Where's the Outrage?

You are right; we shouldn’t be surprised by Sarah Palin’s speech, but I guess I just keep hoping for a positive message from the Republicans. Instead, we got nothing that resembles a big picture view of a global world (in fact a snear about “community”) and little that could be even be called policy. Sarah Palin’s mean-spirited speech was made more disturbing by the clamoring crowd of mostly white, supposedly Christian delegates cheering as she made her snide verbal attacks on mainstream populists. If this is the leadership Republicans approve of, it is more important than ever for Democrats to take back America’s future. It is frightening to imagine the alternative!

I actually thought it was a good speech, and she spoke mostly about what she’d bring to the ticket.

First, she is the only one of Obama, Biden, and even McCain who has experience running a government at any level. She spoke extensively about her experience as Governor: saying “no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere, challenging Big Oil and changing the status quo in Juneau, adding to the nations petroleum infrastructure, and paying out budget surpluses to the people to whom they belong: the citizens of Alaska.

Second, while I’m talking about it, she has more experience dealing with Big Oil than the other three guys COMBINED. In an election hinging on our exploits abroad and energy prices, she brings extensive first hand experience and actual solutions, long and short term, for our current energy situation.

I didn’t see anything “mean spirited” there at all. Would someone care to elaborate on that?

Finally, I’d like to say that you might not agree with anything I’ve said here previously, but I think we can agree that she is way hotter than Joe Biden.

WOW. This speech was ANYTHING but predictable, edgy, FUNNY AS HELL, and energetic. Tell me how the “mayor is like a community organizer… but with responsibilities” WASN’T FUNNY.!

The EBAY bit was well-delivered, the part about special-needs was sincere, the bit about Obama being wrong on Russia was POIGNANT.

You may have hunted down the 2 writers on the internet that were NOT blown away… but those represent but a small portion of the american public — the rest of us had QUITE a different response…

Doc:

You’re putting words in my mouth. I never said anything about Gubernatorial greatness in the White House. I simply said that of all the four of them, she is the ONLY one that has ANY experience running a government of ANY size. That is a fact, and shouldn’t be ignored or even discounted.

Just because someone else gave tax surpluses back to the people of Alaska prior to her election doesn’t mean that she doesn’t think it’s a good idea. Nobody is suggesting she invented that particular wheel, but I *am* suggesting I like the fact that she elected to continue spinning it.

As far as battling Big Oil, she took a slam dunk deal for Big Oil in her pipeline project (and remember, her own husband works for Exxon) and opened the bid up for a fair bidding process on her natural gas pipeline, and DIDN’T CHOOSE EXXON. Pretty gutsy for a small town chick, especially when the status quo meant that Big Oil got that job before she took office.

So, if we’re still counting, we have one guy who was known as a “maverick” (or, change agent) for longer than Obama has been in the Senate, running with a lady who took a government notorious for it’s level of corruption and straightened it out in less than a year and a half (or, if you will, yet another change agent), running against two guys who almost exclusively vote for their own party, while the guy running for the big chair on the ticket has, to lift a phrase from Mrs. Palin, written two autobiographies but hasn’t written one piece of legislation at any level of government.

Who is the campaign for “change” again? What “change” do we think they’re actually proposing?

Finally, as you’ve probably guessed, I am a Reagan fan. I attribute it at least partly to my penchant for worshipping Alex P. Keaton as a tyke. However, I continue to aspire politically along his ideal because he was a remarkable President in times of great change for the country and the world. He almost single handedly killed Communism, which should warrant a shrine in everyone’s home who values a good days work for an honest wage. He lead his country out of a crippling recession that the previous administration blamed on a “malaise” that might have something to do with President Carter’s impotent management of several crises during his one pitiful stint in the Daddy Chair, than any mysterious ailment might cause. Reagan instinctively knew that higher taxes weren’t the answer for the country’s financial woes… in fact they were the CAUSE of our financial crises, and only in lowering taxes could our economy be stimulated to new heights.

And, maybe most importantly, he was a faithful man who loved God and his wife immensely, perhaps even in that order, although I don’t know for sure.

In short, Reagan is the greatest American President since Abraham Lincoln, and his countenance should appear on Mount Rushmore.

To sum up, I asked a question that was never answered: What exactly was “mean spirited” about Mrs. Palin’s speech?

I was surprised on a number of levels. I was surprised by the amount of time Palin devoted to talking about baking cookies and attending school conferences, for instance. It just seemed wildly out of sync with the context. But the biggest surprise to me was what a poor public speaker she was. I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen anyone at this level of politics pull so many exaggerated faces or spend so much time frozen, holding a pose and waiting for a reaction (that always seemed to lag). The biggest shock to me was to hear the raves about what a great speech she made. In a high school speech class, I’d have given her a “C” for trying.