Quick hits on the Palin speech

Daniel, I have to admit I viewed this speech differently. This was my take which I posted on my amateur blog:

Palin Speech: Better than Obama's, She is a new feminist Icon, The Point Guard has set McCain up for a Slam Dunk in November

What a speech by Sarah Palin. In articulating why John McCain represents the best of America, she showed that she also represented the best of our Nation. She is the new feminist icon, the personification of the goal of the feminist movement: A Woman who can have it all-a career, husband and family.

Like the point guard she was, Palin just set up McCain for a Slam Dunk in November. She led a full court press on Biden-Obama ticket and exposed them as having no way to defend against a strong offensive attack. Obama and Biden just got blown out on in a big game on national television.

Two months ago, it seemed Barack Obama would be the person who would make history. But, not anymore. Palin is going to be the woman who breaks the glass ceiling and enters the White House as Vice President. Her speech is going to be the hammer that first actually breaks through the glass. There is no doubt now that John McCain is going to win big.

Palin was able to eviscerate Obama because Obama is such an easy target. AS I have posted before, the Democrats have put Obama in a terrible position. He will not win because he is too inexperienced, too liberal and too much of a risk.

I have always thought McCain would win (ok, since July) but until Palin, I did not see the win being a catalyst to re-ignite the Conservative movment. Palin is picking up the Conservative torch that Hastert and DeLay dropped and she is going to use it to lead the way.

Instead of role models like Britney and Paris, we now have a role model like Palin. Every parent of a young daughter in America will be able to point to her as a wonderful role model. And what is great about Palin, is that she is actually cool.

How many little girls dream about growing up to be Hillary Clinton? A woman who has achieved power through her husband's career and connections but had to pay the price of a miserable marriage, humiliation, and betrayal?

Sarah has made it on her own. She is someone who little girls across America can point to and say I want to grow up like her and know that it is a happy life. What Sarah also offers is that she is cool. Girls will naturally want to emulate her because of her poise and self confidence.

When she was speaking, I could see the fiery point guard competing to win. When she was speaking I could see the confidence that comes from believing in herself. When I was watching her I saw someone who could handle the job of President of the United States.

How fitting in many ways that it will be Palin and not Hillary Clinton who breaks the glass ceiling. A woman who did it in a way that reflects the character of America--with virtue, honesty and hard work. Not someone, like Hillary, who is there because she felt she is owed it or someone there more on her husband's merits than her own.

Feminists who supported Hillary were compromising. They would get the end product, but in a way that was the antithesis of feminism. Whereas with Sarah Palin, they will get someone who has made it on her own, living the dream of the feminist movement, an a way that is authentically American.

This speech was superior to Obama's. Don't be surprised if she does not start pulling some Obama like crowds.

Some women may disagree with some of her policies, but none will disagree with her character, and all women will see someone who moves the ball forward to equality. Great choice John McCain.

What a great night for Women in America and the Conservative movement in America. Somewhere Ronald Reagan is looking down with a twinkle in his eye smiling because he knows she won one more for the Gipper

thanks for the opportunity to comment. Good point on the sleep schedule!! true wisdom.

The Palin speech suggests her main role in the McCain campaign will be to act as the anti-Obama attack dog. I presume the sophistication of the Barack Obama campaign will formulate the right strategy for responding to Palin. Unlike 2004, I don't think attacks alone will save the Republicans when the majority of the American people are fearful of the economic mess that McCain has no remedies for, unlike Barack Obama.

It will do us all well to realize there's an important difference from delivering a speech and delivering the goods. Teleprompter aside, it looks like Palin will give Obama a run for the money on eloquence. Not bad for entertainment value, not so hot for the good of humanity's and our earth's future.

The substance was largely forgettable, but if you don't realize you've just seen possibly the best communicator in politics today, you're out of touch with regular Americans.

TNR Editor: My liberal friends who watched the speech are panicking:

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/09/03/focus-group-palin-was-alarmingly-strong.aspx

She sounded unconvincing on energy? Do you live in a cave or something? She's the Governor of Alaska. I can guarantee you she knows far more about energy than you do and definitely more than either Obama or Biden.

I thought it was a supposed to be a good thing, holding babies. The human touch and all that. I just stumbled over here, I don't read you regularly so maybe I'm just unaware of your superior baby care expertise.

She gave a good speech, there is no doubt about that. I would disagree with Rob that she is "possibly the best communicator in politics today." She has been in the national limelight for what, 5 days? She didn't write the speech. She just had to deliver. And, when you were a sports reporter for 4 years and then politician, you know how to read and when to pause. She knows how to play up her down-home character and that gives her a "straight-talk" freshness and appeal.

It will be interesting how the Obama campaign will respond to McCain after this, and it will be largely about McCain's speech tonight. If McCain talks policy tonight (particularly about the economy), his speech will be incredibly boring- he is not the most effective of deliverers. If he talks in platitudes about the enduring strength of America, the RNC will be just as (or more) lofty than the DNC, i.e. "no red meat," which the Democrats will attack. Meanwhile, all the talk will still be about Sarah Palin and not about McCain, she will continued to be pressured by the media while the man on top of the ticket will be ignored... these next few weeks will say a lot about both campaigns

She's the governor of Alaska, so she knows about energy policy? Are you kidding me? There's no evidence she knows anything about anything. Alaska has a bunch of oil, and for that reason sends checks to its citizens. She favors expanded drilling in her home state, so that the government there will have even more money to hand out. That's about it as far as her "knowledge" of energy policy is concerned. Seriously, this is self-refuting. How much would expaneded drilling add to global energy supply? The answer to that question will tell you its impact on global prices. (It's a global market.) The math is easy to do in your head. The impact (as the scientists at the U.S. Energy Information Agency have found) would be neligible.

She reads a speech well, and will be an effective advocate in the culture war campaign the Republicans have chosen to run (if she doesn't get impeached in Alaska first for Troopergate, which looks like at 1 in 3 bet to me). But she's a lightweight. Again, there's no evidence at all that she knows anything about, or has given serious thought jtot, the serious issues facing this country. McCain's choice of her was a deeply unserious and unpatriotic move.

There are so many incredulous, sexist, ignorant remarks in your post, RCLightning, that it makes it difficult to see straight to write this comment. A feminist icon? The personification of the feminist movement? Hammer through the glass ceiling? Since when did having it all mean career, family, HUSBAND. Perhaps individuals can decide for themselves what having it all means. You can take your hetero-normative family "values" and drill them somewhere off the Alaskan coast. I don't need my VP to be "cool" or even a mother (gasp!) I need the person to be qualified and not an affirmative action candidate with no merit who has become a hockey puck of the GOP. I sure as pie don't need the spouse of big Oil to lead our nations energy policy into the future. I can assure you, Lightning, that no where in this elusive feminist movement of which you speak do women chant "No choice" and "Abstinence Only Education for all". If you are any representation of what other Americans made of her speech (hollow, substance-free) than that kool-aid is more potent that a pitbull wearing lipstick.

Of course the real blue/red breakdown has been urban/rural--the blue state/red state split does not tell the whole story. If you look at the district maps in past elections, the blue state's have red in the rural districts and blue in the metropolitan districts.

She is reaching out to the red voters in these blue states by accurately going for the real regional split.

One of my abiding political preoccupations is trying to figure out the extent to which rules that have long applied still do.

This year's election is a case in point. The American economy is in recession, the government is spending $10 billion a month trying to keep Arabs from killing each other and running the largest deficit in its history, gas prices hit historic highs earlier this year and will remain higher than Americans are used to, and the incumbent Republican administration has not only become a byword for neglect, corruption and incompetence but is headed by a President for whom many Americans have developed a pronounced personal dislike. By historic precedent, this should mean a Democratic landslide.

Does it make a difference, though, that the election campaign has become something like a long-running television series, an event in itself? Things may be screwed up in the country -- but Sarah Palin's a hockey mom, and isn't her baby sweet! Let's vote for McCain! I don't reason that way, and I can't imagine that many people do. The possibility that my imagination is too limited in this area has occurred to me.

Awesome! Four more years of culture wars! Woo hoo!

Looks like Krugman is going to be proven right -- once again (cf. Obama v Clinton). And I say this quite ruefully.

I think # 3 (rural v. urban) is exactly right. Bush won in 2000 and 2004 because of high turnout among rural evangelicals. They aren't "independents" or "swing voters;" they will vote Republican, if they vote (which isn't a simple matter of strolling down to the polling place). McCain doesn't inspire many of these people to take time out of their day to go vote. Palin very likely will.

(I also had the same thought re: the baby [#4]).

Governor Palin's speech was one of the best I've ever heard. She said it like it is, unlike the mindless sheep who adore Obama, even though he's just an empty suit. Most of the negative blogs on this site appear to have been written before the speech was even given. Comments by brain washed Obamabots, who infect the blog sites with the same sarcastic partisan posts, no matter what the story is about. Keep America strong, elect McCain / Palin in November. No Wright, no Farrakahn, no Ayers, no Rezko, no mean Michelle, NOBAMA

They had his neck OK, and he should be old enough now that they can be a little less cautious.
Man, I hate parents like you who are totally anal on sleep schedules. We used to try real real hard to keep the schedule -- and let it slip when it had to. You gotta do that unless you can always afford babaysitting. Besides, he's an infant still, his sleep scedule is probably a wee bit wacky. I'd worry more about Piper's sleep schedule. And what was most adorable about her was how solicitous she was of the baby....

Where did all of these people come from? "Palin Speech: Better than Obama’s", "The best communicator in politics today". You cannot go around calling Democrats "the mindless sheep who adore Obama" and then say stuff like that.

[...] nice to include an Eph connection for these posts (say by linking to Dan Drezner ‘90), like so, or someone else on Eph Planet), that is not a requirement. “All things Eph,” in this [...]

A missed opportunity to let people get to know her better. It seems the greatest problems we face as Americans are corruption and partisanship. No, those are the greatest problems Republicans face. The rest of us have bigger problems to confront. Drilling and tax cuts the solution to everything. Gosh, why didn't we think of that earlier (sarcastically).

Robert Porter must have missed all the threads during this blog's early days that revolved around the question: George W. Bush, Master Geostrategist or Prize Doofus?

There were lots of posters taking the former view.

Lauren, for a long time conservatives have been dealing with a charisma gap versus the Democrats, now with Sarah Palin, we see someone who can re-ignite the movement. Gloria Steinem posted earlier that she is not like Hillary at all. I agree Palin does not share much with Hillary. She made it on her own, not because her husband was President. Palin is the new feminist ideal. Unlike Hillary, she will be a role model to whom little girls will seek to aspire. Hillary is a good person, but who would want their daughter to grow up and have to make those types of marital sacrifices to get to power? We can point to Governor Palin and say to our daugthers--that is how it is done. You can grow up, marry a decent man, have a good career, raise five children and still be Vice President. Millions of girls will want to BE LIKE SARAH!. What she has that is scaring the heck out of Liberals like Ms. Steinem is that Sarah is cool! Sarah helps fill in the Republican charisma gap. Bye bye Britney and Paris. Move aside Hillary. America has a new female role model: Sarah Palin. She might be the female version of John Wayne.

For six years to 2007, U.S. economic output rose every year with a compound growth rate 4.7% p.a. PPP per capita, or 5.7% p.a. PPP for the whole economy. The per capita PPP increase of $10,980 was greater than in Japan, U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Australia, etc., and was 3.9 times the size of the PPP increase in China ($2,814). (World Bank figures)

The year to June 2008 is not yet available.

I was rather amused by the speech and the talking heads that said it was good. What are Independnet's biggest problems with Obama? Inexperience and fear that he's all sizzle and no steak. Palin is like a 3rd-rate Obama. I'm going to guess people would rather go with the real thing.

[...] Posted on September 5, 2008 by gronberg Daniel Drezner gets it: Forget red state/blue state cleavages; the cultural divide in this election is [...]

Blue collar white folks with lots of kids ? Rural.

Blue collar white folks with lots of kids doesn't equal rural.

As much as I could sit through of the speech consisted of a bunch of small-town, hockey-mom hocum, followed by a mix of blatant falsehoods: about her record, about Obama's record, and a series of red-meat one-liners that played well to the people in the hall.

Granted, she read it well. Which is perhaps harder than it looks.

But the dripping sarcasm will not play well with independents. She was too nasty. She doesn't have the stature to pull that off, other than with the enraptured christianists that have taken over the GOP. Not a class act.

She's a total identity politics play, and proof-positive that the GOP is now a religious organization.

She surprised with a good delivery, and some good zinger one-liners. In the long term, it's not clear the sarcastic snarky tone will play well with independents. (As a teacher, it had not played for me in the long-term, so I had to tone it down!)

Interesting how it took about 12 hours for the libs & Dems to say... "hey, she's dissing community organizers? You mean like Susan B Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr? Them's fighting words!" And once they got up from the hit they started to fight back. I think they really underestimated how tough a fight Palin can give.

#18 RCLightning: for a long time conservatives have been dealing with a charisma gap . . . she . . . is scaring the heck out of Liberals (because) Sarah is cool! . . . America has a new female role model: Sarah Palin. She might be the female version of John Wayne.

There it is in a nutshell, no steak, just sizzle. Which is exactly what the base wants. But call it steak, please, so they can pretend it is.

RCLightning, I suppose you know that John Wayne was an actor, i.e. he never personally slayed any bad guys, killed any Indians, torched any VC or saved any damsels in distress. He personified the right's fantasies on screen, just as Sarah Palin - suddenly, just about out of the blue - personifies the right's fantasies now (witness your comments).

You seem to be quite thrilled with a never-never land approach to politics and the reaction of the base shows that you're not alone.

Unfortunately, it seems that fantasy girl can't quite discuss her vision of America yet unless she's reading it off of a Teleprompter. I know that the media is a seething cauldron of contempt for you and the base, but for many of the rest of us, we actually wouldn't mind a few answers to a few questions. After all, there are real problems out there that even the Duke would have trouble wrasslin'.

Your observations are valid. However, let's stop talking about the style and the execution - and the game. Let's talk about policy and what it means for us. Americans are tired of the games and just want pragmatic results.

For me, no-drama Obama is the pragmatist that we need.