So, did Palin hit it out of the park? Help me here.

[cwydro]

I was not able to watch the speech tonight, just tuned in here and reading this hysteria - well, I'm wondering.

Someone tell me how she did (leave out the shrill comments and the kid).

[XemaSab]

1. Mediocre

n/t

[cwydro]

65. OK, I'm getting ready to see it now.

Just started on Fox; wish I could tune the commentators out.

[bleever]

2. Yes!

But it was foul.

:(

[cwydro]

7. I'm trying to find a repeat on TV somewhere.

Fox probably has it, but I don't think I can stomach that.

[bleever]

17. On MSNBC right now.

[cwydro]

22. Thanks.

Gonna check it out.

[Lucinda]

62. LOL

[saltpoint]

3. She looked swell and read a grocery list of 1-liners that

maximized her alleged folksiness as a frontier reformer while sarcastically dismissing Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

The craven zealots in the hall loved it.

I doubt if independents anywhere were much moved by it.

And of course we hated it.

[1corona4u]

10. LOL, great synopsis....

but let me just add; she's a ball busting BITCH. :-)

[saltpoint]

19. Hey there, 1corona4U. I have a nasty image of Palin

intimidating that librarian.

I'm hoping THE NATION or someone will arrange an interview with that librarian.

I think we'll see that vicious Sarah aspect a lot more clearly.

[1corona4u]

49. I think there is a lot to be unearthed about her....

:hi:I don't want to know about her personal life, but there are things that I think we need to know about her. I will say that I resent her for being of the "family values party" (Hah!) and has issues with her own daughter.

I see her as a conniving, lying bitch, with nothing but self interest in mind. McAss better get a food taster if they win....

[Egnever]

21. perfect apraisal

you hit it out of the park with that one

[backscatter712]

56. Yep. Concatenated talking points.

Fortunately, we have candidates that can make speeches that are far more than chained-together partisan jabs.

She rallied the wingnuts, but I doubt she'll win many converts.

[scheming daemons]

Out of the park...... but foul.

[anakie]

30. good description n/t

[Patsy Stone]

4. She read the speech well

she stepped on some applause lines. The base will love her, the media will continue to dig, not sure she got any new voters (okay, pretty damn sure she didn't get any new voters). Plenty of digs at community organizing and how it isn't as hard as being mayor of Moosepoo, Alaska.

[cwydro]

11. She attacked community organizers?

Wtf is that about? Just to get a dig in at Obama?

[Patsy Stone]

18. Yepper

Rudy did too. Made it seem they thought little of it. Tell it to the Red Cross, Rudy! Damn people helping welfare queens and minorities don'tcha know...

[rwenos]

23. Didn't Just Attack 'Em. Ridiculed 'Em. n/t

[saltpoint]

27. Patsy Stone has it exactly right. Rudy and Palin both

ridiculed community organizers like Obama (and as DUer rufus dog has suggested, like Jesus).

Purely for political punchline, purely out of meanness as a way of signalling to the far right that the GOP will not stand for "socialist" reform and will very definitely be using the top-down authoritarian Class-rooted government model.

[kestrel91316]

44. Viciously, insultingly attacked them. The arrogance was astonishing.

[cwydro]

71. I'm watching now.

She is going to definitely be the "pit bull" for the ticket.

[endthewar]

50. Yep. And it will come back to haunt her.

The Obama camp will no doubt paint the McCain camp and Republicans as not caring about ordinary people.

[Dumak]

63. The crowd laughed too

I believe they even showed Cindy McCain laughing at it. I was horrified. These Republicans are the same as Nazis.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. She was shrill, snarky, vitriolic and hateful. When she wasn't lying, she was exaggerating

That applies to both the good qualities of the repukes and the negatives of the Democrats.
She was self-aggrandizing and her voice sounded like chalk on a black board.

Other than that, she was terrific.

[rwenos]

6. Depth of a Potato Chip

Barbie doll with a speechwriter.

She vibes real green. Not ready for prime time. Maybe ready to give a speech at the Rotary Club.

[dkf]

8. Me and my co-worker got bored...we tuned out the entire middle.

Then we decided she had droned on really long and we hadn't learned anything we didn't already know and started talking over her speech.

[Blue_Roses]

9. I guess that depends on which ballpark you play in...

the fundies couldn't get enough. For me, it sucked big time. Not only was it full of lies, she was an awful speaker.

[cwydro]

14. Guess I'm just wondering if she is gonna appeal

to Joe and Jane Six-Pack.

[sandnsea]

12. The far right will love it

Anyone with a brain - not so much.

How many people in America have a brain? That's the question.

[girl gone mad]

13. It's hard for any of us to give an honest assessment.

I thought she just sounded angry and cruel. She spent most of the time lobbing personal attacks at Obama and barely touched on her own biography or ideas. I only came away having learned one policy position: drill here, drill now.

The majority of commenters on CNN were not impressed.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/03/rnc.day/index.html

[cwydro]

34. She is probably getting some Rove tutelage.

Attack, attack, attack.

[rufus dog]

15. Nah

I seem to recall someone doing something similar during the Dole Convention.

Think of every condescending Repub remark being rolled out, it was two straight hours with Rudy starting off then another hour from her. The nasty repubs will love it and be jumping up and down tomorrow.

If she is the next generation of Repub leaders then it is the same as the old.

[stolivodka]

16. her bat was corked

Teleprompter with words spelled out phonetically. Already-debunked talking points due to the fact that she's been rehearsing a speech written on Monday. Shrill and sarcastic flinging of insults and condescension, making her look desperate to rally the mouthbreathing brigade. Complete and utter disregard for the reality that McCain has to get votes from people left of Dick Cheney to win this election.

Also, she has already upstaged McCain at a convention that was supposed to be about him.

Other than that, WOOHOO THE CROWD GOES WILD!!!!!

[beac]

67. And the McCain folks released the text of the speech WITH

the phonetic spellings.... "new-clear" for nuclear and such. Someone forgot to 'search and replace.' :rofl:


And welcome to DU!! :hi:

[gcomeau]

20. She gave a speech that will be loved...

...by the conservative Republican base that was already voting for McCain anyway. Now they'll just do it slightly less morosely.

The moderates are going to flee in disgust. I was watching the viewer comments coming on CNN, 95% negative easy. Her strident attack dog approach was pissing people off, they wanted issues discussions.

Edit: Link to CNN, read the comments, they'll make your week: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/03/rnc.day/index.html

[cwydro]

29. Glad to hear it.

I was reading a lot of threads here that sounded like people were worried.

[backscatter712]

24. She's no Obama.

She can read her concatenated talking points and throw red meat to the right wing base, but she can't make true history-making speeches like Obama seems to do almost routinely.

[geek tragedy]

25. She smeared Obama and the media praised her for doing it.

It couldn't have been more successful.

Compounding it, Obama's campaign hasn't even publicly disputed any of her lies.

[FrenchieCat]

26. If you like hate fests without substance......

kinda of like a Klan rally, this gal hit a grand slam. Only problem is that it might boomerang back in her face. I believe that the overwhelming majority of Americans feel like we are going in the wrong direction, and she basically gave more of the same; tough talk wihtout substance, i.e., Bush III for four more years.

[The Craw]

28. She appealed to the xenophobic, batsh*t crazy Christian zealots

I found her speech infantile and offensive-She mocked Obama in a tone one would find from a high schooler-She offered disturbing glimpses of her Christian zealotry, and hatred of academia-

The whole 'pro life' crowd is really about forcing Jesus on everyone- those nuts want a theocracy.If they were so 'pro life', then they would oppose the war in Iraq.

Her comment that Obama wanted terrorists to be read their rights was chilling-it tells me she opposes habeus corpus, and supports that proto fascist Patriot Act.

No doubt the xenophobic Christian wackos loved it, but I found it repulsive.

[Patsy Stone]

31. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[girl gone mad]

45. Welcome to DU!

I felt like I was being scolded by my mean elementary school principal.

[cwydro]

47. Thanks for the synopsis. I think she is a total wacko and

welcome to DU!

[lligrd]

32. She Lies And Does Sarcasm Well

but she has no substance.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

33. Partly because of low expectations....

[TheDonkey]

35. bar was set very low. She did a very good job lying her ass off and coming across as a snide a-hole

I think it was effective for the rethuglican base. I have no clue how it plays with the sheeple but it matters how the media spins it and whether they even try to call her out on the many many lies and lack of actual substance.

[cwydro]

38. I'm already seeing some complimentary crap

on CNN's site.

But I guess that's to be expected.

[DarthDem]

36. Nope

She struck out, or at best grounded out quite sharply to second, and was easily retired.

I went into the speech with an open mind. I knew, of course, that the MSM would compare her to Plato* no matter how she did**, and I assumed that she could give a speech. (I TiVoed, but never watched, the Nutter Center rally; I think I can delete that now.)

I was quite surprised by not only the content of her speech, but the delivery. She was halting, she flubbed several lines, and she had no cadence to her voice whatsoever; she completely failed to index her delivery according to what would appeal to the crowd. As a result, she stepped on almost every applause line and seemed to have no clue how to react to the crowd, or feed off of its energy. In addition, as many have said, she was aggressive, spiteful, mean, nasty, hateful, sarcastic, and not in the least amusing or appealing. She was, in this respect, remarkably akin to Giuliani - - it would not surprise me to learn that the same people wrote both speeches. She "wowed" the morons in the arena because she's a woman saying EXACTLY what they want to hear.

As for the content, the typical Republican nonsense was to be expected, but she overshadowed any biographical information that she provided about herself (which wasn't much - - no problem, since the media will dig it up soon anyway) with the following highly surprising and largely unnecessary, overreaching gaffes: (1) attacking Washington when McCain has been there for 28 years; (2) attacking the "elite media"; (3) disastrously belittling community organizers; and (4) astonishingly repeating the Bridge To Nowhere lie, word for word, from her Friday speech. Of course, as everyone here knows, she's been shown quite convincingly since then to be completely full of it.

The speech was, as the ridiculous Wolf Blitzer called it, indeed a "grand slam" - - for the Democrats. She was, in no uncertain terms, an unpleasant, mean-sprited disaster.



*Worst MSM offenders:

1) Howard Fineman (gives "campaign central" report claiming that Dems were caught off guard by the speech, when in fact Axelrod and Plouffe were almost certainly laughing their asses off at their good fortune in being gifted with this absolute nutbird, and if they weren't, they certainly wouldn't tell Howard Fineman)

2) Pat Buchanan (no more needs be said)

3) Anderson Cooper (there's a "new star" in American politics - - has he ever seen a political speech before?)


**Surprising MSM truthtellers:

1) The African-American gentleman (Gene _______?) sitting on the left side of MSNBC's panel - - I apologize for not remembering his name - - who immediately panned her ridiculous delivery and the speech's content

2) Norah O'Donnell, who indicated immediately thereafter that the speech was sarcastic and derisive, and resorted to mockery

3) Candy Crowley, who quite shockingly noted that while the delegates loved it, the reception of the speech among the general public would possibly be quite different

[FedUpWithIt All]

37. She was catty and snarky. Reader comments at CNN showing a lot of disgust.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/03/rnc.day/index.html

Read the bottom reader comments.

[Mz Pip]

54. So much for a change

of the tone in Washington. So much for "we need to put on our American hats."

This was divisive, partisan and petty.

[WinkyDink]

39. "hysteria"? "shrill"? You seem to be unfamiliar with the human emotion of "rage". She was LOW-CLASS.

[cwydro]

40. It seems a lot of people are worried all of a sudden.

Seeing a lot of hand-wringing.

(And I was referring to HER being shrill, btw)

[True_Blue]

41. If you like Ann Coulter style speeches

[TheKentuckian]

55. I find near unimaginable that anyone other than a Reich Wing

nutcase would find much appeal, she somehow manages to be both an attack dog and boring.

I don't think this plays for those that do not use Rush for a primary news outlet. If you're sophisticated enough for FOX then I'd give her a 60% approval rating, CNN level might be 10-20%, 5% MSNBC.

McCain is working on a serious FAIL, in my opinion.

[Cleita]

42. If you are talking about her flinging bullshit, yeah she hit it out of the

ball park. I'm listening to Mike Malloy. He's playing her speech and commenting on it. It's hilarious.

[backscatter712]

43. Nasty, smarmy, catty, full of lame strawman arguments, patronizing.

Does she really think we're that stupid?

Particularly when she was reading the parts of her speech on foreign policy and importing oil - she was obviously just reading from the teleprompter and had no idea what she was reading.

[cwydro]

73. Listening now. You're right.

She is extremely patronizing.

And nasty.

[grace0418]

46. If by "hit it out of the park" you mean "did she sound like a stupid, vapid, snotty waste of breath"

then yes.

[mokawanis]

48. She said nothing about being qualified for VP

it was basically a snarky put-down of Obama recited for the kool-aid drinkers at the convention. After the convention she'll have to do a lot more than give a "yay-team our opponents suck" speech and that's when her true colors, her lack of experience, will be glaringly obvious.

[endthewar]

52. She had to slow down when reading the teleprompter when she was talking about Venezuela.

Oh boy I can't wait for some foreign policy questions to be asked to her. :evilgrin:

[cwydro]

58. Lol.

Looking forward to seeing that.

[anigbrowl]

51. With her base, yeah. With swing voters, I really don't think so...

She played entirely to the gallery. It was a good rallying speech for the faithful, but I think it was so mean-spirited that she'll have driven a lot of wavering voters into the arms of Obama. Anyone who thinks McCain is a moderate will be put off. The first few minutes she impressed a bit with her political skills, but it rapidly degenerated into cheap tricks, and in fact I think she lost her own audience after a while - it was too long and they got tired after the first 10 minutes.

She's like a female version of W.

[Arm Chair Politician]

53. Anyone can hit a watermellon on a t-ball stand while reading a teleprompter! n/t

[Straight Shooter]

57. Ask Tarcy how Palin did (reader's comment on CNN site)

this is the most hateful speech I have ever heard. I give Miss Palin one thing...she's got balls. Big, inappropriate, hateful balls, spewing such vitriol after only being in the spotlight for 5 minutes. I am not impressed and neither should any of the Hillary supporters. She is a classless embarrassment to all women. and to think that her small children just witnessed this is even more hideous.

:rofl:

[cwydro]

61. Great comment.

I need to go read some more of these.:bounce:

[Straight Shooter]

64. I hope that reading those comments will make Sarah Palin's eyes bleed.

The people are NOT happy with her.

[Phoonzang]

59. The AP is saying she's just like Ronald Reagan.

It's funny, I remember reading a post a day or so ago that predicted that the media would say exactly that after hearing her read the speech.

[McCamy Taylor]

60. Their only job was to not make her (a brunette) look MEAN. They failed.

:applause:

Sometimes I am astounded at the idiocy of the people running the McCain campaign. A woman in politics must try extra hard not to appear mean, vicious, bitchy. And that goes double for a brunette.

I assumed that Palin was chosen because her dark hair and glasses would make her look smart. That way, she could just stand up there and talk about how much she loved her country and family and how proud she was to be McCain's VP and everyone would talk about what a great person she was. And so smart!

The only job she and Team McCain had was to not let America see her as MEAN. She had to not come across as a wicked step sister. And boy did they blow it.

I am from Texas, so things are very different down here. We kill with kindness. But if you will notice, the rest of the nation kind of likes our southern manners. They find our politicians easy to get along with. Sarah is not going to do well with that kind of attitude.

Did anyone else notice Roberta McCain's expression? She looked like she had been sucking on a pickle. I think she knew that Palin was blowing it.

[cwydro]

69. I did notice her expression.

She was also the only one they didn't pass that poor child off to when they were playing the hot potato game.

[Norrin Radd]

66. Out of the park, and the ball hit some endangered animals in the noggin and killed them.

Though it was more like she hit it out of the tee-ball park. Poor reading of a dull, assy speech.

[casus belli]

68. She read a speech written for her, and probably rehearsed for several days

It's not hard to hit one out of the park when you're thrown an easy pitch. Luckily for us, and not so luckily for the GOP, she'll be given plenty of opportunities to answer some questions without a script in the next several weeks.

I'm also REALLY looking forward to the vice-presidential debates. Biden will eat her alive.

[Indi Guy]

70. Palin Pumped up the "Base"...

...and I mean base. Sarah spewed forth the base mentality of her speech writers.

Because she's a newbie I can't say to her, "Well, there you go again." All I can say is, "Well there you go."

[depakid]

72. She managed not to bungle it

Read the teleprompter and gave the corporate media enough cover to say what they'd already written.