By Steve Rhodes
Not wanting to believe it doesn’t make it untrue.
“In her first national address, vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin wowed the Republican convention using wit, sarcasm, charm and ridicule in a full-scale assault on a now familiar cast of GOP targets: an elitist adversary, biased media and high taxes,” Politico reports.
“Without mentioning Democrat Barack Obama’s name and rarely losing a smile, the Alaska governor delivered one riposte after another.”
The relatively rational Chuck Todd says that conservatives have found their Obama.
Indeed, Sarah Palin delivered the most striking speech of the season and has instantly changed the dynamic of this race. Trust me, the Obama campaign is retooling as we speak.
But hey, don’t take my word for it.
Here’s lefty Jerome Armstrong of My Direct Democracy, which is sort of the Son of Kos:
I watched the TV speeches tonight in full, and have just one word.
Palin.
We have met someone that we will be doing battle against for a decade or more. Seriously. I’ve never seen a woman, or a man for that matter, speak that way, prime time, national, convention, live, ever. She blows away Hillary Clinton. Sorry, but that’s what it is. Palin’s deft speaking style is like watching visceral connective tissue being torn – with a child in arms [understand that the Clinton comparison is within the context of contra Obama].
OK, so my guess. Come November, and Obama’s glorious victory, Palin is who they pronounce as the ’12 nominee against Obama. Either that, or Palin is Prez after McCain croaks on a pretzel from 2 years of the WH.
Palin captured the GOP’s heart and flag tonight. She hit it 456 ft into deep right field, and way friggin outside the park.
Romney? Huckabee? Giuliani? Amateurs all. Nada comparison (I can’t believe I even put Whitman in Palin’s league). Anyone that thinks McCain could have chosen better than Palin, among the GOP ranks, is on drugs. Talk about a cultural war that’s on again!
For that matter, let’s check in with Kos. As of this writing, this is how their online poll looked. Of course you would expect Kos readers to vote the worst, so note with shock the overwhelming second choice.
Palin’s speech was
* A grand slam: 16% (3445 votes)
* A home run: 7% (1486 votes)
* A base hit: 9% (1922 votes)
* A walk: 3% (663 votes)
* Out at first: 2% (441 votes)
* A strike-out: 3% (707 votes)
* Some other stupid sports metaphor: 9% (1942 votes)
* As infuriating as it was boring: 45% (9664 votes)
* Other : 3% (755 votes)
Camp Obama
“The speech that Gov. Palin gave was well-delivered, but it was written by George Bush’s speechwriter and sounds exactly like the same divisive, partisan attacks we’ve heard from George Bush for the last eight years,” said campaign spokesman Bill Burton.
No, Bill, it sounded nothing like the past eight years. Maybe you should just welcome new talent to field and say you look forward to running against her for president in four years.
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Just as lame: Democrats trying to sell the proposition that Palin was too “sarcastic” to play well in the Heartland. She wasn’t sarcastic, she was plain-spoken (“Here’s a news flash for you . . .”), charming and funny.
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And Dems calling her smug? Please.
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As if Obama doesn’t have speechwriters.
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Doesn’t the Obama campaign suddenly seem sour?
Mystery Convention Theater
Over at Division Street.
Rave Review
“Barack Obama had a firework-laced stadium packed to the gills. But no amount of sophisticated stagecraft can compete with genuine, gut-churning drama, fueled by the potential for a rapid-fire comeback by one unfairly maligned,” writes Tribune theater critic Chris Jones.
“Palin is positioned as the antithesis of the Chicago-schooled rhetorician and, on Wednesday, she skillfully substituted plain American talk for dodgy Greek columns and the wholesome language of the PTA for the unnerving excesses of the church of Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.”
Reform Storm
“She also poses the greatest threat yet to the Obama reform narrative,” John Kass writes. “The cynical epic has become the establishment media bedtime story, with Obama as the young King Arthur riding forth to promise change. In this, the Washington Beltway media colony has been his eager Merlin, hoping to guide him, cleaving desperately to the theme that he’s some kind of reformer, even though Obama is a politician backed by Chicago’s Daley machine and never once challenged the political corruption in Chicago and Illinois. Not ever.
“The contrast with Palin – who actually went after the Republican Party bosses in Alaska on the corruption issue – is profound and challenging for the Obama-friendly media that willfully ignore his lack of leadership on the reform front, yet are consumed to find out if Palin has an overdue library book.”
Editorial Judgements
“Wow. Now America knows why John McCain wanted Sarah Palin on his presidential ticket,” the Tribune editorial board writes. “Whatever your politics, if you watched this speech you know this much: Barack Obama and Joe Biden are in a tougher fight than either of them imagined when they first learned the name of McCain’s running mate.”
The Sun-Times, meanwhile, found itself stuck with an editorial it no doubt wrote before the speech and didn’t bother to revise.
Punditry
The GOP should just adjourn now and leave on a high note.
Programming Note
Just added: New video of “Dusty Must Get Fired” to go along with our audio parody, just in time for another visit by the former Cubs manager to Wrigley Field this week with the Reds.
The Beachwood Tip Line: East Bound and Down.
Posted on September 4, 2008