The attack dog has been loosed. Anyone befuddled by John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate got a crystal clear view of his motivations last night. Among the many questions swirling around the “VPILF” on both sides of the aisle, were doubts about her ability to speak effectively in front of the massive RNC crowd. Despite a rough start, she quickly settled into her comfort zone and dispelled such concerns with her commanding presence and winning smile. Sadly, that same winning smile belied the overarching tone of her speech — sarcastic, vitriolic, and outright mean.
After lauding her running mate and her family, and spending a substantial amount of time attempting to spin her lack of viable experience into a positive, Palin set about ripping into Obama. She prefaced her attack with the caveat that “there is much to like and admire about our opponent”, as though it would justify the half-truths to follow. She belittled his time as a community organizer, stating, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.” Nevermind that Obama’s work in that capacity was devoted to the reclamation of jobs for laid-off steel workers — the same blue collar constituents she is courting. She lambasted him for wanting to raise taxes and harped on the additional burden that this would place on those Americans trying to keep ”[their] job at a plant” or “a small farm,” strategically ignoring the fact that Obama’s proposed tax plan would raise taxes only for those households making more than $250,000/year. Cue shots of botoxed socialites clapping and nodding, extravagant clusters of diamonds jangling from their ears.
Certainly Palin’s speechwriters crafted some biting one-liners, particularly the crack that “We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.” The reference to Obama’s 4 month-old flub was a solib jab at Obama’s perceived white-collar elitism, but the Governor must be careful not to press the issue to far. Doing so undermined Hillary’s credibility in the primary as supporters began to question whether she was any more in touch with the “average American” than Obama. Palin touts her rural upbringing and Hockey-mom status as evidence of her connection with this country’s grassroots, but the more she pushes the issue, the more obvious it will become that her job, status and family income place her on the far side of the ever-widening divide between blue and white-collar Americans.
That may not be Palin’s only forthcoming concern. Palin questioned Obama’s platform and inexperience, criticising his rhetoric. Her argument may have held more water if her efforts to answer questions over her own inexperience had not seemed so feeble, or if her own speech had been anything but more of the rhetoric she decried. She talked at length about McCain’s service record and about the impending deployment of her own family members to Iraq. She talked about her husband’s gritty jobs (but not his six figure salary), being a hockey mom, and how good people are grown in small towns like the one where she was raised. But only once did she mention her ticket’s policy initiatives — a half-hearted promise to lay more oil pipelines (presumably running through Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve) and “move forward … on alternative sources [of energy].”
Palin’s speech sounded good, drew huge applause from the crowd, and will generally be considered a success for her party. Beneath the sheen, however the speech offered even less substance than those of her opposition. She may have come out of the gate strong, but Palin will only hurt her campaign in the long run unless she beefs up the substance and drops the caustic tone. “Politics,” she stated last night, “isn’t just a game of clashing parties and competing interests.” She’d do well to heed her own words.
Well written, and fully organized argument against Palin. Her speech was nasty, sarcastic, and lacked substance. She used her time to cut others down, and no time lifting the nation up. Thank you for this blog.
Excellent points! While her delivery was very good, the speech was nothing but cheap attacks. The truth about Ms. Palin will come out over the next few weeks and more and more people will realize what a pathetic ploy this was.
I’ve always liked John McCain (not enough to vote for him to be president) but his decision to put someone like Palin into one of the most important jobs in our country has caused me to lose all respect for him.