One thing that’s clear is that Palin has cheapened the debate. It’s all “I know you are but what am I?” now, and “Did too, did not!” and “How dare you?!”
One other thing about the speech for me: I don’t think she did anything at all with it that forces the Obama campaign to do anything different. Their narrative is, if anything, strengthened by her speech and moreso her actual history.
I’m not sure if the McCain campaign could have done anything with Palin’s speech to change the narrative, but they could have not gone negative, and nasty, with Palin and perhaps impacted the dynamic a bit.
ETA: I think they felt that they had to fire up the base, and I think they may have done so a bit - someone stole my Obama yard sign last night. Republicans are so goddamn juvenile.
Please cite one. Seriously.
Personally I think Michelle’s words were poorly chosen. The right’s use of them repeatedly smacks of the same ole lack of real substance politics. It’s old news and irrelevant.
Mentioning that Palin’s unmarried daughter is pregnant is factual and not an attack.
But if you’re on a list to be a VP pick, be it short or long, you better learn what the job requires in a big hurry. It’s good to learn the requirements of any job before you take it, from guard dog at the county dump to King of the World.
That being said, I didn’t see the speech. I’m waiting to see how she handles herself in a less friendly environment or in a debate where she can’t use her youngest child as a prop (except verbally).
Here’s a fact-check, from the AP no less, of the “truth-stretching” in her speech last night. Has the McCain campaign lost Fournier? If anyone was riding the tire swing, it was him.
So the Republicans found someone who can deliver a canned speech. (Wasn’t she once a sports reporter? No surprise that she can read a teleprompter.)
What I don’t get are the media idiots comparing this to Obama’s speech. One little difference: SHE DIDN’T WRITE IT.
I wonder how long the Republicans can keep her away from interviewers. Nobody has any idea yet whether she can think on her feet. Or whether she can think at all, for that matter.
I thought the speech was decent. It wasn’t spectacular, but it was a decent tone-setter. It marginalized an entire profession, which usually isn’t a good thing to do, but outside of doing a very good job of firing up the office, our campaign, and the people on the ground, it really wasn’t that bad of a speech.
Honestly, I want to hear more from her.
You and I quite agree. I really tried hard to see her independently, not as a Democrat, and I came away feeling exactly the same way.
i thought she did well over all. she didn’t freeze like dan. she hit the marks.
i could pick up on the parts she wrote over the parts that were written by others. her personal expierence, family, hockey mom joke, were written by her. the bits on what is going on in the world def. written by others. the attack ending, i really hope it was written by someone else, because it was very pointed, and a very different tone from the rest of the speech.
with the way her speech ended i thought, oh boy, biden doesn’t have to worry about being gentle.
You’re far from the only person to feel that way. I’ve just clicked in here from reading the comments over at cnn.com’s Political Ticker, and the overwhelming majority of them are negative – turned off by the nastiness and divisiveness of all the speeches last night, including Palin’s. Here’s one among many comments that struck me:
Now, obviously those comments fall in the category of anecdotal rather than database, but honestly, I was expecting far more of a balanced for/against reaction from an open-to-all forum.
Palin’s scared shitless of what the media has been doing, and what they have yet to do. I would be too if I were her. The republican party is an empty shell, they are behaving like they know they are going down in November.
How do republicans defend the lack of diversity at their convention?
Why were the camera guys were focusing on the same black man and hispanic woman over and over and over last night on msnbc?
Palin looked like a talking head on a skirted stick. No pant suits for her!
She kept looking into the camera and you could tell she was not comfortable.
How biased am I that I thought much of the crowd last evening looked glum, scared, and nervous?
Were we listening to the same speech?
I didn’t have much of an opinion about her before going in, though I’m an Obama supporter. I tried not to let that sway me.
I mused, as I was listening to the speech, that her speechwriters apparently did not go to the same school as Obama’s. I guess it’s my own fault for looking for substance in a convention speech. Lord knows some of the speeches at the regional Democratic primary in my own state had me rolling my eyes, so perhaps these sort of speeches aren’t for me. Oh, and full disclosure: I didn’t listen to the Biden or Obama speeches at the DNC. I did read the Obama speech and I liked it.
But yeah. On the basis that the purpose of this speech was to sound tough and capable and like a Republican mom, I’ll give Palin a B. She came off pretty well through most of it… not necessarily very polished, not as brainy or as confident as Condoleeza Rice, but capable of speechifying. She just didn’t come off to me as capable of much else.
As for the speech? I’ve known plenty of women who would make the ‘community organizer’ sorts of comments and the glaringly obvious, unsubtle jabs at her opponents. I suppose it’s unfair to judge her speech against Obama’s, but I didn’t hear or read Biden’s, so I don’t know if he continued the “honorable but faulty” theme that Obama had. Palin certainly did not take the high road there. The attacks were unsuccessful to anyone looking for substance (see, there’s that funny word again) rather than style. I found myself thinking "What a bitch, but then I remembered that calling a woman a bitch just means she’s acting like a man.
So, to take a leaf from Molly Ivins: Palin came across as an asshole. If that was her goal, she met it. Congratulations. I’ll agree with the C- on the speech itself.
Oddly, I’m comfortable with the Great Masses not agreeing with me. If I polled the local PTA or the food court at the mall whenever I was looking to shore up my opinion, I’d be… well, a member of the city council, probably.
If the majority of the board paid attention to this post, I’d sure be a lot happier here – and if the majority of the left at large paid attention to this post, McCain could save his money and quit right now, because the Democrats would be unstoppable.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) that won’t ever happen.
Nope, not suggesting that at all. RIF. However, I am suggesting that the content of public stump speeches given by a candidate’s wife are acceptable reference points.
Rhetorical, as it were, I hope. The answer is of course never. GWB has certainly gone eight years without an ex tempore or self-scripted delivery. I doubt anyone since Reagan has really written much or anything of what they delivered.
How do minorities defend their failure to vote Republican and volunteer as Republican delegates and fund their own travel to Minneapolis?
Think it through. Or do you really live in a fantasy world where tons of minorities want to be Republican delegates but are denied for bad racist reasons?
What? You said “Apparently, Michelle Obama can say whatever she wants and nobody’s allowed to even refer to it. However, direct attacks on Palin’s daughter are a-ok!” We’re supposed to figure out that you mean the content of public stump speeches given by a candidate’s wife are acceptable reference points? Is it so hard to just admit you spoke rashly and no, the Democrats aren’t attacking Palin’s daughter?
Fortunately for the Dems, Obama’s campaign is following precisely that game plan. Watch them take the Rep ticket apart entirely on policy and record, without descending into the cesspit in which the GOP so happily wallowed last night.
Had Obama taken that tone, it would have been out of character; it would not have been the “fat, greasy cheeseburger” the Democratic delegates expected and wanted. The faithful want him to be a saint, a prophet, a bringer of political deliverance. He gave it to them; he didn’t provide much for those outside of the convention context, but he gave the attendees exactly what they were hoping for. That was the cheeseburger.
The GOP delegates, by contrast, were looking for an attack dog in cosmetics. They got it, in spades. That was their cheeseburger.
Interestingly, her telemprompter went out and she had to wing it. Yes, she knew the speech from memory, but she went off speech and still nailed it.
Compare to when Obama loses his teleprompter.
Empty suit.