Palin’s big speech
That was about as momentous as I thought it would be. As expected, she’s drowned out- for the time being, at least- a lot of the flood-the-zone smears and sexist remarks the blogging left has been engaged in. I distinguish that sort of thing from proper criticism. I don’t want to use the term “red meat”, but Gov. Palin certainly delivered it, as is traditional for the VP candidate. I haven’t heard so many cutting remarks about Sen. Obama in one speech before. And funny ones, too. The best one, in part due to its subtlety: “The American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery.” I liked the building reaction from the delegates as the zing! sunk in.
Good reviews from the right blogs. Ben Keeler (surprise!):
Powerful, spectacular speech. Just the right note was hit. Attacked with a scalpel. Went right after Obama’s biggest weakness - what has this guy done exactly to be elected President of the United States?
If the American people get the opportunity to view the Palin speech without commentary, it’ll resonate. The media, I predict, is going to run interference with the Palin message, and it remains to be seen whether the American people can see through the smoke and mirrors.
Lots of criticism from Democratic bloggers. One trial balloon that’s getting a lot of play in the Ohiosphere is that criticism of community organizers is racist:
The highlight of the evening? The introduction of the newest code phrase for “uppity negro,” Community Organizer! This is the hook to rural voters who don’t understand Midnight Basketball, Block Clubs, and Community Development Organizations.
For a while now I’ve been thinking, “what exactly is a community organizer, anyway?” But now I see that I’m a likely racist.
Here’s a short and simple post from Eric at Plunderbund: “She’s the new kid at school talking shit.” Heh. This from the same blog that was pushing the fake pregnancy smear. Rich.
Giuliani was good too. His is the only speech from the 2004 RNC that I can recall at all. Many pundits here and there have been criticizing his speech for being a bit herky-jerky, but that’s his just style. It works for him.
Huckabee and Romney aren’t for me- their speeches were kind of meh.
Good to see that if the media can’t be blamed for being the left, at least the nebulous and vague “BLOGGERS” can be vilified. Because yeah, there were no Republican oriented bloggers who trashed Hillary on exactly the same thing. Sure. Oh thats right, they didn’t need that since the Republican party directly came out and attacked Hillary for her gender.
God forbid people be critical of someone whose record is often strikingly at contrast with her campaign. More earmarks per capita in Alaska than any other state, only 20 months experience on a state level, none on a national level and embracing of partisanship that would make Bush jealous. Oh, attempts to ban books, and lets not neglect an abstinence only sex education, since it’s a big point for her, and some odd evidence that maybe her, support for the bridge to nowhere that was only abandoned after the albatrossishness was made clear, and intense lobbyist support tied to both Ted Steven’s corruption charges and support of Big Oil.
I don’t care if she has a bush, I just care that she’s more Bush.
Oh, and remember the community organizer bit. I know it’s easy for Republicans to attack because they don’t understand how they work, I mean I get that working with communities is pretty foreign to them, but it’ll be clearer when McCain loses in two months. It’s okay, I understand that they don’t get 21st networking.
I know, I know, you’re going to tell me I’m wrong. I suggest that the direness of McCain’s situation will be clearer after public funding starts. That is when the wheels will fall off.
‘at least the nebulous and vague “BLOGGERS” can be vilified’
Nebulous and vague? I linked to two.
I forgot where I first came across this, but there’s something wrong with this argument that the teen pregnancy in the Palin family demonstrates that abstinence only sex education doesn’t work. The problem is, apart from the anecdotal nature of this data, is that the daughter attends Alaska public schools. She’s getting the sex education currently practiced by Alaska, not necessarily the version her mother advocates. I’ve yet to see something definitive on what exactly Alaska teaches, but it seems to me that’s the key to the argument. If you care to make an argument based on a single case at all- which probably isn’t wise.