Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Palin!

Good speech. For all it was hyped as a win it-or-lose it night, she was great, but not earth shatteringly so. She is a gifted politician. I think she struck the right balance between talking about herself, McCain, and Obama, with just a wee bit of Biden (through the Delaware comments). [ETA: Not Delaware, Scranton. I think it was Rudy who mentioned DE.] At first I thought she was going to overdo the folksy small-town talk, but it was a good fit within her overall theme of reinforcing the differences between the tickets. Worst part of the speech - the foreign policy pop quiz (Caucasus, Venezuela, blah blah). Best part - she went on the offensive! The bit about the Obama-Georgia-UN Security Counsel gaffe was great!!

As for the commentary, I watch PBS (Cox Cable sucks). Jim Lehrer seemed pretty neutral. David Brooks was much better tonight. Either he genuinely thinks she did a good job or he's smart enough to anticipate the backlash against the media and distance himself from the Palin lynching. Peniel Joseph's commentary was interesting, even though I disagree with him for the most part.

I'd never paid any attention to Mark Sheilds before this convention, but I stand by my original impression that he seems like a pissy little bitch, and not a very clever one at that. Gwen Ifill looked like she was drugged at the end - take a nap, Gwen! - and I think her bitter tone when talking about the Obama attacks are going to be indicative of the overall media reaction. That faux-hurt clucking over poor Barack's feelings is not, I don't think, going to play well overall.

B+ for Sarah
C- for Jim Lehrer and Co.

2 comments:

Roger Miller said...

I was slightly offended when the first comments after the speech by the Obama camp was... she didn't write the speech.

I'm pretty sure there is more Axelrod in Obama's speeches, than there is Obama. I'm just saying...

Athena DePaul said...

Plus, I don't think Biden ought to get credit for "writing" anything, when he's really just copying out of other people's books. . .