Rating the speeches at the Republican covention tonight is pretty easy. Mitt Romney stank on ice. The worst speech ever given anywhere in the whole history of the human race. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but Lordy, Lordy, it wasn't good.
Giuliani was the smiling, laughing attack dog, with many well delivered zingers
Governor Palin was homey, amusing, and an obvious crowd favorite. The thunderous applause may have been partially just relief that she brought assets to go with the liabilities, but she can deliver a speech, no question about it.
But the best single line of the evening goes to Mike Huckabee; talking about the press coverage they've gotten since last Friday, he said it was "tackier than a costume change at a Madonna concert."
8 comments:
Palin was also classless and a liar.
She belittled the man who came out to defend her and to stomp on the barbs at her daughter's pregnancy, even offering (in effect) his own mother as cover for Palin and her daughter. Just very low class. Not a woman to ever turn your back on, physically or metaphorically....
And then she repeated her claim to have told Congress "No Thanks" about the Bridge to Nowhere. That was a lie (both times). There's a solid trail (and photos) from the time, showing her active support for the project. She was totally for it until after Congress killed it--whereupon she wrote a note to Congress against it. But AK got to keep the pork money to use for other purposes.
I get political spin. But that was just a flat lie.
One very odd element is the campaign's decision to "Go Large" with the mayoral and gubernatorial experience as if it was deep and substantial--setting that against Obama's and Biden's. Because... the blowback just waiting to happen is the observation that McCain also has absolutely no executive experience. By the standard they're setting to justify Palin, their presidential nominee is unqualified (except of course that being a POW qualifies you for anything).
The only stylistic criticism:
Let the audience control the beginning. She stood there saying "thank you" long, long after it was time to step up and make it clear that she was there to speak and had things to say....
Ogre,
Why is it that you and your fellow U*Us are so silent and uncritical when U*U religious leaders prove themselves to classless, liars, or both? For now I will refrain from rubbing it in by pointing out just how clueless and arrogant U*U religious leaders can be. . .
Joel,
Maybe Peacebang and other tacky U*U bloggers would do well to pay heed to Mike Huckabee's fashion statement as it were. . . ;-)
Liar? She would hardly be the first or the worst. But classless? No. She didn't belittle the man, she belittled his experience. She did not attack his character, or call him a liar, she just made the case that he had no experience in the job classification he was applying for. Come on- she *IS* running against him; she had to say SOMETHING critical.
As to McCain's executive experience, he did command the largest squadron in the Navy, and they were playing it heavily.
I didn't think the Madonna thing was that funny.
But then, I like Madge.
I thought the best line of the night was Palin's "There are some politicians that use change to promote their careers. John McCain has uses his career to promote change."
I don't agree with it, but it was a good line.
CC
Yeah, I liked that line, and I also liked "He's written two memoirs, but no major legislation." I guess the Madonna line struck me funny because of an anecdote I'll tell you about sometime at a comedy club involving myself, a bunch of friends, and and a reference to Madonna costumes. I actually like her music.
In fairness to Obama, it's pretty weird for someone whose career is as Alaska-centric as Palin's has been to complain that O's legislation was insufficently major because it was mostly within Illinois.
Because criminal justice issues bring out my civil libertarian side, it's pretty major to me that Obama authored a bill saying that interrogations needed to be videotaped so that the degree of duress involved in extracting a confession could be examined later.
He also wrote a bill for earned income tax credit to help the working poor.
On the National stage, a few years ago his lobbying-reform law would have given me serious grief.
CC
Good points about the local legislation. But it is relevant, considering the claim about how little national experience Palin had?
It's relevant to her statement about him writing memoirs and not legislation.
CC
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