The Palin Speech

Off to the US Embassy again today – this time for the McCain speech. But it may be a fizzer compared to the speech of his running mate – Sarah Palin. Look at what the pundits said:

It wasn’t just a home run, said CNN’s Wolf Blitzer at the St Paul, Minnesota, convention – it may have been a grand slam.

“A very auspicious debut,” said NBC’s Tom Brokaw.

It was a “perfect populist pitch”, said Jeff Greenfield of CBS.

“Terrific,” said Mort Kondracke on Fox News Channel.

“A star is born,” said Chris Wallace on Fox, a view echoed by Blitzer and by Anderson Cooper on CNN.

The full speech is here. Also a video of it. Some of my favourite parts:

Todd is a story all by himself.

He’s a lifelong commercial fisherman … a production operator in the oil fields of Alaska’s North Slope … a proud member of the United Steel Workers’ Union … and world champion snow machine racer.

Throw in his Yup’ik Eskimo ancestry, and it all makes for quite a package.

The Republicans have a working class candidate, or at least candidate’s husband.

Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

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. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

Now that’s a bitch slap, pardon the term.

And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.

But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform – not even in the state senate.

That is a great line – authored two memoirs but no major law.

In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.

And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.

Nice.

Her candidacy is still a risky one. At some stage she will be quizzed on national and international issues and will need to be conversant with the issues. But the pundits all agree it was a great speech.