After letting last night's speech sink in, and reading the newspapers and blogs this morning, I figured out what I found most objectionable:
You, Sarah Palin, have been on the national stage for approximately 5 days. You have zero political capital and zero credibility with respect to national politics. Where the hell do you get off ridiculing anyone? There are plenty of Republican politicians who could've given that speech last night, many of them women; you, however, had no business making such a speech. And to make matters worse, you introduced yourself as a small town "PTA mom." I've known many small town PTA moms. Most weren't qualified to criticize the school cafeteria's lunch menu. Yet, somehow, we're supposed to take what you say about Barack Obama seriously. Sorry, I can't do that. I suspect most non-Christianists can't either.
Ultimately, I think last night's speech did a good job of rallying the base. But, the fundamentals are not with the Republican party this year, and getting the base to turn out won't be enough. What worked for dubya, won't work for McCain. Given the current political atmosphere, he needed to run to the middle, not to the right. By choosing Palin, McCain has given the middle finger to independents. I think they'll return the gesture in November.
Update (11:06am): Ezra points to some evidence suggesting that independents didn't fall in love with Palin last night:
Over in Michigan, the Detroit Free Press put together a panel of voters to react to last night's speeches. Interestingly, the independents were universally negative on Palin, and in fact much harder on her than the Democrats were.
1 comments:
her speech was horrendous. she barely brushed across any issues other than the 4 or 5 lines about oil that bush's speechwriter forced in there. her idea of "energy independence" makes me want to vomit.
sarah "my family is off limits except for my son IRAQ IRAQ IRAQ IRAQ" palin
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