Quaro
1601
Palin’s speech completely solidified the base. So McCain is free from having to do that in his speech. He can try and appeal to moderates and independents now, and if the speech is received lukewarm at the convention, it doesn’t really matter.
Are you sure? Does this mean you’re not interested in being the standard bearer for key issues like Palin’s baby holding or how nervous she may or may not be while shooting a rifle? How disappointing. Who will speak gossip to power without you?
BTW, the plural is “Secretaries of State.”
Well, unless you’re referring to one guy in charge of a bunch of States. ;-)
Looks like Palin isn’t going to be doing interviews or press conferences during this campaign.
Sarkus
1606
Thanks for the extremely shallow analysis.
What those numbers mean is that a lot of people are still wondering who the hell she is. I actually expect similar numbers for McCain tonight, mainly because unlike those of us who take politics seriously all the time, the majority of people only tune in for the big events.
What will be most interesting and revealing is how the poll numbers change after tonight.
It took me two days but I finally read this whole thread. Boy was that stupid.
The speech last night wasn’t a “Home Run” (I hate the use of baseball terms to describe politics.) It played to the home crowd only. She came off as Strident and Shrill. I’m not being sexist when I say that either. I’m perfectly comfortable with women in power. The fact of the matter is her tone reminded me of my mother when she’s pissed and it drove me nuts. I didn’t realize that Alaska had an accent so close to Minnesota/Wisconsin/Northern Illinois. I heard nothing from her about policy. Just a bunch of attacks based mostly on half truths.
Listening to the speech had me thinking a lot about Hillary Clinton. I’ve said on these boards before that I never would have voted for Hillary, but Palin made me rethink that a bit. Despite my earlier claims, the contrast between someone like Palin and Hillary Clinton makes me realize I just couldn’t vote for anyone that far Right. If Hillary was the candidate instead of Barack, I’d gladly vote for her.
Speaking as someone who was at Invesco the night Obama accepted, McCain has a lot of ground to cover if he wants to look nearly as presidential. I’ve heard nothing of policy from this entire convention so far, and I heard a lot of it from the Barack (and the Dems in general).
Lum
1608
That’ll show the media! How dare they ask questions of our potential leaders!
Maybe Palin can give an awesome interview like McCain did.
Seriously, this shit needs to be called out. There are legitimate questions that the electorate needs answered, the least of which is whether she can actually handle answering questions.
Probably start to see a lot of Biden on the Sunday morning shows ect, that’s how I’d point up the disparity.
Absolutely. Also, unrelated, the Obama campaign needs to emphasize the size of its proposed tax cut for the average family vs. the size of the one they’re likely to get from McCain’s proposal–beat the GOP at its own game.
U… Unicorn?
On the one hand, I was talking about the Democratic strategy. On the other hand, you’re talking about an Internet forum. Thanks for playing.
Glib, facile, and untrue. I’m beginning to think you might be biased!
MikeJ
1614
Where did she talk about policy? I watched the whole thing today and it was just, as she put it, a cloud of rhetoric.
Edit: I recall she was in favor of more oil and gas development and claimed that Alaska’s north shore had plenty. I guess there must be another Persian Gulf up there! Who knew?
She did far more than “just slam Obama.” She talked about her time as mayor and governor of Alaska, her efforts to shrink government and lower taxes, her fight against corruption and spending bloat, and quite a bit about her family. It was an introductory speech from someone everyone was complaining they didn’t know enough about. Now they’re complaining she didn’t tell them the right things.
Yes, it’s clearly ridiculous for a woman who wants to be elected Vice President to discuss policy at a nationally televised political convention.
MikeJ
1617
I was thinking more about the absence of policy rather than the presence of her life story. I don’t know what she should have put in her speech, but the republicans have been very very light on policy and that definitely included her speech. Fighting corruption, lower taxes and smaller government are the type of broad, feel-good themes that Obama was constantly criticized for presenting. Maybe it’s not Palin’s job, but the entire McCain campaign has been very light on details in primetime. Maybe they don’t want the public to learn the details?
I don’t know what you guys were expecting her to say. “Hi, I’m only a Republican because my real party says we should infiltrate the major parties and I hope that if I become president I can somehow arm-wrestle the Congress into allowing Alaska to secede so I can go home after my term is done and establish a Pentecostal Caliphate and we can suck Alaska dry and keep the money for ourselves and spend all day speaking in tongues instead of working. I’m also anti-abortion! Vote for me!”
If you want her to talk policy, you’re going to have to wait until they feel comfortable that she’s capable of stating “her” policies without slipping.
Interestingly enough, a lot of what she said about those topics is simply untrue. Shrink spending bloat? Alaska takes more federal money per capita than any other state but New Mexico, and under her governorship they have asked for the most of any state. Despite her claims to the contrary, she supported the bridge to nowhere right up until Congress said that they wouldn’t fund it (now she just lies about it to avoid embarrassment), and she supported (and presumably still supports) other similar pork barrel projects like a $375 million dollar highway connecting Juneau to a pair of townships that are home to just over 3000 people. Combined. As mayor, she employed federal lobbyists–for a town of 6000 people!–to secure around $27 million in federal funds. And even with that, she left the town $20 million in debt. As I pointed out earlier in this thread, that’s pretty close to the sum total of Rochester’s current budget shortfall, which is a really big deal in here, and a major issue in local politics. Rochester is home to about 300,000 people.
Then there are the reports of her firing various people for lack of loyalty and not banning books in the local library, and the issue over whether she abused executive power in an attempt to get her ex-brother-in-law fired. An investigation which is still pending, but which she has now decided to stonewall on, which is going to force the state legislature to issue subpoenas to get her and her former aid to testify. And we haven’t even known this woman for a week.
So maybe someone can explain which part of her executive experience I should be excited about, because aside from selling some jet on eBay, it seems eerily similar to president Bush’s. As in, primarily composed of acting like a petty dictator, abusing power, and spending money like a college kid with a new credit card. Firm stance against wasteful spending? There’s not much I can say to that other than to laugh. Yeah, right.
Well, she put it up on eBay but it didn’t sell. She had to lower the price and go with a private buyer after all the eBay hype.
