Lots on Sarah Palin's Speech

You may have heard, Sarah Palin spoke last night at the RNC



Here's a transcript (note spelling of "new-clear").

I think it was very effective and pretty empty. It seems some focus groups agree. She probably did a good job with the special needs voters, which I suspect is an underrepresented constituency.

Andrew Sullivan live blogged it "10.39 pm. I'm just slack-jawed that, so far, the entire speech has been basically about her family. She seems as if she just won a reality show and is introducing her folks. And they have passed the baby now to four different people - including another child. Slack-jawed."

I think James Fallows has a pretty good critique.

Brad DeLong points out in Republicans Lie, All the Time, About Everything that she yet again lied by saying "‘In fact, I told Congress -- I told Congress, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ on that bridge to nowhere.’" Hilzoy writes Factchecking Palin and points to a more detailed Obama campaign rebuttal.

Ezra Klein points out "Again and again, strong narratives were sacrificed for good lines." "The crucial juncture came early in the speech. They had the opening to weave a narrative around her preparation for the vice presidency, and decided instead to throw it away on a jab against Barack Obama. "I was mayor of my hometown," she said. "And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities." Good line. But no responsibilities followed. Instead we heard about Obama's characterization of economically depressed Americans as "bitter." Another straight shot, but a missed opportunity. "

And I loved this comment: "Nowhere did we hear of the great things John McCain would do, Instead, we heard, over and over, of the agonies John McCain endured. The presidency was presented tonight as if it were the Medal of Honor, or a purple heart. As if it is only a quirk of our political process that stops us from simply finding the longest serving prisoner of war and gifting him the keys to the office."

Matthew Yglesias wrote Palin on the “Energy Weapon” "Give Sarah Palin this much — her understanding of the geopolitics of energy is every bit as daft as that of much more seasoned conservative pseudoexperts. She can spin out outlandish and ultimately nonsensical scenarios about Iran (or Venezuela) deploying the mythical ‘oil weapon’ and she, too, can ignore the fundamentally global nature of hydrocarbon markets by prattling about ‘energy independence.’"

Kevin Drum follows that up in Sarah Palin's Speech "That's actually kind of an interesting point. On a substantive level, I'd say the most preposterous part of her speech was on precisely the one topic she's supposed to be already well versed on: energy. Nothing she said made any sense at all. The amount of new oil we can drill in the United States is tiny, not large. Nothing we do on that front will have the slightest impact on either foreign producers or the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Iran doesn't control a fifth of the world's energy supply. And clean coal doesn't exist. It was just a farrago of nonsense from beginning to end."

Daphne Eviatar writes Palin mocks Obama for respect for civil rights. "Judging by the applause, it was an effective rhetorical swipe at the Democratic standard-bearer. But it’s an odd thing to hear a vice presidential candidate mocking the very American notion that people suspected of wrongdoing have a right to defend themselves against the charges."

Andrew Sullivan writes about her line "Listening to [Obama] speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the state senate." First that she lied about Obama's legislative record, "At last count, sponsorship of 820 laws in Illinois, and authorship of 152 bills and co-sponsorship of 427 in Washington. The 2007 Ethics Reform bill alone cannot be dismissed as simply non-existent." And second pointing out that "McCain, of course, has "written" at least three memoirs and never held executive office."

Mary Lyon in the Huffington Post realizes Republicans Are Mean "Let's see, how to appeal to all those wavering independents and disaffected Hillary supporters? Let's insult those stupid Democrats and Obama people reeeel good and kick 'em in the teeth, sneer at their efforts to be inclusive, to work toward unity and rehabilitate America's damaged image around the world, or to help people in great need, and then make a shameless plea for their support at the polls. Scoff, especially rudely, at their community organizing efforts - the ultimate and most effective hands-on grassroots outreach programs that help people in need directly where they live - especially if government has turned its back." Glenn Greenwald called it cheerful viciousness.

digby writes: "She was confident and poised and she is obviously not going to embarrass the GOP with amateur, provincial incompetence....But the bottom line is that while she may not sink this ticket (at least immediately) she can't save it either. They'll get out their base, which until now was a questionable proposition. But that won't be enough. Their base has shrunk"

Oliver Willis in the Huffington Post writes : The "Other" Base: "The Palin pick was originally sold as an appeal to Hillary Clinton voters -- but what Clinton voter with an ounce of sense could possibly pull the lever for a ticket so proud of its knuckle dragging like McCain/Palin?" And hopefully this is true:

"In large part America is tired of fire breathing partisanship. They have seen the 50+1 percent presidency of Bush devolve into a 24% presidency. People, especially those in the middle, realize that a president that every day is focused on "winning" the base turns out to be a loser with people in the middle and in the other party. It is not a way to govern a nation -- and it stymies the effectiveness of the presidency. People like Reagan and Clinton had presidencies that worked for better or worse because they hadn't written off half of the country on inauguration day."

tristero Compares And Contrasts the NY Times reporting on Biden's and Palin's speech. "In his opening paragraphs, John Broder wrote a nearly completely objective report of Biden's speech. Bumiller and Cooper used almost every possible rhetorical device they could pack in to two grafs to signal their support not only for Palin but also for the "scrappy, rebellious former prisoner of war in Vietnam whose campaign was resurrected from near-death a year ago."