Rate Palin's speech

[Thomas Jackson]

Seriously, this rates up there with Reagan 64. It was that good.

[TomC]

Great speech. So much for "sweet Sarah Palin." The gloves are off now.

That may be a mistake. I am not sure an attack speech, even a very good attack speech is what she wanted to give tonight.

Why? That is the VP job, that is what Sen. Biden did.

Because Biden is far less vulnerable at the moment to the counterattack. Palin was being overwelmed going into this speech.

She tried to do two opposing things, did both well, and unfortunately they may have canceled each other out. On one hand she wanted show of her family, talk about how she was a small town PTA Hockey Mom who was under attack by the big bad media for not being familiar with Washington or issues. On the other, she wanted to hit Obama on the very issues she was attempting to claim it was not fair game to attack her on(ie. Iran, record, taxes). A Romney would have given the latter speech and it would have gone over well. Palin however, because of her background is not a convincing foreign policy attack dog, so all she accomplished by going on the attack was to undermine what she had managed to pull off with all those shots of her family. With US Weekly and National Enquirer coming out next week she needed to be the PTA Mom for the next 14 days.

She is fair game again, and no one will(or at least should) feel sorry for her.

Attacking a woman like this is quite difficult.  Note what Obama and Biden have been doing.

She just made it a lot easier.

[Dan the Roman]

Great speech. So much for "sweet Sarah Palin." The gloves are off now.

That may be a mistake. I am not sure an attack speech, even a very good attack speech is what she wanted to give tonight.

Why? That is the VP job, that is what Sen. Biden did.

Because Biden is far less vulnerable at the moment to the counterattack. Palin was being overwelmed going into this speech.

She tried to do two opposing things, did both well, and unfortunately they may have canceled each other out. On one hand she wanted show of her family, talk about how she was a small town PTA Hockey Mom who was under attack by the big bad media for not being familiar with Washington or issues. On the other, she wanted to hit Obama on the very issues she was attempting to claim it was not fair game to attack her on(ie. Iran, record, taxes). A Romney would have given the latter speech and it would have gone over well. Palin however, because of her background is not a convincing foreign policy attack dog, so all she accomplished by going on the attack was to undermine what she had managed to pull off with all those shots of her family. With US Weekly and National Enquirer coming out next week she needed to be the PTA Mom for the next 14 days.

She is fair game again, and no one will(or at least should) feel sorry for her.

Attacking a woman like this is quite difficult.  Note what Obama and Biden have been doing.

They don't need to. The issue is the mood in which the public receives the National Enquirer and US Weekly stories next week, and then later on the inevitable Lydia Green Obama ad that will come out in October.  She needed to be the loving PTA mom to survive what is going to hit he next week, before transitioning into the hard hitting maverick to survive the latter. She transitioned too early and is going to be killed, especially if McCain is stupid enough to sue for libel.

[MODU]

B. Like all the other Republican's speeches, it was devoid of specific solutions to the problems facing Americans, and instead focused on dishonest attacks against Obama.

I actually thought there was some substance, especially with energy.

There wasn't much substance in the DNC speeches either, so I'm not sure why that is such an issue.

[Storebought]

I say B/B+. She still seems parochial. But I will say that her political professionalism does make the past day of Democrat/Alaska GOP hackery look that much more ridiculous.

How on Earth does the fact that she can convincingly read a teleprompter speak to the truth or falseness of any of the accusations against her?

This wasn't about a point-by-point rebuttal of the garbage you and your like have spat at her for the past two days. This was about Palin presenting herself and her politics to the American people at large -- I judged her performance in that respect. She is allowed to have nonliberal politics after all.

And, please, don't start an argument on anyone's ability to convincingly read a teleprompter

[RJ]

I give it a B. I thought she didn't attack the other side as much as the audience would have liked her to, but some of her criticisms of the Democrats were memorable. She was dealt a rotten hand by that boob who went before her and had to spend some time introducing herself and telling everyone about her.

Seemed like she was not comfortable in front of that group, however. It was almost as though she had read the dialog from a book. She clearly needs more practice speaking in that capacity. I'll have no fear of her if she performs the way she did tonight in the debate.

I said earlier that she needed to come across as the "delightful person" and not as a shrew. I don't think she did either of those things. I think she will need to more clearly define her persona and not necessarily her position on issues---I think we know where she stands on those.

[J. J.]

B. Like all the other Republican's speeches, it was devoid of specific solutions to the problems facing Americans, and instead focused on dishonest attacks against Obama.

I actually thought there was some substance, especially with energy.

There wasn't much substance in the DNC speeches either, so I'm not sure why that is such an issue.

There was more than I was expecting.

[TomC]

Actually at one point, I thought, so this is a George Bush speech properly delivered.

[Rococo4]

A-

[Sam Spade]

Great speech. So much for "sweet Sarah Palin." The gloves are off now.

That may be a mistake. I am not sure an attack speech, even a very good attack speech is what she wanted to give tonight.

Why? That is the VP job, that is what Sen. Biden did.

Because Biden is far less vulnerable at the moment to the counterattack. Palin was being overwelmed going into this speech.

She tried to do two opposing things, did both well, and unfortunately they may have canceled each other out. On one hand she wanted show of her family, talk about how she was a small town PTA Hockey Mom who was under attack by the big bad media for not being familiar with Washington or issues. On the other, she wanted to hit Obama on the very issues she was attempting to claim it was not fair game to attack her on(ie. Iran, record, taxes). A Romney would have given the latter speech and it would have gone over well. Palin however, because of her background is not a convincing foreign policy attack dog, so all she accomplished by going on the attack was to undermine what she had managed to pull off with all those shots of her family. With US Weekly and National Enquirer coming out next week she needed to be the PTA Mom for the next 14 days.

She is fair game again, and no one will(or at least should) feel sorry for her.

Attacking a woman like this is quite difficult.  Note what Obama and Biden have been doing.

They don't need to. The issue is the mood in which the public receives the National Enquirer and US Weekly stories next week, and then later on the inevitable Lydia Green Obama ad that will come out in October.  She needed to be the loving PTA mom to survive what is going to hit he next week, before transitioning into the hard hitting maverick to survive the latter. She transitioned too early and is going to be killed, especially if McCain is stupid enough to sue for libel.

Obama's going to spend time attacking Palin?  As for the tabloids, if they end up being true, it's a killer.  Until then, it's not going to go anywhere.

[Dan the Roman]

I say B/B+. She still seems parochial. But I will say that her political professionalism does make the past day of Democrat/Alaska GOP hackery look that much more ridiculous.

How on Earth does the fact that she can convincingly read a teleprompter speak to the truth or falseness of any of the accusations against her?

This wasn't about a point-by-point rebuttal of the garbage you and your like have spat at her for the past two days. This was about Palin presenting herself and her politics to the American people at large -- I judged her performance in that respect. She is allowed to have nonliberal politics after all.

And, please, don't start an argument on anyone's ability to convincingly read a teleprompter

I don't judge anybody on their ability to give a speech precisely because they indicate nothing, except for when Bill Clinton's teleprompter broke down during the State of the Union and he repeated by memory.

Oh and I don't care about her not having liberal politics. I could take an honest Conservative. I just believe she is an unaccomplished fraud who gets by on media presentation who has accomplished nothing in her life. At least Obama was Editor of the Harvard Law Review one of the most sought after positions in America. She took the cheerleader major at Idaho State.

[Sbane]

She did a pretty good job but the problem is that she really doesn't appeal to many people outside small towns. Suburban and city dwellers just will not trust her and she certainly did not swing any swing voters. She just basically made sure Mccain will get 92% of the republican vote and that turnout will be strong. To really win they will need to do better in the suburbs though and that is what MCcain will have to accomplish. I give the speech a B-. It was sprinkled with lies so that definitely brought the grade down.

[JSojourner]

She basically said Barack Obama hates America.  He wants America to be defeated in Iraq.

She said only one man in this race ever fought for us.  She's right.  What's amazing is that when we said the same thing about our guy in 2004, the other side succeeded in convincing America he not only didn't fight for us...he lied about it and really fought against us.

She just plain lied about her record on the bridge.  She did not oppose it until it was politically unpopular.

She scored big points with me on the plane and chef.  I think that kind of cost cutting is always a welcome thing and we need a lot more of it.

It was a brilliant move to bring the kids out on stage.  Beautiful, sweet baby -- she is obviously a good mom...you can see it in her kids' eyes.  I also liked watching Mac interact with them.  He was having fun and that's always reassuring.

As a purely political attack speech, I give it an A+.  Better than any speech I have heard this campaign season in either party. And infinitely better than any attack speech from Biden or Obama.

As for being a speech with the best interests of the country at heart, what can I say?  I am an arch liberal...she is an arch conservative.  So naturally, I can't give it anything more than a D.

Bottom line?  I stand by my previous assertion -- barring a major misstep or scandal, my party has once again lost the election.
 

You compliment the Republican Party and their representatives more than many of the Republicans here.

I give credit where it is due, my friend.

We Democrats had better wake up.  We SUCK at politics.  We have been playing catchup ever since the advent of talk radio and Republicans just get better and better and better at it.  I've said over and over that I don't agree with McCain or Palin on most issues.  I've repeatedly pointed out the many double standards, even in the post you clipped above.

But I will not post 100% critical comments about our opponents if I find something praiseworthy in them.  And I most certainly will not neglect to point out our shortcomings and failings.

Chris, what doomed us in 2004 was our cocksure conviction that there was no way on earth Americans were going to prefer Bush to a guy who likes books.  If I had a C-note for every Democrat who assured me that 2000 and 2004 were "in the bag", I'd be rich.

Not only is this race not in the bag for Obama, it is LOST unless we figure out how to attack ferociously.  And do so without smearing the war hero or insulting the lady.

[Dan the Roman]

Great speech. So much for "sweet Sarah Palin." The gloves are off now.

That may be a mistake. I am not sure an attack speech, even a very good attack speech is what she wanted to give tonight.

Why? That is the VP job, that is what Sen. Biden did.

Because Biden is far less vulnerable at the moment to the counterattack. Palin was being overwelmed going into this speech.

She tried to do two opposing things, did both well, and unfortunately they may have canceled each other out. On one hand she wanted show of her family, talk about how she was a small town PTA Hockey Mom who was under attack by the big bad media for not being familiar with Washington or issues. On the other, she wanted to hit Obama on the very issues she was attempting to claim it was not fair game to attack her on(ie. Iran, record, taxes). A Romney would have given the latter speech and it would have gone over well. Palin however, because of her background is not a convincing foreign policy attack dog, so all she accomplished by going on the attack was to undermine what she had managed to pull off with all those shots of her family. With US Weekly and National Enquirer coming out next week she needed to be the PTA Mom for the next 14 days.

She is fair game again, and no one will(or at least should) feel sorry for her.

Attacking a woman like this is quite difficult.  Note what Obama and Biden have been doing.

They don't need to. The issue is the mood in which the public receives the National Enquirer and US Weekly stories next week, and then later on the inevitable Lydia Green Obama ad that will come out in October.  She needed to be the loving PTA mom to survive what is going to hit he next week, before transitioning into the hard hitting maverick to survive the latter. She transitioned too early and is going to be killed, especially if McCain is stupid enough to sue for libel.

Obama's going to spend time attacking Palin?  As for the tabloids, if they end up being true, it's a killer.  Until then, it's not going to go anywhere.

Lydia Green loathes her, is the Republican President of the Alaska State Senate. Plus, due to her alliance with the Democrats in the Senate and her decision to retire, she has nothing to lose by going nuclear. If Palin plans to run on this "reformer" thing, an ad by Green, think "the real Sarah Palin" would be devastating in October. And perfectly acceptable if Palin is an attack dog.

[Meeker]

A rating is impossible. It all depends on who was watching.

[JSojourner]

Seriously, this rates up there with Reagan 64. It was that good.

Be honest.  You came in your shorts, didn't you?

[Storebought]

I say B/B+. She still seems parochial. But I will say that her political professionalism does make the past day of Democrat/Alaska GOP hackery look that much more ridiculous.

How on Earth does the fact that she can convincingly read a teleprompter speak to the truth or falseness of any of the accusations against her?

This wasn't about a point-by-point rebuttal of the garbage you and your like have spat at her for the past two days. This was about Palin presenting herself and her politics to the American people at large -- I judged her performance in that respect. She is allowed to have nonliberal politics after all.

And, please, don't start an argument on anyone's ability to convincingly read a teleprompter

I don't judge anybody on their ability to give a speech precisely because they indicate nothing, except for when Bill Clinton's teleprompter broke down during the State of the Union and he repeated by memory.

Oh and I don't care about her not having liberal politics. I could take an honest Conservative. I just believe she is an unaccomplished fraud who gets by on media presentation who has accomplished nothing in her life. At least Obama was Editor of the Harvard Law Review one of the most sought after positions in America. She took the cheerleader major at Idaho State.

And Obama is an affirmative action nothing who didn't publish a single peer-reviewed article as his stint as professor. Or even get recruited by a big-name lawfirm.

This man runs elections by slandering opponents to run more-or-less unopposed. He did it in his Chicago state senate seat, then again to both his Democratic primary and his first GOP opponent during his Senate run. He is the epitome of big machine politics, and I don't want to see any of that thuggery replicated in national politics.

[MODU]

...

Which is why I like JSojourner.

[Sbane]

She basically said Barack Obama hates America.  He wants America to be defeated in Iraq.

She said only one man in this race ever fought for us.  She's right.  What's amazing is that when we said the same thing about our guy in 2004, the other side succeeded in convincing America he not only didn't fight for us...he lied about it and really fought against us.

She just plain lied about her record on the bridge.  She did not oppose it until it was politically unpopular.

She scored big points with me on the plane and chef.  I think that kind of cost cutting is always a welcome thing and we need a lot more of it.

It was a brilliant move to bring the kids out on stage.  Beautiful, sweet baby -- she is obviously a good mom...you can see it in her kids' eyes.  I also liked watching Mac interact with them.  He was having fun and that's always reassuring.

As a purely political attack speech, I give it an A+.  Better than any speech I have heard this campaign season in either party. And infinitely better than any attack speech from Biden or Obama.

As for being a speech with the best interests of the country at heart, what can I say?  I am an arch liberal...she is an arch conservative.  So naturally, I can't give it anything more than a D.

Bottom line?  I stand by my previous assertion -- barring a major misstep or scandal, my party has once again lost the election.
 

You compliment the Republican Party and their representatives more than many of the Republicans here.

I give credit where it is due, my friend.

We Democrats had better wake up.  We SUCK at politics.  We have been playing catchup ever since the advent of talk radio and Republicans just get better and better and better at it. 

Absolutely correct. Democrats govern better while republican campaign better.

[Dan the Roman]

I say B/B+. She still seems parochial. But I will say that her political professionalism does make the past day of Democrat/Alaska GOP hackery look that much more ridiculous.

How on Earth does the fact that she can convincingly read a teleprompter speak to the truth or falseness of any of the accusations against her?

This wasn't about a point-by-point rebuttal of the garbage you and your like have spat at her for the past two days. This was about Palin presenting herself and her politics to the American people at large -- I judged her performance in that respect. She is allowed to have nonliberal politics after all.

And, please, don't start an argument on anyone's ability to convincingly read a teleprompter

I don't judge anybody on their ability to give a speech precisely because they indicate nothing, except for when Bill Clinton's teleprompter broke down during the State of the Union and he repeated by memory.

Oh and I don't care about her not having liberal politics. I could take an honest Conservative. I just believe she is an unaccomplished fraud who gets by on media presentation who has accomplished nothing in her life. At least Obama was Editor of the Harvard Law Review one of the most sought after positions in America. She took the cheerleader major at Idaho State.

And Obama is an affirmative action nothing who didn't publish a single peer-reviewed article as his stint as professor. Or even get recruited by a big-name lawfirm.

This man runs elections by slandering opponents to run more-or-less unopposed. He did it in his Chicago state senate seat, then again to both his Democratic primary and his first GOP opponent during his Senate run. He is the epitome of big machine politics, and I don't want to see any of that thuggery replicated in national politics.

And Sarah Palin isn't the greatest example of affirmative action in the history of this country? I actually agree that Obama would not be running for President if he wasn't black, but would Palin be the pick if she wasn't female? Thats why its nonsense to talk about this election and better to look before they were in politics.

And you know nothing about the Law Review. It is based solely on GPA. Getting in to Harvard maybe, but he had it tough growing up in a single parent home. And he had top firms calling. He turned them down because he is an overly ambitious man with an inferiority complex, but that doesn't change the fact he has real achievements in Academics if not in politics. Palin has none.

She is the Celia Hodes of American Politics.

[J. J.]

They don't need to. The issue is the mood in which the public receives the National Enquirer and US Weekly stories next week, and then later on the inevitable Lydia Green Obama ad that will come out in October.  She needed to be the loving PTA mom to survive what is going to hit he next week, before transitioning into the hard hitting maverick to survive the latter. She transitioned too early and is going to be killed, especially if McCain is stupid enough to sue for libel.

Unless they actually find something substantive, it's gone.  Sam is right; it's going to be hard to attack her, even while she attacks.

A suit will never be heard by election day.

[JSojourner]

She basically said Barack Obama hates America.  He wants America to be defeated in Iraq.

She said only one man in this race ever fought for us.  She's right.  What's amazing is that when we said the same thing about our guy in 2004, the other side succeeded in convincing America he not only didn't fight for us...he lied about it and really fought against us.

She just plain lied about her record on the bridge.  She did not oppose it until it was politically unpopular.

She scored big points with me on the plane and chef.  I think that kind of cost cutting is always a welcome thing and we need a lot more of it.

It was a brilliant move to bring the kids out on stage.  Beautiful, sweet baby -- she is obviously a good mom...you can see it in her kids' eyes.  I also liked watching Mac interact with them.  He was having fun and that's always reassuring.

As a purely political attack speech, I give it an A+.  Better than any speech I have heard this campaign season in either party. And infinitely better than any attack speech from Biden or Obama.

As for being a speech with the best interests of the country at heart, what can I say?  I am an arch liberal...she is an arch conservative.  So naturally, I can't give it anything more than a D.

Bottom line?  I stand by my previous assertion -- barring a major misstep or scandal, my party has once again lost the election.
 

You compliment the Republican Party and their representatives more than many of the Republicans here.

I give credit where it is due, my friend.

We Democrats had better wake up.  We SUCK at politics.  We have been playing catchup ever since the advent of talk radio and Republicans just get better and better and better at it. 

Absolutely correct. Democrats govern better while republican campaign better.

I completely agree.

[Dan the Roman]

They don't need to. The issue is the mood in which the public receives the National Enquirer and US Weekly stories next week, and then later on the inevitable Lydia Green Obama ad that will come out in October.  She needed to be the loving PTA mom to survive what is going to hit he next week, before transitioning into the hard hitting maverick to survive the latter. She transitioned too early and is going to be killed, especially if McCain is stupid enough to sue for libel.

Unless they actually find something substantive, it's gone.  Sam is right; it's going to be hard to attack her, even while she attacks.

A suit will never be heard by election day.

How will it be gone? Gov Lief's signature is going to be in every supermarket aisle in America next week.

And McCain is the one causing news by threatening to sue.

[Storebought]

I say B/B+. She still seems parochial. But I will say that her political professionalism does make the past day of Democrat/Alaska GOP hackery look that much more ridiculous.

How on Earth does the fact that she can convincingly read a teleprompter speak to the truth or falseness of any of the accusations against her?

This wasn't about a point-by-point rebuttal of the garbage you and your like have spat at her for the past two days. This was about Palin presenting herself and her politics to the American people at large -- I judged her performance in that respect. She is allowed to have nonliberal politics after all.

And, please, don't start an argument on anyone's ability to convincingly read a teleprompter

I don't judge anybody on their ability to give a speech precisely because they indicate nothing, except for when Bill Clinton's teleprompter broke down during the State of the Union and he repeated by memory.

Oh and I don't care about her not having liberal politics. I could take an honest Conservative. I just believe she is an unaccomplished fraud who gets by on media presentation who has accomplished nothing in her life. At least Obama was Editor of the Harvard Law Review one of the most sought after positions in America. She took the cheerleader major at Idaho State.

And Obama is an affirmative action nothing who didn't publish a single peer-reviewed article as his stint as professor. Or even get recruited by a big-name lawfirm.

This man runs elections by slandering opponents to run more-or-less unopposed. He did it in his Chicago state senate seat, then again to both his Democratic primary and his first GOP opponent during his Senate run. He is the epitome of big machine politics, and I don't want to see any of that thuggery replicated in national politics.

Sarah Palin is the greatest example of affirmative action in the history of this country.

And you know nothing about the Law Review. It is based solely on GPA. Getting in to Harvard maybe, but he had it tough growing up in a single parent home. And he had top firms calling. He turned them down because he is an overly ambitious man with an inferiority complex, but that doesn't change the fact he has real achievements in Academics if not in politics. Palin has none.

She is the Celia Hodes of American Politics.

Real achievements? For an academic, that amounts to journal articles, books, and conferences. I just stated that the man has not a single journal article in his name, dating either from his year in the Law Review or as a professor. And the only books he has published have been about how he overcame white liberal guilt to attend Columbia and Harvard Law.

The sole thing Obama has done is perfected the reselling of his life story. Big deal, lots of American blacks have had, and do have, a tough life. Not apparently enough to get elected president of the HLR, apparently.

She's a small town woman who jumped through hoops of Alaska politics to be elected governor. For a VP, nothing special, but it compares favorably enough to the Democrats' presidential nominee.

[WalterMitty]

she hit a grand slam tonight.  it was very good.

maybe lief and jfern and the dailykos crowd can dig up some more (untrue) garbage to throw at her.  maybe she once smoked a cigarette in her high school bathroom.  who the hell knows.

anyway, hair plugs biden better watch out on october 2nd.