And then it was Palin time! She did very well, considering that I think the GOP was hoping she wouldn't just faint or end up delivering the entire speech in Swedish. She's obviously been studying tapes of Bill Clinton's speeches: she's got that weird Clintonian fist-with-a-thumb-on-top gesture down perfectly.
Things I noticed:
Republicans now like hope and change and all that, too! They are co-opting, because they realized (rather late off the mark, I think), that it's not just them who kind of hate GWB, it's everybody. The Republicans should rename themselves the "We Are Not That Dude" Party.
The new line that Sarah Palin's "executive" experience trumps Obama's experience as a Senator/etc. means that the whole experience argument is now right off the rails into la-la land. Hey, I ran glee club! Can I be president? Or at least Secretary of State or something?
Sarah Palin is a very likeable speaker, and was a very canny choice from a media perspective, in two respects. First, her mini-scandals (banning books! Firing state troopers! children with crazy hippie names!) and relative unknown-ness keep the media from actually dealing with anything of substance for a while. Second, and most importantly from the point of view of the convention coverage, seeing as how all the other speakers at the convention are old wrinkly white dudes with rigor-mortis smiles, just having her in front of the tv cameras serves to give you the idea that okay, maybe the entire Republican party doesn't have one foot in the grave, with Lucifer already attaching tow-lines to its boot-heels.
The one really big off-moment in her speech was her crack about Obama being a community organizer. I mean, yeah, helping out-of-work steelworkers, what a waste of time! The whole thing came off not just as mean, but disingenuous, given that Palin had made a shout-out to the United Steelworkers, of which her husband is a member, at the beginning of her speech.
After Palin gave her speech, the worst thing on earth happened: John McCain showed up. It was pretty clear that the crowd, and probably the GOP in general, like Sarah Palin about seventy times better than they like McCain, who isn't really one of them. They dream of an Obama-Palin matchup, and I actually think they may try to sort of spin things that way. Problem is -- whoops -- McCain is the actual candidate.
Funniest moment: During Palin's speech, the cameras were cutting back and forth for reaction shots, and at one point lit upon her youngest daughter, Piper, who was holding the very tiniest Palin, Trig. And very very determinedly licking the palm of her hand and then using it to slick down Trig's hair. Ha! Poor Trig -- not only does he have to be a political football/symbol/talking point before he's even a year old, he must be groomed with sister-spit on national television.
Speaking of the Palin family, it was a good political move to have Levi, teen-husband-to-be of the visibly pregnant Bristol, on hand. But I can't help wondering if this poor kid isn't being used nationwide by parents of teen boys as a "teachable moment," with the lesson being, "WRAP IT UP." I mean, you might think you're just having a little fun, being a dopey sexed-up hockey-playing teen, and all of a sudden it snowballs into national scandal and now you're getting married and have to be on tv and shake hands with John McCain and you can never escape. Yikes!
posted by Reen |link| 0 comments
