Yup. She really is. I enjoyed her speech a great deal — in large part because I was so curious about her.
In fact, we all watched — even Adorable Child, who’s observation about Bristol’s maternity status was, “Hunh. She’s not a cookie-cutter kid. They’re a regular family.”
A few quick observations: Sarah Palin comes off as warm and human, and while she seemed to step very carefully through a few parts of her speech, I’d say she did very well overall. She’s certainly much better at it than John McCain.
The speechwriters gave her some zingers, and while several were well-placed, others brought on a bit of cognitive dissonance. She’s going to get chewed up by the pundits for a couple of them.
Like Barack Obama, she’s able to deliver quips to specific groups from a place they’ll understand. (Gotta love the Hockey Moms joke.)
Finally — a quick note about her husband and kids: that is one good looking family. The littlest girl (Piper?) slicking down her baby brother’s hair with her freshly-salivated-upon palm was priceless. We’ll be seeing replays of that for some time, I bet.
All in all, I’d say she pulled this off… and I also think the Democrats are suddenly in a brand new ballgame. I’m not at all convinced that Sarah Palin’s ready for the big leagues, but she’s clearly planning to play.
Polimom,
Yes indeed, Sarah Palin is clearly planning to play, and she’s not interested in colorless Joe Biden. She is going to play against Obama. He’ll have to run against both her and McCain, while having to be excruciatingly careful not to be disrespectful to either one.
They on the other hand, are free to be as disrespectful of him as they please. Not fair rules, one might think, but they are what they are. We’ll see if team Obama sees it that way soon enough.
I caught bits of it while getting ready for a night training meeting, and I thought the contrast between what I heard from her and from the Democrats at their convention was striking.
Obama went out of his way to be respectful of McCain’s service and his patriotism; Palin made smart-ass comments about how Obama had jobs with no responsiblities. Obama made a point of taking the idea that people those who don’t agree with him aren’t concerned about America and patriotic off the table; the Republicans are parading around with their “country first” banner, implying that those who disagree with them don’t care about the country.
Overall, i found it quite repulsive. The hypocrisy this week is fasinating; people are giving Palin a pass on her coziness with (and her husband’s membership in) a seccessionist group whose leaders talk about how much they hate America; can you imagine that happening with Obama?
When I first started reading about Palin I thought she sounded like a capable, likable woman whose policy ideas were in my view, wrongheaded; the more I learn about her, the more objectionable she seems.
John —
You’re measuring apples and oranges, I think. Do you plan to hold Biden to this same standard when he mentions McCain? She’s the VP nominee. Why would you measure how she spoke against Obama?
I think you’re getting caught up in the nature of the partisan hypocrisy. Of course a red meat Republican is going to attack Obama, and then skim past anything that looks similar about their own candidate.
FWIW — I think that on an issue that pitted the interests of Alaska against the interests of the US, she’d pick her state. And I’ve been writing a fair amount about her social conservatism, and my questions about her generally. But that didn’t keep me from listening to her as openly as possible last night. And as a person, I liked her.
My point is that you can say that someone’s experience is not enough without belittling their work. She comes across as a sniggering bully to me.
Why am I comparing Obama and Palin? Well, that seems to have been the theme, isn’t it, and it’s pretty clear Palin is on the ticket to try to excite conservatives the way McCain just doesn’t.
When did Biden belittle McCain’s career the way the Palin did Obama’s, anyway? I missed it.
Yes, I know it’s red meat. My point is just that it’s red meat for all sides. I think Palin will, as a side effect, be a big motivator for a lot of Obama supporters (including me).