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A Wonderful Anachronism

September 4th, 2008
By ELROD

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This was an odd speech by Sarah Palin. She had a few genuinely good lines: the hockey mom as pit bull with lipstick was genuinely charming. The mockery of the pillars was sharp.

But the mockery got a little overboard at times. Yes, it fires up the base. But Rudy Giuliani gave them all the mockery they need. She sounded petty as the speech went on and she delved more and more into culture war attacks. Does “community organizer” poll really poorly? She and Rudy hit Obama on it a lot.

Her biographical bit was good, but it was deeply-uncomfortable to see Levi in the room. It seemed to revive all the bizarre questions of the last few days. Perhaps Rudy stepping on the intro video made this seem so perfunctory. But it was fine, such as it was.

Where Sarah Palin failed the most was in her discussion of policy. She spoke of energy in fairly generic terms, listing off the forms of energy to use but without a whole lot of confidence. On other subjects she sounded like she was running for Mayor of Wasilla again. If someone at home was wondering if this woman has the know-how to step in on Day Two to be President of the United States, that person would be left scratching her head. I suppose that was a bit deliberate, but when she had to hit her substantive points it sounded forced.

It was a real throwback to 2004. I hear some people on TV saying they didn’t bring culture war stuff, but that’s wrong. They brought up bittergate and ran on anti-elitism like it was 1992 again.

The long term effect of the speech is hard to gauge. It WILL rally the base. But what about everybody else? It will definitely rally the Democratic base too. I suppose those undecided voters or weak leaners didn’t hear enough to go either way. Some might have been turned off by her sarcasm; others might have been impressed.

I would also suspect that by taking the gloves off, Palin invited Obama to start going after her hard. She openly lied AGAIN about the Bridge to Nowhere. This will invite a full frontal assault on her honesty. The recently released e-mails from Walt Monegan only underscore the challenge to her honesty.

How does it play then? I have no idea. I’m biased. I’m a partisan Democrat who supports Barack Obama. The speech made me like her far less than I did earlier in the night. I feel much less sympathy for her over the blogger and media attacks against her. That’s what I mean by firing up the DEMOCRATIC base.

As for Republicans and Independents, I’ll defer to others.



This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 12:07 am and is filed under Sarah Palin, RNC St. Paul Convention, Newsweek Blogitics, At TMV, 2008 Elections, Rudy Giuliani, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 35 Comments

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    It seems to have fired up the Republican base. To me conventions are just one big pep rally. Even though I am voting McCain it's doesn't do that much for me. But neither did last week, even if I thought they had a good week and a very good speech.

    As for firing up the Dem base, can they really be anymore fired up? I mean 80,000 people is impressive.
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    ELROD,

    Paraphrasing my grandmother here; if you stay on the fence too long you'll get a sore crotch, which leads to my question.

    What are the "moderates/centrist/independents" here and everywhere else looking for in a candidate? They've had 18 months to get to know Obama and his policies, they've had 36 years to get to know Biden and his policies, they've had 32 years to get to know McCain and his policies and judging by her history Palin is the neophyte we think she is who was chosen to placate the base.

    In the past decade they've lived through 8 years of a Republican president, 6 years of Republican control of Congress, 6 years of complete Republican control of all levers of the Federal Government with all that it entails.

    Please once again, what else do people need to know before making their decision on a candidate?
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    If possible I would like to request that my question above be bumped up to a post. I not being snarky or insulting I would really like to know what people are looking for in a candidate that has not been already presented.
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    Do all the critique you want, you guys, be prepared to see polls showing strong public acclaim for her speech.

    If anyone wants to place money bets on this, I'm willing to.

    The poll numbers will also be a great test of how much themoderatevoice.com KNOWS the middle.
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    With back-to-back insult fests from Mean Girl Rudy 9not wearing his signature dress this time) and Sarah Palin (whom Letterman described as "looking like a Lenscraft Model"), I thought I was watching outtakes from The Bob Saget Roast.

    I fully expected Gilbert Gottfried to emerge and start making viagra jokes about McCain.

    What I did not see in Palin was a serious person. What I did not see was someone I want anywhere near our Military. What I did not see was someone who is ready to lead anything except the next Comedy Central Roast.

    Palin makes McCain look a small and desperate and mean-spirited man who will do anything to get elected.
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    I have no doubt that a sizable amount of the public LOVED her speech and the polls (yuck) will reflect that. She did a damn fine job of being an attack dog (what a VP candidate should do). Her type of speech presses those emotion buttons well. She's set the bar high for McCain.

    Kind of strange. Obama's speech was so much superior than Biden's. And I have a feeling Palin's speech will overshadow McCain's. Actually this race would even been MORE interesting if it was Obama/Biden vs. Palin/McCain.
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    Just to keep this honest:

    The approach the Democrats took at their convention---that all the problems in the government are Republicans fault, and that McCain will be just like Bush, and that Democrats are the uniters and Republicans are the dividers, and that the economy we've been living through in the past 8 years is comparable to breadlines in Soviet Belarus---is not any more accurate, positive, or substantive than anything that was said at the Republican convention.

    So the question isn't what did Republicans say wrong---but whose rhetoric will Americans buy? And I think there will be positive reaction to Palin's speech.
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    All I can say is I've talked to a few Hillary supporters, women in their fifties and sixties who were warm to McCain but intensely turned off by his choice of Palin, for different reasons. I think their minds were made up by the end of Labor Day weekend. They're going for Obama.
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    dear redfish

    I must make a distinction between "the middle" and the truth

    If "the middle" decided that torture was a good thing, most readers of Moderate Voice would still oppose torture.

    The claim here at Moderate Voice is not that MV readers are blind followers of "the middle", but rather that we search for common ground and that we try to get at what is true. Not popular with the middle, but true.

    Palin is a great Host of The Barack Obama Roast. She is a female Gilbert gottfried. What she is NOT is a serious person who has thought about what AmericaN Power is, why we should use, when, where, and how. If a person was looking to put their mind to rest about McCain's judgment in choosing Palin, s/he would find ample reason to fear any McCain/Palin Administration.

    George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004 by "the middle' who have buyer's remorse and will be paying for his actions for years to come.
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    dear tjproudamerican,

    I'm glad you believe in "the truth", but thinking the Democratic convention speakers were honest while the Republican convention speakers wasn't isn't "the truth".

    I'm also glad you believe in "the common ground", but I could easily argue McCain's policies represent "the common ground" more than Obama's.

    Bu