So how many times since the Palin speech have I said they need to send her out to speak and McCain to do townhall meetings? Well, we know he’s doing the townhall meetings because he’s doing one here, and he’s sending Palin out on her own.
John McCain just told Bob Schiffer on Face the Nation that Sarah Palin would be out campaigning on her own in a couple of days and she would start with her first major media appearance on Face The Nation.
The loud popping noises you will be hearing over the next few weeks will be the sounds of liberal heads exploding.
“We wanted to be here for this memorable day,” explained Patricia Strawser, who left her Denver house with her husband, Tom, at 5 a.m.
They arrived at the airport at 6 a.m. and found 50 people already in line ahead of them.
“I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Tom Strawser, who wore a cowboy hat adorned with little American flags. “Nothing.”
The crowd seemed made up of both veterans of political rallies and first-timers. Patricia Strawser said she worked for Democrat Al Gore’s campaign in 2000. Tom Strawser said McCain’s pick of Palin, the quick-witted, charismatic and conservative Alaska governor, made all the difference.
“Sincerity,” Tom Strawser summed it up. “She’s very authentic. I’ve never been inspired by anyone else like this except Bobby Kennedy.”
“It has energized the base,” added Patricia Strawser, a naturalized citizen from Colombia who said she became a Republican because she feels it’s the party of moral values. “And it shows how bright John McCain is. He knows how the game is played. It is game on now.”
She’s a conservative man’s wet dream. Seriously. I’m in love.
And even in unlikely places:
I’ve just arrived in Beijing (no, I’m not differently enabled). It’s All Sarah, All The Time here as well. They even put that photoshop job of her in a stars and stripes bikini holding a hunting rifle on the front page of a serious (non-tabloid) paper.
I’ve been checking on the Hillary Clinton Forum from time to time, and they’re not happy campers, or at least they’re not happy with Obama and their party. I was not expecting this photoshop, however.
A woman in the crowd told Obama she had “heard a rumor” that he might be planning some sort of gun ban upon being elected president. Obama trotted out his standard policy stance, that he had a deep respect for the “traditions of gun ownership” but favored measures in big cities to keep guns out of the hands of “gang bangers and drug dealers’’ in big cities “who already have them and are shooting people.”
“If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it,’’ Obama said. But the Illinois senator could still see skeptics in the crowd, particularly on the faces of several men at the back of the room.
So he tried again. “Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ he said. “This can’t be the reason not to vote for me. Can everyone hear me in the back? I see a couple of sportsmen back there. I’m not going to take away your guns.’’
So let’s do an English translation. First, he claims not to be a gun-grabber. Then, when he sees that he’s not fooling people, he says even if he’s lying through his teeth and really is a gun-grabber, he can’t do it.
Tell me again, please, who decided this man was intelligent, and based on what evidence.
About the time Sarah took the HELM as Governor of Alaska, about half of the State legislature was in the pocket of big oil companies or contractors doing big projects for native corporations around Alaska, all funded by state oil revenue. Alaska government was nothing but a “good old boys club” riding a perpetual wave of prosperity. This filtered down from the legislature, through the Department of Natural Resources, Department of Labor and even spilled in to the Public Safety Department that is supposed to “preserve and protect.”
When Sarah walked into the Governor’s Mansion, she promptly dismissed the State Trooper detachment assigned to the Governor and had her and her husband’s gun case brought in from Wasilla. Then, she got rid of the former Governor’s STATE jet and told legislators that there were no more free rides. They would have to fly Alaska Airlines if they wanted to travel, just like she and her family. Next came the nut cutting (the Barracuda part) and the heads that rolled were too numerous to name. But when Sarah finished cleaning house, a number of our legislators ended up in jail on corruption convictions, or they tendered their resignations along with numerous department heads and others who had been riding the gravy train for far too long, AND THEN SHE HAD LUNCH. By the end of the day, Sarah Palin had saved the people of Alaska millions and has not yet slowed down.
Headless Blogger, I was there, too! We arrived just before 10 and gave up on the line as it was easily a half-mile long, maybe more. However, we hung around an intersection a block or so from the rally site, and managed to see the motorcade go by.
and
We walked for blocks and blocks trying to try to find the end of the line, yet as far as we walked, we could only see blocks of people stretching before us. The line curved all the way around the downtown Cedarburg area; it was easily over half a mile long but I couldn’t see the end, so who knows? Could have been a mile.
There’s a slideshow of pictures here. It sure looks like a whole lot more than 1,000 or “crowds” to me.
The Anchoress:
The thing is, the press can play this game all they want. All they do is destroy their own credibility; they don’t change those numbers. Lying about facts does not change the facts.
In fact, all the press is managing to do at this point, besides destroying themselves and hurting their candidate, is to really piss off the audience they need in order to continue to work and sell ads for, you know, revenue.
Forget revenue. They piss people off and we get their votes. And they’ll never figure it out.
McCain and Palin are touring suburbs and small towns across America, and apparently, to great effect:
STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — John McCain may have swapped one enthusiasm gap for another.
As he touched down in suburbs outside of Milwaukee and Detroit, the just-crowned Republican nominee found himself first on the newly fashioned signs proclaiming the unlikely GOP ticket, but seemingly second in the hearts of the thousands who thronged rallies to catch their first glimpse in person of Sarah Palin.
McCain drew loud applause, first at a morning appearance in the downtown of a quaint, Republican-leaning Wisconsin village and then at a more boisterous amphitheater rally here in Michigan’s working-class Macomb County.
Yet it was Palin who many, especially women, in both crowds were thrilled to see up close just days after she exploded onto the national political scene.
Clutching signs with messages such as “Girl Power” and “Sarah Is my American Idol,” moms and their daughters lined the barricades just outside The Chocolate Factory in Cedarburg, Wisc., that served as the backdrop for the rally.
[ . . . ]
The two events Friday both drew about 10,000 people, comparable numbers to what the newly formed ticket saw last weekend
CEDARBURG, Wisc. — Hundreds of angry people in this small town outside Milwaukee taunted reporters and TV crews traveling with Sen. John McCain on Friday, chanting “Be fair!” and pointing fingers at a pack of journalists as they booed loudly.
On the first leg of the “McCain Street USA” tour — which will take the Republican presidential nominee and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to small towns across the heartland — the 30 or so reporters and crew were walking back to their buses to join the McCain motorcade when hundreds of townspeople started yelling.
Wasn’t it Victor Davis Hanson who last week said people were sick of being lectured to by liberal media elites? But let me go back to that first article and pull something out of it.
“She’s a real woman, she’s a real feminist but she’s not strident — she’s like us,” said Hauswirth, a middle-aged mother who didn’t offer her age. “She’s strong, powerful and opinionated, all the things a women should be, while still retaining her femininity, her womanhood.”
[ . . . ]
But for the many who showed up to see the newly minted Republican team, it wasn’t any issue or political posture that had brought them out.
It was just a woman that they saw a lot of themselves in. Or, as one homemade sign put it, “Pro-Life Hockey Moms 4 Palin.”
“She’s got a real family with real troubles, just like the rest of us,” said Melody Halstrom, a middle-aged women from River Hills, Wis., who came over to the Cedarburg rally. “You know, she’s got teenagers,” Halstrom said, alluding to without actually bringing up the well-publicized pregnancy of Palin’s unwed 17-year-old daughter.
On the first viewing of McCain’s speech, I was pretty much in line with Tom Bevan’s thoughts on it: it was good enough, but far from great.
Later in the evening, though, I felt compelled to go back and review it. I couldn’t get a few of the lines out of my head, which made me wonder if I had misjudged it.
I have to say that it grew on me by leaps and bounds. Over two weeks of speechifying and politicking, it was my favorite.
[ . . . ]
And we simply have to give McCain credit for this kind of gutsiness.
On an October morning, in the Gulf of Tonkin, I prepared for my 23rd mission over North Vietnam. I hadn’t any worry I wouldn’t come back safe and sound. I thought I was tougher than anyone. I was pretty independent then, too. I liked to bend a few rules, and pick a few fights for the fun of it. But I did it for my own pleasure; my own pride. I didn’t think there was a cause more important than me.
Then I found myself falling toward the middle of a small lake in the city of Hanoi, with two broken arms, a broken leg, and an angry crowd waiting to greet me. I was dumped in a dark cell, and left to die. I didn’t feel so tough anymore…
A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I’d been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I’d been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.
Who does this in a nomination speech?
Typically, presidential candidates use their time in combat to reinforce the warrior virtues. Recall, “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty!” McCain basically turned that on its head last night. It was not his heroism or leadership in war that shows he’s ready to command. Instead, it was the horror of war that made him understand how great our country is, and why it is worth fighting for. He was a cocky jerk prior to his captivity, but the brutality of that experience broke his selfish, independent spirit. It was the idea of America that saved him, and - per the speech - he was reborn her humble, imperfect servant.
Delivered in his blunt style, these passages reinforced the idea of McCain being honest even when it isn’t expedient. He’s willing to talk straight about anything, including his own frailties.
Cost calls the speech Jacksonian. I would say it was quintessentially, authentically Jacksonian, as was Palin’s speech. Neither McCain nor Palin was speaking to Republicans, but the whole nation. They were two Jacksonians speaking to Jacksonians.
Obama’s cultural problem is that he is a Cosmopolitanist. He not only has a cultural disconnection with the American character; he fears and despises it. We saw this with bittergate and arugulagate. We saw this with the “Why I don’t wear an American flag lapel pin” statement, and the pathetic attempts later to spin it away. Obama is out of touch, and it appears that he doesn’t even realize it.
Cosmopolitans don’t even have a basic understanding of Jacksonian America. This is why when they run Cosmopolitanists and lose, as Cosmopolitanists always do, they always speak of “learning to speak to” Americans, or “learn to talk about values with” Americans. If they had even the most superficial understanding of Jacksonians, they would realize how fruitless such ploys are.
Jacksonians divide the world into those within the community and those without, where the community is both geographical and cultural (Meade goes into this in great detail; if you haven’t read it, I suggest you do). Jacksonians also have a sixth sense, if you will, that allows them to tell whether someone is from the community or not.
McCain and Palin have something Obama and Biden never can have. Authenticity. Note the people who showed up because “she’s just like us.” Authenticity is either there or it isn’t. You can’t manufacture it. This is why Palin is becoming a folk hero and not merely a candidate, and the Democrats and the media don’t understand it now and never will understand it.
Forget parties for a moment. McCain and Palin are doing a very savvy thing. They’re communicating with and meeting their base — not their political base, but their cultural base. This is how you win elections.
I also said this:
Obama and the Cosmopolitanists, to judge from what they way, hold a mistaken idea that running against John McCain will be more or less the same as running against Hillary. It will not. Obama will have a much more difficult race when his audience is the entire United States, and not just Democrats.
[ . . . ]
Although Hillary and McCain may both appeal to Jacksonians, they are not the same. Hillary is an outsider, although she is an outsider who shares some Jacksonian values and understands Jacksonians. McCain is a Jacksonian. If Obama is to win the election, he must convince Jacksonians not to vote for one of their own, and vote for a Cosmopolitanist instead.
And indeed, Obama is just starting to figure out that running against McCain — McCain and Palin, more to the point — is very different from running against Hillary. Yet, he hasn’t figured out why that is, to judge from what he and his supporters say.
John McCain and Sarah Palin are meeting their own (McCain is having a townhall meeting in Lancaster Tuesday, though I probably won’t go, since I’m supposed to work the phones at McCain headquarters, and it’s a 120 mile drive). By doing so, they not only broadcast their status at authentic members of the “family,” but they show that they care.
Still, they need to send Palin on the speaking circuit, and McCain on the townhall circuit. But this is an excellent start to what will be an exciting campaign.
Uhm, Democrats, this doesn’t leave a very good taste in the mouth. From the Denver Post:
This morning, Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story.
Didn’t anyone make arrangements for better disposal of these flags from Invesco? At the very least, they were an investment that could have been re-used at rallies in Colorado as well as the rest of the nation during the general election. Instead, they’ve handed a dramatic moment to John McCain and Sarah Palin, as well as relieved them of the cost of 12,000 such flags — as well as a full 3?x5? flag that also wound up in the trash.
A dramatic moment, indeed, and merely bringing them onto the stage will say it all.
This is surprisingly stupid thing the Democrats did. I could use other adjectives too, but you can probably supply those yourself.
So yesterday, we heard about how Obama was asking Hillary to fight Palin for him (itself a sign of yet more weakness). Is she going to do it? Eh, not so much.
The question is, will Mrs. Clinton fight Ms. Palin to help her former rival, Mr. Obama? Clinton advisers say that Mrs. Clinton wants to do everything she can to elect Mr. Obama, so that she cannot be blamed if he loses — yet she also does not want to be too closely associated with him if he does lose, nor to tarnish her own image by taking on a rookie national politician like Ms. Palin and possibly coming up short.
Mrs. Clinton is heading to Florida on Monday to campaign for Mr. Obama. And while his advisers expect her to serve as a counterweight to the McCain-Palin ticket, Clinton advisers are emphatic that Mrs. Clinton does not plan to attack Ms. Palin.
We really should start a charity, and send Obama boxes of Depends.
Let me get this straight, Sarah-cuda beats you up and steals your lunch money and instead of standing up for yourself, you write a little note about how she hurt your feelings as a community organizer and you send out another girl to fight your battle. Er, OK. Will you also be sending her out to do business with the Russians, the North Koreans, the health insurance biggies? How about if she does all the debates for you too? Because if you need Hillary to do all the fighting on your sorry ass behalf, then maybe she should be nominee.
Your damn surrogates in the blogosphere have been raking Sarah Palin over the coals for 6 days now. 6 Days! No panty was left unsniffed, no ovary unexamined, no uterus unexplored. You have done the same crotch shot of Sarah Palin in 6 days that it took the Republicans 8 years and $40 million dollars to do to Hillary Clinton. And Sarah still kicked you in the junk and gave you a wedgie. And guess what , Barack. We *liked* it.
News last night from The NY Times, via Riverdaughter, that Obama has run home to Big Sister to plead with her to fight his battle with Saracuda Palin for him. Oh, the poor Precious! Can’t face a tough woman on his own, huh? What’s the matter Barack? Just tell Saracuda that she’s likable enough. Call her a Sweetie and tell the media that she gets moody and bitchy periodically when she’s feeling down. That oughtta work.
Depends For Obama. Give Before He Pees Himself On Camera. I like it.
Keep it up — please. Keep informing the public that women have to stay on the ideological reservation or they have to stay in the kitchen, and that they’re not really free to have their own minds. Keep punishing those who express their own opinions and defy the media with despicable slurs and innuendo and by all means keep attacking their children. None of that will have any effect on Palin’s credibility — but it will strip her critics of theirs.
Remember how Obama and Biden declared children off limits? Obama’s finance chair didn’t get the memo:
Gutman continued, “this wasn’t a working mother issue, this was a parent issue…The proper attack is not that a woman shouldn’t run for vice president with five kids, it’s that a parent, when they have a family in need, a Down’s baby who needs them — mother or father.”
“So you are judging her parenting skills,” Ingraham said. “You’re saying you don’t think she’s a good parent for doing this job.”
“I’m saying the proper criticism is not that it’s a woman or man – it doesn’t matter whether it’s Todd or Sarah,” Gutman said.
This is good for us in two ways.
Backlash. It has already started. Now, backlash is fragile. It happens, then it dies off. But the Democrats and the media are going to be re-igniting the fire until November.
It’s also good for us because it makes Obama look like a weak, ineffective leader. If he can’t control his own campaign, what does that say about how well he’d lead the nation? And how did he respond to the member of his campaign? He issued another weak “He shouldn’t have done that” statement.
I’m burning DVDs, and Rudy’s speaking. I didn’t see it before, but there’s a shot of a little girl waving one of those McCain “I’m not bitter” Terrible Towels.
Actually, before I start, let me say something about Cindy McCain. Several people have said she was the most boring speaker at the convention, and I must agree, but there’s no reason for her to be a good speaker, is there? But it wasn’t so much her speech as it was the video of her life that pointed up the difference between Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama — without doing so explicitly.
Cindy McCain has spent her life working to help others.
Michelle Obama has spent her life whining and getting high paying jobs because of her husband’s position.
And that’s what they’re still doing. Philanthropy. Whining.
But on to the speech.
Overall: He said exactly what needed to be said, and it was better than I expected.
Specific: The first half was what I expected. McCain isn’t a great public speaker. But he laid out the differences between his platform and Obama’s, and did so respectfully.
Finally, a word to Senator Obama and his supporters. We’ll go at it over the next two months. That’s the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. We’re dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. No country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn’t be an American worthy of the name if I didn’t honor Senator Obama and his supporters for their achievement.
Ah, but the second half, that was far better than I expected. McCain spoke from the heart, and nobody missed the sincerity and yes, the pain. And the end was — especially considering that it was John McCain speaking — remarkable.
A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I’d been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I’d been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.
When they brought me back to my cell, I was hurt and ashamed, and I didn’t know how I could face my fellow prisoners. The good man in the cell next door, my friend, Bob Craner, saved me. Through taps on a wall he told me I had fought as hard as I could. No man can always stand alone. And then he told me to get back up and fight again for our country and for the men I had the honor to serve with. Because every day they fought for me.
I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else’s. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency; for its faith in the wisdom, justice and goodness of its people. I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea, a cause worth fighting for. I was never the same again. I wasn’t my own man anymore. I was my country’s.
I’m not running for president because I think I’m blessed with such personal greatness that history has anointed me to save our country in its hour of need. My country saved me. My country saved me, and I cannot forget it. And I will fight for her for as long as I draw breath, so help me God.
If you find faults with our country, make it a better one. If you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them. Enlist in our Armed Forces. Become a teacher. Enter the ministry. Run for public office. Feed a hungry child. Teach an illiterate adult to read. Comfort the afflicted. Defend the rights of the oppressed. Our country will be the better, and you will be the happier. Because nothing brings greater happiness in life than to serve a cause greater than yourself.
I’m going to fight for my cause every day as your President. I’m going to fight to make sure every American has every reason to thank God, as I thank Him: that I’m an American, a proud citizen of the greatest country on earth, and with hard work, strong faith and a little courage, great things are always within our reach. Fight with me. Fight with me.
Fight for what’s right for our country.
Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.
Fight for our children’s future.
Fight for justice and opportunity for all.
Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.
Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.
Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.
Thank you, and God Bless you.
Nobody was sitting. I expected accumulated excitement at the end, but that wasn’t what made these people stand up. It was what McCain said, and the heartfelt way in which he said it. Very, very, very well done.
Highlights: What can only be described as an evil grin when he said this:
She knows where she comes from and she knows who she works for. She stands up for what’s right, and she doesn’t let anyone tell her to sit down. I’m very proud to have introduced our next Vice President to the country. But I can’t wait until I introduce her to Washington.
And
A lot of prisoners had it worse than I did. I’d been mistreated before, but not as badly as others. I always liked to strut a little after I’d been roughed up to show the other guys I was tough enough to take it. But after I turned down their offer, they worked me over harder than they ever had before. For a long time. And they broke me.
That last sentence was jarring. He did not emphasize it, nor did he pause, but went right on, and that made it all the more striking. It’s a line I will not forget.
I’ve been an imperfect servant of my country for many years. But I have been her servant first, last and always. And I’ve never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I didn’t thank God for the privilege.
Here’s the speech.
And just because it was so remarkable, here again is Palin’s acceptance speech.
The best summary of Troopergate Tasergate here (long and highly detailed).
If you care. That’s not to diminish Beldar’s work in writing this up. It’s just that it’s a non-scandal, and I couldn’t care less — except that the POS Wooten didn’t get fired.
There must have been a server farm down between here and my blog. I was online and the blog pinged, but I couldn’t get to it. But now that we’re up and running . . .
I’ve only seen this on Hot Air, but this is too good to just send you over there.
McCain and Palin in Wisconsin today. Video below (it’s almost 17 minutes), with lots of red meat. Here’s the first rare moose ribeye from our next Vice President:
Senator Obama said the surge, quote, “succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. I think,” said Senator Obama, “that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated.”
I guess when you turn out to be profoundly wrong on a vital national security issue, maybe it’s comforting to pretend that everybody else was wrong, too. But I remember it a little differently. It seems to me there was one leader in Washington who did predict success, who refused to call retreat, and risked his own career for the sake of the surge and victory in Iraq, and ladies and gentlemen, that man is standing right next to me, Senator John McCain.
Now, because I get a lot of this idiotic, unhinged stuff in comments and you never see them because I flush them down the digital toilet where they belong, this time, I’m going to approve it.
So without further discussion, I give you our insane and illiterate TALLYBAN!
Off to Best Buy. Why? Well, I thought a slightly larger font would be easier to read on my desktop, so I changed it. Now, if I boot, I get the BSOD, unless I boot in safe mode — and if I do, of course, I can’t change the monitor settings.
I called Best Buy and they said bring it in. So I am.
It looks to me like a setting that could cause a fatal system crash probably shouldn’t be available at all. But maybe that’s just me.
Barack Obama apparently isn’t the only “rock star” in presidential politics this year.
After days of intense media coverage about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s qualifications, more than 40 million Americans tuned in Wednesday to see for themselves what they thought of her.
[ . . . ]
Last week, Nielsen said 38.4 million people watched Obama speak at a Denver stadium on the six commercial networks, along with BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo — four networks that didn’t cover Palin’s speech. PBS added an estimated 4 million to that total.
Nearly 2 million more women were watching Palin than men, Nielsen said.
Oh, but there’s more.
The Nielsen ratings showed that Palin attracted a huge female audience of 19.5 million women, nearly 5 million larger than the third day of the Democratic convention when Hillary Clinton spoke.
Palin Speech Moves Independents: Results of two nationwide polls conducted by SurveyUSA show Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republican National Convention on the evening of 09/03/08 has helped the McCain campaign.
24 hours ago, independent voters nationwide were split on whether Palin was an asset or a liability to McCain’s campaign. Today, by a 2:1 margin, independents say Palin is an asset. Overnight, the percentage calling the Alaska governor an asset to the campaign climbed 13 points; the percentage calling her a liability fell 17 points.
The numbers are similar among moderates, who 24 hours ago viewed Palin as a liability by an 11 point margin; today, Palin is seen as an asset by an 18 point margin.
Betting Line Changes: 24 hours ago, when asked if they would bet on Obama or McCain becoming president, Obama was a 16:15 favorite; today, it’s flipped, and McCain is favored by the same ratio.
# This woman is an Obama-level political natural. She is a ferociously good speaker, and almost preternaturally composed.
Sarah Palin is what the McCain camp has badly needed: an attack dog who can be deployed against Obama. She slides the stiletto in without either losing her femininity or coming across as catty, and given that she’s married to an eskimo, it’s going to be hard to fit her into the narrative of conservative closet racists trying to perpetuate white domination.
Ain’t it wunnerful?
She’s a natural — and she’s no lightweight. Here’s something that just occurred to me and so far, I haven’t seen it anywhere else. First, let’s look at Cindy McCain and the First Lady at the convention.
Now, Palin on Wednesday night.
See the difference? Cindy McCain and Laura Bush are wearing designer. Sarah is tastefully dressed, but like she’s on her way to chair the PTA meeting.
Similarly, she’s wearing notably less makeup than either Cindy McCain or the First Lady, just enough, and no more.
This is a very savvy woman here. She knows exactly what she’s doing, and don’t look for her to stumble. And best of all, she bites back. Hard. But with a smile on her face.
Look at her closely, folks. The GOP changed Wednesday night, and she’s the face of the new party.
Though I’m signing off here in a minute to make dinner.
Working the phones. Well, I got forty calls in, but no more. When I got there, the door was open, but nobody was at the desk. I walked in, said, “Hello?” several times, until this young woman came out of the back.
She was a volunteer (a PSU student), she had been there an hour, and she hadn’t seen the person who was supposed to be at the desk. There was a note taped on it that said, “Back in 15 minutes.” I never did see the person. Maybe he was abducted by space aliens.
The student had to go to class about thirty minutes after I got there, so I was alone. I did get one very entertaining woman on the phone, but I digress.
People kept coming in for bumperstickers, buttons, etc., and since I was the only one there, I had to keep getting up. All of them wanted to talk — particularly about Palin last night — and most commented on how hard the office was to find (it is).
So I left. The door locks when you close it. I’m going back in Tuesday. I hope there’s somebody actually staffing the office.
I would like to thank the US media for doing such a grand job this last week of lowering expectations by portraying Governor Palin - whoops, I mean Hick-Burg Mayor Palin - as a hillbilly know-nothing permapregnant ditz, half of whose 27 kids are the spawn of a stump-toothed uncle who hasn’t worked since he was an extra in Deliverance.
How’s that narrative holding up, geniuses? Almost as good as your “devoted husband John Edwards” routine?
Both of them delivered technically sound performances. Romney, completing his opportunistic conversion from Massachusetts moderate to Reagan conservative, resorted to a heavy dose of old-fashioned, Arthur Finkelstein-inspired liberal-baiting, while Huckabee used a little more humor.
But all of that was forgotten moments after Palin, who received a standing ovation that lasted for more than three minutes before even opening her mouth. To the delegates in the hall, she had become a living, breathing and besieged symbol of the national media’s (and the Democratic Party’s) mockery of and condescension toward them. This sort of kinship with the audience is an enviable way for any speaker to begin any speech, and Palin never squandered it.
She hit the right policy points - particularly on energy policy, where she brought the crowd to its feet with her embrace of aggressive domestic oil drilling and derision of the Democrats’ skepticism - but what really resonated with the conservative audience was her poise, her confidence, her determination and her humor.
“You know,” she ad-libbed (or at least seemed to) upon spotting a sign in the hall from a fellow hockey mother, “they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull - lipstick.”
A deafening roar ensued, as it did over and over throughout her speech. She flubbed no lines, stumbled over no words, and delivered every sentence with the ease and command of a natural politician.
[ . . . ]
But even if the G.O.P. ticket loses, we probably witnessed on Wednesday night the birth of a new future Republican White House contender, a rival for Romney and Huckabee as ‘12 approaches. Her acceptance speech marked the opening for Palin of a two-month window that ambitious politicians dream about - an opportunity to show her party’s base what she looks like on the national stage, going toe-to-toe with the other party (and the media), and to leave them drooling for more.
She provided strong evidence on Wednesday night that she’s up to the challenge - that she’ll more than hold her own in her October debate with Joe Biden (the next highest-profile moment for her) and on the stump between now and November. If she does that, then win or lose, she will finish this campaign as an obvious White House prospect with a large and loyal following on the right.
In the moments after the speech, I told our on-air listeners that this was the kind of speech Zell Miller could have delivered. Palin didn’t deliver it in a shrill manner or sound like she had a chip on her shoulder, though. She sounded like she relished the opportunity to engage. Palin has no intention of allowing herself to get steamrolled by Barack “Sweetie” Obama, Democrats in general, or a mainstream media that suddenly found itself becoming the echo chamber for anonymous Kos diarists.
She didn’t just play the role of attack dog, although her description of hockey moms as pit bulls with lipstick played very well with the crowd. Palin delivered a stirring defense of small-town values and middle America, and told Americans that she’s one of them — just a mother who started off wanting a better education for her kids, then wanted to improve her community, and just kept succeeding all the way up the ladder.
And Ed includes the line I forgot:
In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.
And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
They’re the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals.
Today she is the most talked-about woman in the world. And with good reason.
Sarah Palin’s sensational performance at the Republican Party Convention may turn out to be the tipping point of this rollercoaster American election.
Obama fans hoping she would fluff her big night were in for a nasty shock.
This speech has turned the election upside down. It was simply stunning.
Democrats and their Lefty media backers had been sneering that she was a small town nobody, a hick from the Alaskan sticks put into a job way beyond an inexperienced woman.
Over half of U.S. voters (51%) think reporters are trying to hurt Sarah Palin with their news coverage, and 24% say those stories make them more likely to vote for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in November
One last thing. You know, if I were Obama and his groupies, after that woman rocked the house and showed that she is, indeed, tough as nails, I wouldn’t respond by whining — then, I wouldn’t try to tar McCain with corruption or ties to lobbyists, or try to label Palin as inexperienced. But I’m not a Disciple of the Church of the One, so what do I know?
UNIVERSAL GRADE CHANGE FORM
____________________University
To: Professor____________________ From:___________________________
I think my grade in your course,___________________, should be
changed from ______ to _______ for the following reasons:
______1. The persons who copied my paper got a higher grade than I did.
______2. The person whose paper I copied got a higher grade than I did.
______3. This course will lower my Grade Point Average and I won't get
into:
______Law School
______Medical School ______Graduate School
______Dental School ______My Fraternity/Sorority
______The Mickey Mouse Club ______Tri County Tech
______4. I have to get an A in this course to balance the F in
_______________.
______5. I'll lose my scholarship.
______6. I'm on a varsity sports team and my tutor couldn't find a copy
of your exam.
______7. I didn't come to class and the person whose notes I used
did not cover the material asked for on the exam.
______8. I studied the basic principles and the exam wanted every
little fact.
______9. I learned all the facts and definitions but your exams
asked about general principles.
_____10. You are prejudiced against:
______Males ______Jews ______Blacks
______Females ______Catholics ______Whites
______Protestants ______Moslems ______Minorities
______Chicanos ______People ______Students
_____11. If I flunk out of school my father will
disinherit me or at least cut my allowance.
_____12. I was unable to do well in this course because of the following
illness:
______mono ______broken baby finger
______acute alcoholism ______pregnancy
______VD ______fatherhood
_____13. You told us to be creative but you didn't tell us exactly
how you wanted that done.
_____14. I was creative and you said I was just shooting the bull.
_____15. I don't have a reason; I just want a higher grade.
_____16. The lectures were:
______too detailed to pick out important points.
______not explained in sufficient detail.
______too boring.
______all jokes and not enough material.
______all of the above.
_____17. This course was:
______too early, I was not awake.
______at lunchtime, I was hungry.
______too late, I was tired.
_____18. My (dog, cat, gerbil) (ate, wet on, threw up on) my
(book, notes, paper) for this course.
_____19. Other___________________________________________________
It’s 2004 all over again. The election is the whiny children vs. the adults. Last night’s speeches made that clear. But more than 2004, this election is about the weak candidate vs. the strong candidates. If you didn’t see Palin last night, you don’t know what strong is.
But I’m getting ahead of myself — and because this is long, the rest is below the fold.
Nobody’s talking about it because, well, Palin was so phenomenal she made you forget anyone else had been on the stage, but Rudy was really good. Not necessarily better than Fred good, but he worked the crowd and had them out of the seats cheering over and over again. He really was good, and I don’t want to gloss over him, even though Palin, Palin, Palin, my God, what a woman! What a speaker! I’ve been pulling for Palin for a couple of months now, and she knocked me out of my seat.
Watching the tumultuous, ecstatic reaction in the hall, I was reminded of the famous words of the Admiral Yamamoto after Pearl Harbour: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant, and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
Sarah Palin walked out onto that stage under more scrutiny, with less preparation, and with more at stake, than any candidate in living memory. You’d never know it.
Chris Wallace (on TV) said, “A star is born.”
You want strong woman? You got it. She makes Hillary look like a weak-kneed whiny little Barbie doll. And she showed that she can not only stand up to the slime and the mud, but that she’s stronger than all of the monkey-cage shit slingers. On gaypatriot, cme says:
She just took all the enemies that have been railing against her the last few days, swept them up into a pile, and crushed them under her boot. It was a thing of beauty.
And more than a few women were crying — as they were cheering.
But Rudy first. His slam dunks.
One hundred and thirty times he couldn’t decide whether to vote “yes” or “no.” It was too tough. He voted “present.” I didn’t know about this vote “present” when I was mayor of New York City. Sarah Palin didn’t have this vote “present” when she was mayor or governor. You don’t get “present.” It doesn’t work in an executive job. For President of the United States, it’s not good enough to be present. You have to make a decision.
and
If I were Joe Biden, I’d
get that VP thing in writing.
and
So he changed his position again. And he put out a statement exactly like the statement of John McCain’s three days earlier. I have some advice for Senator Obama. Next time, call John McCain.
Poor Sarah. They just won’t stop cheering so she can start speaking — and nobody is sitting down. Zell Miller really got the crowd worked up in 2004, but this is way beyond enthusiasm. They’re completely in love with her. And as the camera panned past Levi Johnston, Bristol’s fiance, I saw he had tears in his eyes.
Speaking of love, the camera loves her. She’s a strikingly beautiful woman. She’s poised, she’s strong, and she’s confident. She’s comfortable in her own skin, and spoke fluidly. Brit Hume just said she’s obviously no amateur. Flawless diction. (Aside: She has a nephew in the service? I didn’t know that.)
This woman is no ordinary speaker. She’s a powerhouse. And I don’t mean just the text. I mean she’s a magnetic presence. You can’t take your eyes off her. She’s a public speaker, and she’s going to mutilate Biden in any debate. You can take that to the bank.
The whole thing was spectacular — better than I thought she’d be — even the AP admitted it.
How was even the leftist AP left fumbling for talking points?
The media of course gets its talking points from the DNC. They get half of their stores from the DNC, and all of their analysis.
The media trusts the DNC. They like the DNC. The DNC are nice people who do all of their actual work for them, leaving them free to to snort coke and pursue their hobbies of functional alcoholism and sleeping with each other’s spouses; why shouldn’t they like the DNC?
So the DNC and the Obama camp told the media that Palin was stupid and a bumpkin and all of that and the media got ready to write the stories, and analyze the speech, as they had been previously instructed by the DNC and David Axelrod.
And then the speech happened.
And the media was baffled, befuddled, and bewildered — the DNC and David Axelrod had given them the wrong script entirely! Even they could see that somehow their helpful friends in the DNC had badly erred.
But they had nothing to say, because the DNC and David Axelrod hadn’t prepared them for “Plan B” (as the snide/sarcastic line is now being called).
So the media just sat there in stupefied silence wondering what it was they were supposed to say. And not having been well prepared, they could only manage to do the easiest thing possible, which is to say the purely obvious.
And the obvious, as it turns out, was that it was a hell of a speech, and that she hit a grand slam, and certainly seemed ready for high national office, at least, that is, by the criteria established by David Axelrod and the DNC (to wit, that one is ready for high office if one can deliver a hell of a speech).
So why did David Axelrod and the DNC let down their nice friends in the media and leave them with nothing to say?
They just didn’t see it coming, either.
And lost for a reaction because they didn’t see it coming, they’re reduced to idiocy and panic (well, more than usual, that is). The media talking heads and Obama are apparently shocked! that somebody wrote her speech. Ace helps them out here.
Someone wrote Obambi’s speech, too, Hoss.
They were frightened before. After last night, they should be terrified. Many are.
[The] useless drearily liberal Timothy Noah whines, possibly correctly, that the media’s nasty full frontal attack on Palin has set her up to knock it out of the park.
I hope she hits the circuit and speaks and speaks and speaks, because every time she does, she’s going to pull votes.
Here were a few highlights.
Stick the knife in and twist it, Sarah!
A writer observed: “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity, and dignity.” I know just the kind of people that writer had in mind when he praised Harry Truman.
I grew up with those people.
They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America … who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars.
They love their country, in good times and bad, and they’re always proud of America. I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town.
I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better.
When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too.
Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.
And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.
We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
Serious red meat — or maybe I should say moose stew:
And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.
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.
And foreign policy as energy independence was really good.
I fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history.
And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.
That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.
The stakes for our nation could not be higher.
When a hurricane strikes in the Gulf of Mexico, this country should not be so dependent on imported oil that we are forced to draw from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
And families cannot throw away more and more of their paychecks on gas and heating oil.
With Russia wanting to control a vital pipeline in the Caucasus, and to divide and intimidate our European allies by using energy as a weapon, we cannot leave ourselves at the mercy of foreign suppliers.
To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world energy supplies … or that terrorists might strike again at the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia … or that Venezuela might shut off its oil deliveries … we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas.
And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we’ve got lots of both.
Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems - as if we all didn’t know that already.
But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.
Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we’re going to lay more pipelines … build more new-clear plants … create jobs with clean coal … and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and other alternative sources.
We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers.
And then she went in for the kill.
I’ve noticed a pattern with our opponent.
Maybe you have, too.
We’ve all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers.
And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.
But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.
This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word “victory” except when he’s talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed … when the roar of the crowd fades away … when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger … take more of your money … give you more orders from Washington … and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy … our opponent is against producing it.
Victory in Iraq is finally in sight … he wants to forfeit.
Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay … he wants to meet them without preconditions.
Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights? Government is too big … he wants to grow it.
Congress spends too much … he promises more.
Taxes are too high … he wants to raise them. His tax increases are the fine print in his economic plan, and let me be specific.
That’s enough. Transcript is here, but you really need to see and hear this woman speak. She’s phenomenal.
So ladies and gentlemen, I present the powerhouse, Sarah Palin.
I’m just this minute watching the speeches from last night. I’ll post impressions as soon as they’re over.
Oh. I thought all the talking heads were annoying (shut up, Hannity, we don’t want to hear you), but I’ve seen quite a few reports that on the networks and PBS, journalists were talking over the speeches.
Kill them.
You’ll recall that I actually got a call from the county GOP. I’ll be volunteering at the McCain office this afternoon. No blogging. Some things are more important — like electing John McCain and Sarah Palin.
By the way, Rudy can work a crowd, and they love him. He’s not done speaking yet, and he’s had them out of their chairs cheering at least ten times.
