelled at how many partisan cheerleaders our newspapers employ as columnists? Larry Martin, Bob Hepburn, Jim Travers, Susan Riley … it’s quite unbelievable), I was always more worried about an improbable McCain victory setting off an anti-Conservative backlash here, turning our election into a sorta “this is how you shoulda voted, stupid Americans!” expression of voter rage. Just ‘cos we’re petty like that.

The character of Dog River’s mayor from Corner Gas isn’t that far from the truth that I’ve seen.

You have to love it when people complain about Palin’s attacks and snide derision right after talking about how tiny the town was where she was mayor and how sparsely populated the state is that she happens to govern (and for some reason pulls out JFK as an example that experience really isn’t important anyway). Perhaps Palin’s speech was full of attacks and snide comments because she has been the target of attacks and snide derision.

She was so heavy handed the town’s folk forced her to hire an administrator to handle day to day operations or face a recall.

As governor she is borrowing from Alaska’s future while she wants to give away today’s Alaskan windfall oil tax bonanza and the huge surpluses they’ve generated in bread and circuses tax giveaways. Alaska gets 89% of it’s operating budget from taxing oil coming out of the ground just like Arab kingdoms and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela. They have no state income or sales tax up there. Instead of using that windfall to pay for all the profligate spending her Republican legislature keep sending her she’s issuing bonds to pay for it all which Alaskans and US taxpayers will have to pay off in future years while she takes credit for tax “rebates” while she’s governor.

Her fiscal policy is a disaster in the making which won’t hit til she’s left the governor’s office. She’d be a disaster as Vice President especially to a President who despite his grevious wounds and type A personality is already past the age his father and grandfather died of sudden heart attacks.

She can put on all the lipstick she wants but her political record is for the dogs.

And, I’ll point out, Kennedy had no executive experience, and he certainly handled crises pretty well.

But all that aside–what about ideas? Did we hear any last night? None. It was just attack, attack, attack, slander, abuse, snide derision.

Just FYI, the Yamamoto line was the result of a scriptwriter for “Tora Tora Tora”, and was never spoken by the worthy Admiral.

As to the Governor’s comments about community organizers, please remember the hot debate about qualifications. Senator Obama has made much of his decision to decline corporate employment in favor of working as a community organizer/activist. I did not perceive her comment as mocking that activity per se (as opposed to his comments about her time as a mayor, which were quite condescending); rather, she was making a perfectly legitimate comparison between the two occupations.

I think it would have been nice to hear peggy’s comments awhile back on how serious America is when so many of them were swept away by ‘We are the change we seek’ or ‘Change we can believe in’ or ‘We are the ones we’ve been waiting for’.

I think Victor D Hanson said it best:

Palinize: to slander and caricature a working-class female public figure for the noble advancement of liberalism.

Last night was obscene. It was attack, attack, attack. It was “I shoot moose” over “let’s help the poor.” That she mocked community organizers–people who genuinely want to HELP people–was obscene.

There was no substance, no ideas, just scorn, defiance, slight regard, contempt.

- JV

Reagan was over-rated. And it’s gotten worse with time. The “Reagan generation” are people my (and Andrew Coyne’s) age, and frankly if my memory relied on the youthful exuberance with which I reacted to everything at the time (instead of on the facts of the issues, for which I wasn’t really bright or experienced enough to understand), I’d be embarrassed now.

Conservapublicans are generally unburdened by such concerns, however.