The speech is shortly to begin. Let’s use this thread to debate/discuss the speech as it’s taking place (for those who can multitask), or after it’s finished.
Giuliani is sooOOOoo funny. :rolleyes:
How did they get that many signs printed so quickly?!
She mentioned my hometown. She mispronounced the name, but she mentioned it.
That’s about all I have to say about her speech.
She mentioned my hometown. She mispronounced the name, but she mentioned it.
That’s about all I have to say about her speech.
She mentioned my hometown. She mispronounced the name, but she mentioned it.
That’s about all I have to say about her speech.
She says nukular.
Does she want to be Vice President or Last Comic Standing?
Was that speech really that good? I thought it was incredibly disjointed like she was reading from a checklist and not giving a speech. Like when Bill Clinton, or Obama, or Huckabee were up there I felt like I was being led somewhere. It seemed like she read a statement or two from a checklist and then waited for applause. Then went to the next bullet with no segue or lead in or anything.
I really thought it was painful to watch. But I appear to be a minority as all the commentators on CNN and Fox referred to it as “sophisticated” and “brilliant.”
I thought the speech was a pretty epic fail. I know the cable news poeple are gushing about it, but they saw a different speech than I did. I thought her delivery was strident and annoying. She lacked warmth, charisma, sincerity or authority. She mechanically delivered a boilerplate attack speech which plays fine to the tards on the convention floor, but I don’t see how it had any appeal to anyone who wasn’t already solidly inside the tent.
I found her folksy “hockey mom” schtick to be phony and oversold. Her attacks on Obama were stupidly condescending coming from someone who hasn’t accomplished half of what he has. And what was the point of insulting all community organizers? WTF? What a fucking snob.
Also, what was the point of taking a cheapshot at Michelle Obama? What did Michelle Obama ever do to her? This after Obama made a point of making Palin’s family members off limits to his campaign.
She read a rote, red meat speech to people who were already going to vote for McCain anyway. She did absolutely nothing to make a case for why Hillary supporters should crossover, or really, anyone at all who wasn’t a right wing, flag waving fundy.
Just like McCain’s choice in the first place, I think that this speech will serve to do nothing but rally the tards who were already going to vot for him and further alienate independents and leaners. This woman is a real turnoff to center-left voters, imo.
I pretty much use my mother as the bellweather for these things. She is a divorced woman, near 60, who raised herself up from a newly single mom in the 1980’s who never held a job except for some typing work as a teenager to a successful businesswoman with a good amount of money in investments, a paid off home, etc. today. She’s socially moderate and fiscally conservative. She watches the news and sees the newspaper headlines but doesn’t make a point of following politics as I do. She didn’t vote in the primaries. I’d consider her an Independant politically.
Anyway, I figured I’d call her towards the end of the speech and ask her if she watched it. She admitted that she turned it off about halfway through because she got sick of listening to Palin.
She also told me that my sister (a Republican) said she wouldn’t vote for Palin because she’s too far out there in her anti-abortion stance, refusing to make exceptions even for rape or incest.
Anyway, pure anecdote but I thought it was interesting.
OTOH, McCain is pretty famed for NOT giving red meat to the Republican core constituency. If Palin makes Republicans feel better and/or more enthusiastic about the ticket at large, that’s a worthwhile thing for them, is it not?
ETA: Gee, liberals here are saying “epic fail,” while conservatives are gushing about how powerful and natural she is, and how this is a huge win and attraction to independents. NO matter what your political leanings, I don’t see how you can fail to not be surprised. 
I thought Palin’s speech revealed her to be fit to lead the country in the event of McCain’s demise. She’s tough, brave, smart, informed and a quality mother figure.
I noticed Giuliani, too, sneering at the phrase “community organizer,” so it seems like this is becoming some sort of meme among the right-wingers. Is it because “community” sounds too close to “communism” for their comfort? I really don’t get it.
Agreed.
She badly needed to come off as likeable and warm. A lot of shit has been slung at her over the last few days. If she’d set a high-minded, sympathetic tone people might have been willing to overlook her messy personal life and her questionable qualifications. You want people saying “Hey … she seems like a good person at heart. Maybe all that criticism is overblown.”
Instead she came off as mean and shrill. Using her as an attack dog against Obama was a big, big mistake. For now they should have left that job to Huckabee, Romney, and Giuliani and just let Palin be charming and personable until people know her better. Having her act like a ballbuster straight out of the gate is really going to alienate people.
I agree with Diogenes: epic fail.
Huh…I thought she did a pretty good job.
Most of it was bullshit sure but its a convention and that’s what the speech makers do mostly. Giuliani did a good job getting the crowd warmed up (mostly bullshit again but again that is what the crowd there wants). I think he would have gone further in the primaries if he delivered speeches like that then.
For Palin’s part she needed to assuage the faithful that she is their girl. Given all the muck flinging about on her lately and I think she pulled that off. She was never going to convince me of anything because I cannot bring myself to vote for her potential boss no matter how charming she might be. Not to mention I have been reading up on her enough to know by now that I am exceedingly opposed to a majority of what she is about.
But trying to be honest about it she delivered the speech well and did what was expected. I gotta hand it to her too. She must have brass balls for being shoved into such a spotlight and pulling it off with nary a hitch. Even having speechified in the past running for Governor of Alaska is scant preparation to stand behind that podium. I couldn’t do as well (which is not saying much really but still, can’t be easy under that pressure so gotta hand it to her on that).
Is this a whoosh? She’s smart and informed? Because she read a speech by McCain’s speechwriters – who started writing the speech before she was even chosen (they allegedly had to tear it up because it “sounded too masculine”)? This is a woman who, when lacking words on a prompter, admitted she didn’t know what the VP does and also that she hasn’t been paying attention to the war?
This is what Republicans think is “informed.” George Bush’s fans no longer surprise me.
And she’s a “quality mother figure” because … she shows off her four-month-old special needs baby in a crowded convention hall? Because her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant? Because her son trashed a school bus and was bundled off into the army? Because she (according to the National Enquirer, anyway – and hey, they were right about John Edwards!) had an affair with her husband’s business partner? Because if my or your daughter were raped, she’d be happy forcing our kids to have the rapist’s baby?
Yep. That’s a quality, a1 mom right there.
Unimpressive. A hanging curveball over the center of the plate. A big fat greasy cheeseburger in the middle of the average delegate’s Chinet plate.
And for the record, I thought Obama’s speech was more or less the same.
It remains to be seen whether or not she can “bring it” for the middle-of-the-road electorate. Maybe yes. Maybe no. Impossible to tell here, because she was clearly told not to bother. Fellate the heartland, and let’s save the strategy for later.
That’s the LAST thing she needed to do. The base already loves her with the heat of the thousand suns. They love her more than they love McCain. If tomorrow she announced she ate puppies for fun the base would still love her.
No, what she absolutely needed to do was demonstrate to swing voters that she was likeable and sensible so the McCain campaign could start rolling back the early negatives that she’s been hit with. And THAT she did not do.
And to think she’s yet to give an in depth interview.
I wonder how her debates with Biden will go.