John Dickerson
on Palin:
Sarah Palin was relentless in her speech Wednesday night. She drilled
Barack Obama, elites, San Francisco, the press, and civil libertarians.
She even went after Michelle Obama. And she did it all with a smile and
a little mischief. Republicans have been flummoxed because Obama seems
untouchable, but Palin may have found an effective way to criticize
him--while becoming an elusive target in her own right.
No less than a month ago, I was hearing that with the "celeb strategy," Republicans had finally discovered how to attack Obama. Look, as I said, I think Palin gave a fine speech. But this idea that Democrats should be "scared" looks like a weird case of
projection.
A lot of Dems will go to bed nervous tonight. They should.
Hmmm, I guess. But let me take a swing--this is nothing more than pundit insurance. Frankly, it's easy to talk up the virtues of the underdog. If they get stomped, you lose nothing because the favorite was supposed to win anyway. If they hold their own, but still lose, you're redeemed. If they win you get to do the "I told you so" dance. This is the real source of these "Everything is good for McCain" stories. It's just pundits watching thier ass.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
I bet a lot of Dems went to bed pissed as all hell and donated to The Big O. This speech energized both bases.
ta-nehisi, you seem to have respect for a variety of journalists who don't deserve it, and john dickerson is one of them.
Big Lake, that's exactly what i did last night.
I went to bed oddly re-assured. She came off mean even to my wife who is a true skeptical independent. But what reassured me the most was that she is a 'conservative' in the sense that at the end of the day she displays the same hate and lack of depth as all the rest of the party. She's one of them surely. That's fine by me. They can have her.
Okay, so the two biggest attacks on Obama from the Republicans were his lack of experience and he's too much of a celebrity that just gives pretty speeches. So, they got themselves a VP with little experience and who has, to quote the morning shows, "star power" who can read a good speech? HUH?
I want to see how she does when she's not delivering a speech she didn't write and the press is firing quick questions at her on substantive issues of foreign policy and things outside of Alaska. Then we'll see if she is any real threat.
The corporate media wants access to Palin, and they're doing this song-and-dance to make up for the three days when they actually did their jobs, so Almighty McCain will forgive them and let them talk to her.
It's rather sickening.
And apparently Obama's camp released a fact-check on her speech. It's not pretty.
Last night reminded me of the Republican hate fest in 1992 and we saw how well that turned out. As a result, I slept absolutely fine last night.
Look, as I said, I think Palin gave a fine speech. But this idea that Democrats should be "scared" looks like a wierd case of projection.
This is all part of the pre-ordained narrative. Sully pretty much nailed this yesterday. The right-wing press machine will call her a new "Star" (Bill Kristol) and the center-left establishment media (Slate, TNR) will wring their hands.
Look, as I said, I think Palin gave a fine speech. But this idea that Democrats should be "scared" looks like a weird case of projection.
This is all part of the pre-ordained narrative. Sully pretty much nailed this yesterday. The right-wing press machine will call her a new "Star" (Bill Kristol) and the center-left establishment media (Slate, TNR) will wring their hands.
I love how they complain about targeting her family, but then put them all up on the stage. The American public is pretty shallow and uninformed, so many will go for the drivel that the GOP is pushing. I saw a night of the usual fear peddling, and a lot of lies. People need to realize what a far-right wacko she really is and how damaging it would be to our country to have her and McCain in power. The Republicans had 8 years and failed miserably, dont give them more!
If we cut through all the pundits bullshitting the public, the truth is that Peggy Noonan, Mike Murphy, Pat Buchanan, Joe Scarborough and a number of McCain's own advisors think Sarah Palin is a terrible choice for VP, and have all said so "off the record" in one way or another within the past week.
What are we supposed to take from that, that a number of long-time Conservative commenters don't actually like or respect their own VP pick?
Right. Democrats are the ones scared.
Keep trying to make that narrative stick, Repubs.
I think that Palin’s venom at community organizers will resonate with the Chamber of Commerce section of the Repub base. Every community already is organized – usually by patriarchs, bigots, and greedheads. Community organizers, often outsiders, seeking to empower farm workers, tenants, unemployed, etc. drive the Babbitts crazy.
She read aloud a speech she didn't write. The cameras kept panning to images of her little baby (which, honestly, is probably not hers) being passed around like an hor'dourves plate. She and the Republicans are using the fact that she's a woman to say, 'stop picking on her'. This woman is an anti-abortion creationist and possibly the furthest right-wing person put on a major party ticket in history. In the long run, those dis-affected Hillary Clinton supporters are going to get really pissed off at this blatant attempt to rope them in with someone who's an insult to HRC supporters.
McCain sewed up the republican base, so good for him. As long as Obama supporters and the press hit this crazy woman with half the firepower they went after Clinton with - and not chicken out because she's a doe-eyed fertile, eye-lash batting baby factory - then, Sarah Palin will drag McCain down in a hurry. This Republican ticket is WORSE than Bush-Cheney.
I love how so many of the comments here put down so many of their fellow Americans. Its that same elitist hypocrisy that so many of us detest in Obama. The man is good at playing the part of a politician. John McCain has actually fought and served this country. Sarah Palin has actually served this country. Even Obama's running mate thinks his boss lacks the experience for the job. I'm so excited that the Democrats are so anxious to call people hateful and god fearing and shallow. It's exactly those kinds of comments that reinforce the fact that the Democratic party is there to pander to far left liberalism and no one else.
It's more of that smokescreen. Oooh...look....
Ta-Nehisi, the post that rang so true for me was your post about branding. The McCain campaign is all about winning the short-term media cycle. They're determined to win this thing as an air war. But it's both an air war without a ground game and an air war where a bunch of pilots have their headsets turned off and are doin' their own thing.
The flip-flopper thing worked in 2004 because that one simple message was rammed home. Again and again. By everyone. They had tight control over the message. And that one message was repeated ad nauseum (that and the patriotism jibe).
The DNC convention worked this year, because each night built on the one before, leading to the climax of Obama's speech. Maybe I have some partisan goggles on, but I'm not seeing it. They're throwing everything up there, but I don't see it sticking simply because they're throwing everything up there.
And one last thing, I think it's a mistake when your #2 is a bigger "star" than your #1. He needs her more than she needs him and that is going to come back and bite. I'll be interested to see if McCain can get back in the pilot's seat tonight.
riddle me this. How is Palin supposed to peel votes away from Obama?
The Palin message "I'm an outsider who will go to
Washington and put and end to the corruption of the
Republican party and the oil companies."
Dismiss this woman at your peril. She's a very real threat to Barack, and I think the race changed last night. I ain't saying that I'm voting for her, because I'm not. Her positions are too far right, and frankly, she's a small town beauty queen from Alaska. She has no business on the international stage and she has no clue about urban America. That being said, she's poised to take the undecided independents for the same reason Barack is. I'm one of those undecideds, and I'm voting for Barack because, even though I'm not 100% onboard with some of his more liberal tendencies, I trust his judgment and I believe the good he will do for this nation is much greater than the bad. Palin represents the flip side of that equation. Independents who might not agree with her far-right stance, might nonetheless see her as a reformer, a historic candidate (female), and a fresh-faced agent of change. They'll vote for her because, even though they're not 100% onboard with some of her conservative tendencies, they think her benefits will outweigh. This rain isn't McCain vs. Obama anymore. It's Palin vs. Obama--McCain is irrelevant. I hope Barack takes this threat very, very seriously.
I seriously doubt that Palin is intended to peel away votes from Obama. She is intended to motivate the base to get out and vote. I expect that they will adopt a "two-channel" approach where Palin will play to the base, and stay the hell away from reporters, while McCain will continue to appeal to independents.
If I were on the Obama team, I'd bring focus back to John McCain and highlight Palin only insofar as it demonstrates his lack of presidential temperament. In the VP debate, I would work hard to highlight the failure of Republican ideas and policies. You counter Palin with an "I love my country!" and "It's time to get serious about the problems facing America". That's Obama's style, his version of "there you go again".
This is classic GOP boilerplate. Divide and conquer. Anger and disaffect. But I don't think it's going to work, not this time. People are just too pissed.
"This rain isn't McCain vs. Obama anymore. It's Palin vs. Obama--McCain is irrelevant. I hope Barack takes this threat very, very seriously."
I'm sorry, but this is wrong. To think that this race is now about Obama v. Palin is incorrect, and a knee-jerk reaction. Obama and McCain are still going to have three debates against each other. And yes, I know, they should dismiss her at "their own peril." I'm not sure how many times that can be said. I don't think anyone is dismissing her. But we have no idea how Sarah Palin is going to affect the vote and I don't think that speech last night is reaching anyone that hasn't already made up their mind.
well, i can't say i went to bed nervous last night 'cause i ain't no steenkin' democrat. i went to bed after cleaning up puppy piss for the 8th time yesterday. i'm training him to be my guide dog/bomb sniffer. i went to bed exhausted after looking at the charade on the teevee.
i think palin will be trivial pursuit question in a few years. obama and the democrats can be attacked for many things, but palin's outright lies were somewhat irritating. romney just continued being the chameleon he's always been and giuliani has a second career as a stand-up comedian in small venues, like wasilla, washington.
we won't find out who she is, what she knows, what her temperament is, and what her positions on the issues facing the the u.s. are until she is allowed out of her hermetically sealed container. my guess is that she will prove herself to be a hardline, religious fundamentalist, with far right views. not too exciting or unusual, other than her gender and it's historic nature [geraldine ferraro doesn't count]. i do think that the republicans are trying the 'clarence thomas' template as a tactic to throw a wrench into the obama/biden strategy. but obama has proved himself in dealing with any challenge in a way that makes him stronger, and i expect the same with the palin nomination.
adin
"Sarah Palin has actually served this country"
Posted by Dawn Basey | September 4, 2008 10:51 AM
Just to be clear, Sarah Palin has NOT served this country. She has served the people of Alaska as their governor. The Repubs are conveniently confusing State Government vs. Federal Government on this whole experience matter.
Just keep rewriting the rules till you win...
Palin's speech has to be seen in context, and that context is that the Rs are facing massive headwinds in this cycle. As their convention shows, the Rs have decided to try to win without the independent vote, which, since there are more Ds than Rs, pretty much dooms them right out of the box.
Worse, Obama has like twice as much money and can raise tons more any time he likes. He has about a hundred times more volunteers, which means that even if there were as many Rs as Ds, he would still win. He might be tied with McCain in the national polls (though it is very unclear that the polls are correctly compensating for the proportionately higher use of cellphones among likely Obama voters) but he is way ahead in the electoral vote. His staff is tactically very smart. And it is far more likely that McCain will self-destruct on the trail than Obama, not mention Palin than Biden.
So unless Al-Quida blows up Chicago, McCain is over. The convention was just an exercise in feeling good in the moment, because that is all that is left for the Rs.
The problem, politically, for a woman, a babe at that, showcasing her own angry ambition by being snarky, mean-spirited, and mocking is that it only serves to remind folks who are NOT whacked out right wing nut jobs that what they/we are angry about has nothing but nothing to do with what she's talking about. She went nowhere with this one except into her own backyard to poke a big old pointy stick at the beehive. The neighbors don't want to be stung so she comes off looking like what she is ... craven and unhinged.
I thought she nailed the speech, inaccuracies and distortions aside. It was a great performance. But it was only a speech, it's going to be picked apart ("Bridge to Nowhere," lobbyist ties, etc.), her tone was likely a turn-off to all but hardcore Republicans, and as dewberry says, she's got more star power now than McCain. On top of all that, of course she didn't explicitly bring up issues (abortion rights, for example) that are likely to hurt them in the general election. And her scandals at home and generally limited worldview will probably not help either.
Question to all of you pointing out that she was reading a speech someone else wrote: true, but didn't she do a better job of it than almost every other speaker at the Republican convention?
Please tell what made it a "fine speech." It wasn't a fine speech. It was demagoguery, lies, smears, mockery, all rolled into one big fat spiel. Maybe a skillful use of dirt would describe it better if you have to say something nice. Generally, speeches like this are given by people for whom the truth is dangerous.
Obama is too smart for this. They want to goad him into attacking her. I say the best strategy is to pretend she doesnt even exist. Do not acknowledge her in any way, not even in the VP debate. McCain is all this election is about and as long as that remains the focus, we'll win.
Dems need to step up the "you're not one of them, they use you to get into power, see how the rich always get richer under republicans" attacks.
Yes, but was that really so difficult?
The Repubs well has run dry, that's why Palin is so adored by the far right masses. They've spent this whole primary season holding their nose (I think lots of us know how that feels) and now they have someone they can get behind, someone who says the right things.
This whole thing sort of reminds me of the way the press got all gooey inside over Fred Thompson's candidacy. Remember that?
Question to all of you pointing out that she was reading a speech someone else wrote: true, but didn't she do a better job of it than almost every other speaker at the Republican convention?
Yep. 'Course she also has a lot more experience reading from a teleprompter given her years as a television sports anchor. And she has poise from her training as a beauty queen. (Snarky, I know...)
but didn't she do a better job of it than almost every other speaker at the Republican convention?
I'm sorry, but what? She was terrible. She doesn't know when to pause, or when to breathe, and she was reading the words like they weren't connected into sentences.
I'd heard Palin was a great public speaker. Where the hell was that, last night? She had five days to practice this, and she sounded like a rookie at Toastmasters.
Sarah's Acceptance Speech
It may have been inspiring to show your son who is about to go off to war as it was to introduce a gentleman who suffered along with McCain in the Hanoi Hilton.
I turned off my set the way one leaves a car showroom having just been dazzled by a savvy dealer.
But later I collected my thoughts. There was no mention of the guys and gals who are coming home from Iraq and the what they need.
How will these "America First" folks vote if more taxes are needed for a much needed improvement to GI and veterans benefits.
Improved benefits was key part of the Democratic Platform.
It why you never buy a car until you leave the showroom and allow your memories and thoughts to catch up to you.
This VP is not gonna be the new star of the Republicans. That speech was written for her and had no great delivery.
I feel sympathy for the guy who knocked up her daughter. Now he's got to dress up and play in the family circus side-show.
You gambled on the wrong girl, pal.
A smug, sarcastic speech, with lots of vitriol, but not much substance. The republicans sure are angry. Angry at the media. Angry at the left. Angry at the government. Do they realize that they've been in charge for the last 8 years?
I listened to the first 3 minutes of the speech.
Bullet points with 30 seconds of applause sprinkled in between each. Realizing that this wasn't going to be substantive, I turned the radio off.
I think the "scared" narrative is just the chicken little crowd getting carried away.
Sarah Palin took a town with $0 debt in 1996 and left it $22 million in the hole in 2002, mostly from the hockey rink/sports complex she shoved down their throats which never became the money generator she promised it would. Another white elephant from another white elephant.
Even with the stable Clinton economy during most of her mayoral tenure and Jack Abramoff's crony she hired to lobby Washington to help her now indicted buddy Ted Stevens ring up $27 million in federal pork for tiny Wasilla (pop. 5000 when she entered office) she still managed to leave the town swimming in debt. Three of her pork projects even made McCain's own wasteful spending list.
The following organization is the offshoot of President Reagan's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control started in 1984, also known as the Grace Commission. Definitely not a Dem friendly group. Going by this chart Alaska is far and away America's welfare queen state.
Citizens Against Government Waste
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homePage
2000 1 Alaska $394,514,000 619,500 $636.83
2001 1 Alaska $480,297,000 626,932 $766.11
2002 1 Alaska $451,334,278 634,892 $710.88
2003 1 Alaska $393,346,750 643,786 $610.99
2004 1 Alaska $524,329,000 648,818 $808.13
2005 1 Alaska $645,502,000 655,435 $984.85
2006 1 Alaska $325,106,000 663,661 $489.87
2007 not listed
2008 1 Alaska $379,699,715 683,478 $555.54
As governor she is borrowing from Alaska's future while she wants to blow today's Alaskan windfall oil tax bonanza and the huge surpluses they've generated on bread and circuses tax giveaways.
Alaska gets 89% of it's operating budget from taxing oil coming out of the ground just like Arab kingdoms and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. They have no state income or sales tax up there. Instead of using that windfall to pay for all the profligate spending her Republican legislature keeps sending her she's issuing bonds to pay for it which Alaskans and US taxpayers will have to pay off in future years while she takes credit for tax "rebates" while she's governor.
Her fiscal policy is a disaster in the making which won't hit til she's left the governor's office. She'd be a disaster as Vice President especially to a President who despite his grevious wounds and type A personality is already past the age his father and grandfather died of sudden heart attacks.
She can put on all the lipstick she wants but her political record is for the dogs.
Every young person I know despises this woman Palin, who reminds us too much of the clenched domineering femaliens already too much in authority (mothers, bitch-bosses, etc) who've been cramping our lives with uptight foolishness for 18 years. We literally hate her worse than McCain, who we simply dismiss as an old warhorse twit. The youth vote is for Obama, and just all of us turning out will sink the sick ship of the GOP candidates. The idea of this cow telling us what to do will MAKE us turn up to vote against McCain, even more than McCain's own drivel does.
I'm glad I watched this train wreck of a VP candidate looking like she was running for student counsel. I can't believe how much the press is buying this bullshit speech, all it says is she can read from a teleprompter - and even that was downright hilarious.
At least she didn't throw up on stage.
Probably a good thing for Obama and the Democrats -- I get the sense that Obama's volunteer support was getting a little sleepy, and kind of hoping the McCain would fade away like a good soldier.
$8m later, I suspect we've woken up.
As to Palin, she emphasizes just how poorly most politicians connect with people via speeches.