The old and new media are flooded with reactions to GOP Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech last night. Here are links to four of the most intriguing posts:
1. The conventional wisdom is that she hit a home run. But did she also miss an important opportunity that was there to be seized? Read Talk Left’s Big Tent Democrat, one of the most perceptive progressive bloggers, who supported Hillary Clinton. As always, he’s a must read for everyone, no matter what party.
2. Could Palin distract the Democrats? Read Ross Douthat’s free advice for Democrats.
3. Is September Palin’s month? Marc Ambinder says and thinks she could overshadow everyone — and even Obama to the point where it hurts the Democratic ticket.
4. Was Palin’s performance the supreme triumph of style and symbolism? Dick Polman has some thoughts and thinks Democrats should beware (and perhaps not buy furniture for the Oval Office just yet…)
5. What’s the bottom line reality? My DD’s Jerome Armstrong says Democrats better get ready to battle Palin for a long time to come…
My reaction? I’m still sorting it out since I didn’t see the speech but heard it on my car radio. My initial reaction is that as an independent voter who supported the 2000 version of McCain — and all of the elements that lamentably since-recalled-from-circulation version entailed — and as a California independent voter who voted for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the sarcasm and red meat the Republicans so love turned me off. I didn’t hear specifics on issues such as the economy. Palin’s lively and well-delivered speech offered little to appeal to independent voters, moderates or voters who are center to center left on some issues.
It was red meat and definitely solidifies John McCain’s Republican base…which gets me back to the question I posed earlier: is McCain going to opt for a campaign to try and bring in the center and independents, or go with one more campaign that requires firing up the base with us versus them campaigning and get a 50 + 1 victory…which will make governance again difficult due to a polarized nation? The politics of polarization that displaced consensus politics shows no signs of abating as we move into the 21st century.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.