Yes, it was a great speech, possibly the highlight of the Republican convention. And yes, it was the climax of a big day for the GOP. First Romney and then Huckabee made their effective case against Obama and Biden. Then Giuliani came in as the Mafia Man to rough up Obama, a bruising he delivered with obvious relish. I would not have thought Palin could top these three seasoned veterans, but she did. It doesn't really matter how McCain does; the Republicans are off and running.
Commentators have noted that Palin spoke with aplomb. The liberals had sought to portray her as a bungler and a problem pick, akin to George H.W. Bush's selection of Dan Quayle. But the attacks created for Palin a great opportunity. All she had to show was that she was not the small-town nitwit of Democratic propaganda. Palin also demonstrated that she could mount a devastating attack on Obama--basically a "community organizer" who knows how to talk a slick game--without coming across as mean-spirited. This is a real art, to know how to punch with a smile. As commentator Fred Barnes said later, this is not an easy skill to learn. Palin didn't really learn it; she is a natural.
What struck me most about Palin, however, was not her pungent one-liners or her savoir faire. Rather, it was her girlish innocence, her unexpected candor and small-town charm. Palin came across as a really wholesome all-American, a real contrast with all the men in the race. Both by her words and her style, she contrasted herself with both Biden and Obama. Biden is basically a mediocre fellow (he graduated in the bottom 10 percent of his law school class, where he was found guilty of plagiarism) whose only original ideas have been terrible ideas, like carving Iraq into small pieces. He is also a product of the back-slapping Washington D.C. establishment. Republicans haven't bothered to attack Biden because he isn't worth attacking. By contrast, Democrats are going crazy over Palin because she scares them.
Even Palin's so-called problems highlight her normalcy. So her husband had a DUI conviction twenty years ago. First of all it wasn't her, it was her husband. Second, how does this compare with Obama, who was snorting cocaine twenty years ago? The media, with its familiar one-sidedness, has been commending Obama's "honesty" over his drug use while blasting Palin for her husband's irresponsible driving. Then Palin's daughter got pregnant at 17: apparently the "family values" didn't entirely get through. Even so, Bristol and the boyfriend are keeping the baby and getting married. So responsibility wins out after all.
By contrast, Obama said he wanted to preserve abortion rights because if his daughters got pregnant one day he wouldn't want them to be "punished" with a child. (Let's be glad that Obama's mom didn't think this way because if she had at the age of 18, Obama wouldn't be around today.) Even Palin's alleged action to fire the state trooper who split with her sister and then harassed her is precisely the kind of action that most Americans would take in a similar situation. While Obama is a cunning Chicago pol who has played his rhetoric and his machine connections to rise through the ranks, Palin remains authenticially all-American with ordinary and recognizable problems.
The problem for the Republicans is that many Americans have become jaded about them. McCain's maverick reputation helps, but it doesn't alter this reality. Palin, on the other hand, is a completely fresh face. I predict she will appeal not only to Christian conservatives but also to working-class independents, male and female, who see in her the promise of real reform. Palin offers change, but this does not take the form of warmed-over socialism. Instead, it is change in congruence with traditional American values. I don't know if an unspoiled person like Palin can actually clean out the Augean stables in the nation's capital, but she does seem determined to try. She is the new star of this political race and already she has altered the whole equation.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 44)
1. Just remember Dinesh, the McCain campaign wrote her speech. They actually had one written before the nominee was chosen and then made it less masculine for her. The only thing Palin did was show that she can read and can articulate words.
And yes, taking a car out while drunk and endangering the lives of innocents on the streets is worse than taking any drug in your own home.
Ross at 4:39PM on Sep 4th 2008
2. Sarah Palin is HOT! I'm voting republican! WOHOOOOOOOO!
GearHedEd at 4:49PM on Sep 4th 2008
3. ATHEIST
First, the nomination of Palin amounted to a sell-out to a Special Interest group.
Evangelical Christians.
But it's also in line with McCain's game plan of pretending to be outside the mainstream in Washington.
Yes, I've attacked Palin for not grasping that "teach the controversy" is not only a con game, it's a con game that was spelled out in several books by Phil Johnson on "the wedge theory."
she just doesn't seem bright enough to figure out why Christianity is wrong. But, to be fair, neither do any of the others. Biden is a Roman Catholic. How anyone can be proud of being a Roman Catholic in this day and age is beyond me.
William Hays at 5:14PM on Sep 4th 2008
4. Dinesh D'Souza YOU AND THE SLEAZY REPUBLICONS YOU ARE IN BED WITH ARE ALL HISTORY NOW. THE YOUTH OF AMERICA WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE YOUR WARMONGERING AND DECITFUL RAPING OF OUR NATIONS WEALTH AND OUR PLANETS HEALTH. EVERYONE 35 AND YOUNGER WILL BE REGISTERING TO VOTE THIS YEAR. WE WILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US CAST OUR VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA. YOU AND ALL THE OTHER CREATURES LIKE YOU ARE DOOMED COME ELECTION DAY.
Steven at 5:30PM on Sep 4th 2008
5. Dinesh D'Souza is the republicans would have put any person as a running mate and I mean any person you would have blindly followed and would not find any fault with that person in the least. It could have been Jimmy Swaggert or Jane Fonda or the devil himself and you ... the little republican puppet would immediately started writing attributes and accolades to the RVP choice. As you have predictably done. I personally have found fault with each and every person who has ever ran for any office great or minor. We are all of us human, and therefor we all have many faults. It is in our nature to have a least a few. So when you cannot find any fault in these people I must question your vocation in this life as a skilled writer. You are neither objective nor intelligent enough to be a bringer of information. You really should simply shut up and deliver the paper instead continuing to embarrass yourself as a would be writer. Why your style is downright sleazy at best. A little Jerry Springer wanna be.
Dinesh D'Souza sucks goat at 5:29PM on Sep 4th 2008
6. D'Souza says, ".. the Republicans are off and running."
He's right about one thing, they ARE 'off'.(he he)
He says, "Commentators have noted that Palin spoke with aplomb."
He must have forgotten to capitalize here, "Aplomb" must be a previously unmentioned kid, right?
not-pboyfloyd at 5:30PM on Sep 4th 2008
7. ?
not-pboyfloyd at 5:32PM on Sep 4th 2008
8. Second, how does this compare with Obama, who was snorting cocaine twenty years ago? The media, with its familiar one-sidedness, has been commending Obama's "honesty" over his drug use while blasting Palin for her husband's irresponsible driving. Then Palin's daughter got pregnant at 17: apparently the "family values" didn't entirely get through. Even so, Bristol and the boyfriend are keeping the baby and getting married. So responsibility wins out after all.
=====================================
Gee whiz Dinesh, seems like Obama is just like your idols
Bush....a coke sniffing asshole?
Cheney...gay daughter?
palin....pregnant 17 year-old daughter?
McCain....handicapped wife deserter?
Yeah family values win out for these folks.
It's just a shame the republican party can't offer up much better than it has for past few years.
mac at 5:35PM on Sep 4th 2008
9. She spoke with aplomb? Since when are we speaking French on Capital Hill?
Dinesh D\\\'Souza sucks goat at 5:38PM on Sep 4th 2008
10. "Palin remains authentically all-American"
What kind of American is that? According to DD our CITIES aren't populated with "Americans" only liberal elitists. According to small-town Palin, even our suburbs, where most of the country resides aren't "American"; because Palin comes to us from the TRUE America, an all white Beaver Cleaver-ville, that would rather have teenage mothers than sex ed. in schools, that would rather have special needs children instead of the stem cell research that could help them. She is the type of "American" that says she's for freedom as long as its freedom to shoot polar bears, not freedom from government wire taps.
AND she has brought back the PLAGUE of culture wars. Just like Ann Coulter she spews filth and righteousness, but because she does it with a smile, its just naughty not nasty, just funning not vitriol. She is fulfilling her role as pit bull for sure, but how many of you want pit bulls roaming free in your neighborhood?
fed up at 5:48PM on Sep 4th 2008
11. Obama was ranked A212 out of T3829. He was also elected editor of the Harvard Law Review. And he taugh Law at the University of Chicago for 12 years. He was well within the top 10%. It was during his tenure as editor that he penned his first best-sellar. it's reprehensible that under the guise of a scholar you append fiction rather than facts to your diatribes. you have no integrity. or conscience. facts remain facts.
as a propagandist you don't excel either. but as a hack you do. you continue with your habitual unilateral suasion to misinform your readers. where is your vaunted morality when you sit at the keyboard disseminating lies, half-truths and un-truths? fairness is not one your professional or religious beliefs.
boredwell at 5:57PM on Sep 4th 2008
12. Dinesh,
I could not agree more about how GREAT Sarah Palin was last night with her first major speech as McCain's Vice President pick!
She is like a miracle from God, at this point.
At last, conservatives have something to be excited about in this overlong race for the White House!
Her jokes about Barack Obama (B.O.) were better than David Letterman could, or would, ever even think about doing against B.O., and her jokes were as spot-on, accurate as they were funny! She really showed the foolish irony of the liberal messiah for atheists that is B.O.
NOW the Republicans have surprisingly managed to become the TRUE party of change in Washington, with the addition of Sarah Palin to the ticket, who has stomped out corruption in Alaska, and now could do likewise in Washington!
John McCain looks very SMART under pressure, choosing Palin, while B.O. looks like the clueless, empty suit that he is, in choosing a lame running mate that is Joe Biden.
B.O. really blew it when he picked a slimy, old-school politician, with Barbie doll hair implants, Joe Biden, in my opinion. So much for the new hope and change platform -- B.O. backstabbed and rejected the values of nearly half the Democratic party by SNUBBING Hillary Clinton and her supporters, and going with a good-old-boy who epitomizes what is WRONG with Washington, as a career politician who never did much of anything to note, (yes, that's Joe Biden, in my opinion).
If B.O. was considered the "history-making" candidate for being half-black, now the Republicans are SHAKING THINGS UP with an EQUALLY HISTORIC pick for WOMAN Vice President making it all the way into the White House!
Now EVERYBODY will be making history, no matter which party you vote for, choose black history or women's history. I'm voting for the conservative, TRUE Christian, who does not CONTRADICT Bible teachings -- Sarah Palin. The phony "christians" can vote for B.O. and his rewriting of Bible teachings to suit baby murder and perverse sexuality.
Sarah Palin was so good with her speech that I wish SHE was the front runner with McCain as Veep.
The liberal media is starting to soften and become intrigued with Palin. Before the speech we had days of low-life attacks against her minor daughter, what liberal media scum the mainstream news are to attack a minor. But after the vote-winning speech of Palin's, some, like Matt Lauer of the TODAY SHOW, were correcting their liberal guest commentators who were trying to trash Palin the morning after the big speech, as Matt would point out more good aspects of her speech, to their great irritation.
B.O. is losing his appeal as maverick of "change," he is now small change, change for the worse, now, since he backstabbed the Hillary voters and picked a lame Veep, showing more of B.O.'s POOR decision-making skills in his major fumble choosing Biden over Hillary.
We just might get our country back from the loony liberals, after all, with a national figure like Sarah Palin as the #2 person in the country, and the world.
God bless John McCain's pure genius in choosing Sarah Palin! McCain is a man who is thinking his way out of a jam, against the odds of an overwhelmingly, liberally-biased news and entertainment media, who constantly pervert the news against McCain and conservatives.
But, after Palin's speech last night, it's not GodLESS America anymore, as the atheist scumbags would prefer it.
God is back in the phrase, "God BLESS America," which ended Palin's speech.
Just say no to B.O. Vote McCain/Palin! It's the right think to do.
God bless Sarah Palin! God Bless America!
Rev 3:16 at 5:57PM on Sep 4th 2008
13. McCain understands one thing after last night. Those people in that hall would flush him in two seconds and rather have her as the nominee if they could. If he gets elected he will sit her in the corner so she will not upstage him which she easily could. You will rarely see her. She is not cleaning up anything.
Larry at 6:14PM on Sep 4th 2008
14. teach the controversy
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Ok, let's just get this over with, ready? Pay attention because we only want to do this once. Are you listening America?
Here's the controversy -
There is none.
Now, moving on to our next topic....
EduKator at 6:15PM on Sep 4th 2008
15. --EVERYONE 35 AND YOUNGER WILL BE REGISTERING TO VOTE THIS YEAR. WE WILL EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US CAST OUR VOTE FOR BARACK OBAMA.--
Hi Steven!
Guess what? I'm under 35 and have every intention of NOT voting for Obama. Sorry to smash your childhood dream of becoming a political prophet. You should probably keep your day job. If you don't have one, you might qualify for welfare, in which case my tax dollars will help you get by. In either case, if I were you, I'd give up on vote predictions.
Once again, Dinesh, another excellent analysis of the current political situation. Well done!!!
Troy at 6:18PM on Sep 4th 2008