Yep, it was still a slam-dunk. Concreting talk of this: the much discussed and expected enthusiasm gap in the Presidential race has in all likelihood completely disappeared.
Uh oh.
Danny Westneat: Palin's appearance was so electric it was as if this convention hadn't started until she showed up.
With a forceful speech that served as her introduction to millions of Americans on Wednesday, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin seduced many on television who had spent days doubting her candidacy.It wasn't just a home run, said CNN's Wolf Blitzer; it may have been a grand slam. "A very auspicious debut," said NBC's Tom Brokaw. It was a "perfect populist pitch," said CBS' Jeff Greenfield. "Terrific," said Mort Kondracke on Fox News Channel.
"A star is born," said Chris Wallace on Fox.
"A star is born," Blitzer said.
"A star is born," said Anderson Cooper on CNN.
Majordomo AP Presidential race writer Liz Sidoti: "Sarah Palin delivered."
And that's just a smattering. Large swaths of the press corps, previously asking questions in a manner that made even some of their own uncomfortable, was wowed.
Not bad.
Random aside: watching some of the response from the left, I think it is confirmed that they've missed the boat (example) that their earnest disdain that Palin is pro-life might sit well in Democratic circles, among urban liberals, and the netroots crowd. But out in flyover country it's not a winner, even among those who don't count themselves as fully anti-abortion. More on that later.
Meanwhile, the narrative is starting to change:
On that stage last night, Sarah Palin represented everything the feminist movement claims to strive for: a successful working woman with a happy family life and a husband who helps raise the children. Yet, rather than hailing her accomplishment, the feminist establishment has sat by silently as she's savaged for being a working mother.Turns out old feminism is really just a bunch of good 'ole girls telling you what to think.
And that's from a Democrat.
Posted by Eric Earling at September 04, 2008 08:02 AM | Email ThisThere was a lot left unsaid. Nothing about the standard bearers for the party who currently have sat in D.C. for the last 8 years. If your party is so great, why not mention it? If this war is so great (and I'm waiting for the debate question for either Palin or McCain - "Define victory in Iraq."), why not mention who started it?
Nothing about the military in Afghanistan (the forgotten war). Very little about the in-the-tank economy. Nothing about paying women the same as men get paid.
And, of course, her various shadings (and the outright lie about the Bridge to Nowhere which is going to bite her in the ass over and over)of the truth of political career. The Rep mouthpieces can say over and over that troopergate doesn't matter, her driving her tiny, tiny village's budget into the ground doesn't matter; it just won't work.
And, then there was her assertion that small town soldiers are the only ones fighting. Half of those killed in Iraq came from small towns so where did the other half come from? Yes, that's right, larger cities. Don't denigrate others' service for your own political purposes. (Rural America does pay disproportionally to its population but that's because options and opportunities have died off for them.). She didn't mention that John McCain didn't want to vote for the bill that would provide better higher ed opportunities for GIs nor that GIs come back with late diagnosis head injuries only to get little help from the government. Why sent them over to be hurt if they won't get decent services coming back? McCain and Palin should be front and center on this issue and yet...
Lastly, loved Daddy Palin practically shoving the baby into his youngest daughter's arms and then watching her lick her hand and brush his hair and then use same hand to pick at his eyes.
Posted by: westello on September 4, 2008 08:30 AMBut the left lives on only one-way streets.
Posted by: Jeff B. on September 4, 2008 08:31 AMWith this ignorant screed, you show yourself as just another leftist shill.
That's NOT "conservatives," it's almost ALL politicians, at EVERY level... and ALL parties.
That you were, well, "unaware" of that just simply shows that you don't know what the hell you're talking about... so, essentially, you have nothing to offer?
Posted by: hinton on September 4, 2008 08:37 AMI wish it were her running for president.
Posted by: Andrew Brown on September 4, 2008 08:56 AMThen, when Sarah came on, I got all choked up because of what I don't know (being American or something and even now thinking of the moment is bringing tears to the old swatter's eyes). Then, I looked over at the wife and she was wiping her eyes and I could tell she was emotional about it.
And, Sarah has actually accomplished something in life.
After, I listened and watched Larry King just give up when he interviewed an Obama surrogate (the guy couldn't come up with anything that Obama did that he could point to), I watched Mort, the sexist, say it was a good speech (BTW, he adds, a speech she didn't write) and I saw Susan Estrich try to give McCain and Sarah advice on how to go forward while trying to belittle Sarah.
My radical left Ds and my e-mail today from David Pfoufle of the Obama camp really, really don't like Sarah. They are reduced to calling Sarah a liar for the facts she presented (though in what way they weren't too sure). They also think Obama's comment that Sarah's private life is her private life is good, but with that said, they go after her private life. Go figure.
Posted by: swatter on September 4, 2008 09:02 AMThey will only turn MORE people to vote for McCain-Palin.
You're kidding, right? You - as a liberal - are actually saying this with a straight face?
You might want to direct your indignation at members of your own party.
Posted by: jimg on September 4, 2008 09:09 AMThat speech was simply awesome. She should be called "The Sarahcuda" after that delivery. I'd be proud to put a "Palin/McCain" sign in my front yard.
The most important part of last night was not that a woman did what she did. It's that a woman did what she did and for the most part, the audience DIDN'T CARE THAT SHE WAS A WOMAN.
Not that they were unaware, and not that her being an attractive woman doesn't help, but this was an evil bigoted anti-woman Republican audience and they were responding to what she said and what she stands for on issues, rather than her gender.
Not that this is news to Republicans and conservatives, but this is another reason the left is afraid. They don't WANT people to see her as a governor, as a person. They want to paint her as a token woman, to diminish her, because if she is seen as a real person, as conservatives and Republicans ARE seeing her, then they lose the battle.
Liberal women have been furiously penning identical screeds against Sarah Palin - blasting McCain for not understanding women and then announcing, "Now, let me speak on behalf of all women and tell you what women want in a candidate.""Historian" Doris Kearns Goodwin basically did that exact thing last night on Colbert. It's really amazing just how many purportedly objective people in the media -- Gwen Ifill, Goodwin, Roland Martin on CNN -- are revealing themselves as nothing more than shills for the left.
And yes, Rudy was awesome last night too.
But the left lives on only one-way streets.
Posted by: Jeff B. on September 4, 2008 08:31 AM
Jeff B.--
So well said.
Political correctness tested is most often a double-edged sword that cuts the purveyor of PC more deeply.
Gee, I feel extra profound this AM!
Please keep attacking her, please. We'll win 40 states if you do.
Posted by: Kato on September 4, 2008 09:26 AMRight after I hung up, called up Dino's camp and game them some more money, just because Palin made me want to do it.
Posted by: Doug on September 4, 2008 09:30 AMWe need people to organize to come out this Saturday and show support for the Palin family and disdain for what the media is doing.
If you are in Seattle area, drop me a line and join. We only need 1 or 2 hours of your time.
If you are outside the area, spread the word, go to http://www.palinforamerica.com and organize. WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
Posted by: Paul on September 4, 2008 09:37 AMObama said there are 57 states. (-:
So well take them too.
My radical leftist sent an e-mail link to a site criticizing her "lack of experience". I responded back that she had more than Obama and reminded him that I thought Clinton should have been the D nominee.
Posted by: swatter on September 4, 2008 10:01 AMActually, Jim Leach spoke at the DNC. Just striving for accuracy.
Posted by: wayne on September 4, 2008 10:15 AMReally? so just anyone without any political experience other than having a spouse as president can just move to NY state and successfully run for a senate seat reserved for you? If them ain't coattails, I'm not sure what is.
Posted by: Rick D. on September 4, 2008 10:24 AM
Jesus was a community organizer.
Alright... what exactly has been Marxist about his campaign, Mr. Cynical?
(And no help from the peanut gallery! I'm interested in whether a rank-and-file conservative gasbag knows what the term really entails.)
Posted by: demo kid on September 4, 2008 10:34 AMhttp://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x181164
They now are coming to realize that they have nominated an inarticulate no accomplishments buffoon who couldn't place an order for a Happy Meal without stuttering like Porky Pig unless he reads it off a teleprompter and their hate is blossoming.
Posted by: JDH on September 4, 2008 10:43 AMThe left had better be very careful about pursuing this. Those emails come across as someone trying to protect her family and genuinely looking out for the public good, not trying to get revenge for a messy divorce. This is going to come back and bite them in the arse and make her even more sympathetic.
On second thought... PLEASE PURSUE THIS AS MUCH AS YOU LEFTIES CAN!
Posted by: Mike H on September 4, 2008 11:47 AMhttp://www.wsj.com/article/SB121910303529751345.html?mod=most_emailed_day
That helps to give you one instance of Obama's Marxist leanings that really contributes to the totality of the circumstances.
LOL, and how many have been invited prior to this. Sure were a lot of former Republican voters speaking on stage at the Dem convention. =P
Zell Miller, that guy was a DINO at best. Party moved on from the Dixiecrat days, Sen. Miller had not. A good comparison would be like inviting David Duke to speak at a Klan rally. That's pretty much what the crowd has looked like in 2004/2008, a sea of white faces. =)
...or better yet have him firmly planted as your elder stateman in the U.S. Senate. I think his name is Grank keagle (KKK designation anyway) Robert Byrd (D-WV). Who at the age of 40 voted against the civil rights act of 1964, voted against both black SCOTUS nominees Thurgood Marshall and Clarence Thomas and uses the N-word like just another adjective.
The slavery/Democrat party can't run away from its ugly racist past which is still alive and well within the party structure and leadership.
Posted by: Rick D. on September 4, 2008 12:24 PMHalfway through Sarah Palin's speech tonight at the RNC, people following the speech noticed she was deviating from the prepared text. According to sources close to the McCain campaign, the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech. The malfunction also occurred during Rudy Giuliani's speech, explaining his significant deviations from his speech. Unfazed, Governor Palin continued, from memory, to deliver her speech without the teleprompter cued to the appropriate point in her speech.
2. I heard she wrote her own speech which was then reviewed and honed by a speechwriter. I don't know if it's true. BUT considering her masterful delivery, her comfort and the fact that she didn't miss a beat with the above mentioned teleprompter malfunction, I believe it's true.
3. My FAVORITE clip from last night was Andrea Mitchell on CNN interviewing a woman who proudly claimed she is pro-choice... BUT, she said, that is not this issue that matters in these dangerous time, that the safety of her family and her country trump her pro-choice leanings. The sour prune look on poor Andrea's face was priceless. I cannot wait to find that clip!
4. My favorite blog take (so far!) on the feeding frenzy comes from Never Yet Melted and my absolutely favorite quote from it goes like this, with MY emphasis added:
Democrats, in the final analysis, have nobody to blame but themselves. The US is a Center-Right country, featuring (let me whisper it to you, liberals) a predominantly average population which pays taxes and works for a living. You guys keep nominating the most liberal guy you can find, an elitist representing your own base of birkenstock-wearing socialists, tree-huggers, and Hollywood do-gooders. You think America vitally needs to be made a great deal more like France. You think we need to punish those hicks, rubes, and bitter gun-owners for their lack of fashion sense, and we need to make this a kinder, better world by taking money from the ignorant yahoos who worked for it and giving it to the needy at home and abroad. All of this seems as obvious to you as your own moral and cultural superiority to the uncouth primitives with whom an unkind Providence has condemned you to share the country. After all, they stole America from the Indians and they are guilty of the crime of Slavery, the central issue of human history, which invalidates their institutions, their way of life, and everything they stand for. Only through your leadership, by a series of essential sacrifices to the appropriate causes, can this wardrobe-and-cuisine-challenged, morally-disastrous nation possibly be saved.All in all, for some mysterious reason, this particular viewpoint is less than attractive to ordinary Americans, and you keep losing elections.
This year, we have a war hero and beauty queen governor (who hunts) and you have a community organizer novice Senator with a record of two autobiographies and a speech running with the vainest and most arrogant airhead in the same body by his side. Your Crow Indian scouts are already painting their faces and singing their death songs, General Custer.
Although I might note, even Custer had more experience than the Empty Suit and the Stuffed Shirt!
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on September 4, 2008 12:44 PMIf you think that "Marxism" can be solely traced to changes in the income tax code, I think that you're going to find that most people that aren't "middle-class" (i.e. making less than $5 million a year) are going to prefer tax breaks that favor people that actually work for their money.
Nice try. Next?
Posted by: demo kid on September 4, 2008 12:48 PMIt all falls in the category of wealth re-distribution.
Posted by: scott158 on September 4, 2008 12:49 PMWhich is exactly why we want the Commander-in-Chief of the Alaskan National Guard in the VP slot?
Pffft. The Republican Party is becoming more and more of a farce by the day. Do you even really believe most of this stuff anymore?
Posted by: demo kid on September 4, 2008 12:52 PMClearly, The Fluff and Stuff campaign hadn't counted on Governor Saracudda: He just held a press conference defending community organizing! Way to be presidential, Fluff!
It will be fun to watch bHo, now caught off his 'game' deal with NO SPIN and no teleprompter!
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on September 4, 2008 01:01 PMNow the Democrats are stuck in a trap. They've demeaned, patronized and smeared a woman who's well on her way to becoming very, very popular. Her speech will create legions of fans; the Democratic smears of the last few days will create, for Obama, legions of enemies. This man who dedicated two years to stopping a woman from being president now has to answer for spending two months stopping one from becoming vice president - a task he hopes to accomplish using women's votes.Remember: The swing vote in this election are single moms. Just as the soccer moms dominated in 1996 and security moms in 2004, now unmarried women, mostly with children, will determine the outcome of the 2008 race. And they're finding in Sarah Palin an advocate whose life isn't far different from their own and whose priorities mirror theirs'.
In her sincere embrace of her family and her nonjudgmental introduction of her pregnant daughter, Palin won the hearts of many single moms. By evoking life in a modest, middle-class town, she established an empathy with voters akin to what Bill Clinton built when he ate at McDonalds'.
How are the Democrats to live down their assaults on Sarah? How not to seem the enemies of the very voters they have to get?
Dunno. but I'm pretty sure a hastily called angry press conference defending your "community organizing", ain't it!
By the way, couldn't one say that the leader of the WTO protestors, the leaders of ReCreate 68, the leaders of the anarchists desperately trying to disrupt the GOP convention (including throwing bleach on an 80+ yr old delegate) are ALL community organizers?
I'm just askin!
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on September 4, 2008 01:10 PMAnd they are ALL communists.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on September 4, 2008 01:27 PMThey all feature someone that has gone bankrupt because they either had inadequate health coverage or none. It's right out of the Democrat playbook. Why Obama claims he meets people like this every day on the campaign trail.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on September 4, 2008 01:44 PMMarxist examples: nationalized healthcare. Mandatory energy consumption limits (cap and trade). One Hundred Thousand brownshirt "internal defense" people. Nationalization of oil companies.
Need I go on?
Which is exactly why we want the Commander-in-Chief of the Alaskan National Guard in the VP slot?
Hey, at least she has experience leading some sort of military force. Obama and Biden have what? Anything? Anything at all? I guess mustering fraudsters in ACORN to fake registrations is equivalent?
Face it - the Slavers lose the experience battle, hands down. And Obama and Biden know it.
Funny to see as well that the Slaver candidates have also backed off of "vision" or "change". Hard to talk about change when you select the second longest serving Senator to be your VP, or when you vote in complete lock-step with your Party (except when you don't want to take a stand and vote "present" instead).
Slavery Party - morally bankrupt (murdering babies), intellectually bankrupt (no diversity of thought or willingness to even discuss alternative solutions to problems), and definitely a massive lack of experience.
But man, can they spew the hate and personal attacks!
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on September 4, 2008 03:06 PM"But here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people." - Sarah Palin
I think she's issued the grades to the Mainstream Media. And they've failed.
Class dismissed! :)
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on September 4, 2008 03:20 PMMore than we'll want an empty-suited, anti-American "community organizer" of the variety you support, bucko.
Posted by: Hinton on September 4, 2008 03:41 PMI didn't realize it was Obama running against Sarah Palin for President !!
Damn, I need to catch up don't I..
Posted by: Chris N on September 4, 2008 05:58 PMJesus was a community organizer."
You left out the important part:
Pilate was a governor.
Of course, to understand why that was important, you'd have to give a damn about Jesus' values. Or American ones. Not that the anti-American Angry Right cares about such things any more. They're too busy projecting their anger onto others. Kind of like what Jesus meant in Matthew 7, about the difference between motes and beams.
If only my party could go back to conservatism and the Golden Rule. Ah, well.
Posted by: Laszlo Toth, Jr. on September 4, 2008 09:44 PM