Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2008 > September > 03
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
That Palin’s a fighter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Some conventions have magic moments. One was the 1996 Republican convention in San Diego when Elizabeth Dole took the microphone and wandered among delegates, talking conversationally. The huge arena took on the feel of an intimate family room. I stood and watched the delegate crowd. Delegates were mesmerized. She owned them.
That moment occurred again Wednesday night. When Gov. Sarah Palin walked onstage, the crowd was electric. They wanted to inspire her on — and, clearly, as she grew more comfortable in delivery, they did. For Democrats — and partisans in the media — this will be a very dangerous woman. Better think twice before picking a fight.
Delegates made the moment electric in part because they had built up anger all week long, convinced that assorted stories and headlines had crossed into her family’s private lives. At one point earlier when former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani delivered a rip-roaring attack on the opposition, one guest seated near me in the stands leaned over and shouted up to the MSNBC booth: “You getting any of that up there?”
Palin demonstrated convincingly that she can handle her load in this campaign. On her high school basketball team, she was called Sarah Barracuda for her aggressive play. Republicans want a fighter. I do believe they have one in Gov. Sarah Palin.
Permalink | Comments (357) | Post your comment |
Waiting for Sarah
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Last week the acceptance speech of Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama drew 38 million viewers — 60 percent more than John Kerry’s 2004 acceptance speech.
Here in Minneapolis-St. Paul, delegates are sky-high with anticipation. The headline on one of the national newspapers declared this morning, after President Bush spoke, that it’s now John McCain’s convention. Yes, but….
The thing about McCain is that he’s a known figure with a national reputation that needs, really, no fleshing out. Though it’s his convention, he just has to accept the reality that the exciting figure is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. She’s the rock star — and that’s fine. McCain is the guy who instills confidence on national security issues. But she’s the gal who inspires a belief that Washington can be changed and that, indeed, the divide between Washington and the kitchen tables of American can be closed.
This is a Republican town this week, but even when you strip away the partisan-laced enthusiasm for Palin, there’s something genuine and exciting about her and the reaction of women, especially, to her.
It may not be 38 million watching tonight. But she’ll draw millions of Americans who don’t normally tune in politics. The convention so far has been fairly routine as these things go. Tonight, I wouldn’t miss it.
Questions: Will you watch? What do you expect?
Permalink | Comments (115) | Post your comment |
Spotlight turns to teen father-to-be
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The experts who stage political conventions are far smarter than I am about how to handle stories that are likely to result in a media frenzy. But dang if I’d have brought the father of Bristol Palin’s baby to the GOP convention on one of the three most important days in Gov. Sarah Palin’s campaign life.
The third of those important days is Oct. 2 when the vice presidential debate is held at Washington University in St. Louis. The first was her introduction last Friday.
Governor Palin was spectacular on the day she was introduced to the nation as John McCain’s vice presidential nomination. She was confident and comfortable before what may have been the largest audience she had ever addressed. She easily passed the first major test.
The second comes Wednesday night when she addresses delegates and, more importantly, the nation. When her name was mentioned Tuesday night, delegates roared their approval. They share the sentiment expressed by former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee — “what a breath of fresh air Gov. Sarah Palin is” — and they’re ready to showcase her to the rest of the country.
They want the nation to see her as Thompson does: “She is a courageous, successful reformer who is not afraid to take on the establishment” and is, furthermore, a small town woman with small-town values.
That’s the reception she’d get, too. The nation that’s not jaded or devoted to the opposition will find her to be the breath of fresh air Thompson describes.
Wednesday is her day to shine.
She is a bold selection who represented some risk for McCain and the GOP. A New York Times story on Tuesday agonized about whether the woman can do it all, something incidentally I’ve never read about a man offered the vice presidency, no matter his family situation.
The point, really, is that the first few days of media attention is intense. She’ll do fine, I believe, based on her performance to date. But the young man?
Having him here on her day is daring. He and the pregnant daughter become the dominant story of the day leading up to Governor Palin’s convention moment. It may make sense to the experts to get it all out of the way up-front. But to this PR amateur, it looks like a bad call.
Services »
