A surprisingly effective evening. Palin we believed delivered a triple blow to the Boy King and his loquacious Man At Arms. First, she showed up and didn’t crumple under the most brutal, hateful vindictiveness that Kool Aiders at Huff Post et al. could muster; no Quayle frozen in the headlights. She solidified her base and leveled the intensity gap between Dems and Repubs.
Second, she proved to be a charismatic mixture of professional accomplishment, commitment to family and her Movement connections. Legendary rock promoter Bill Graham once said in another context: “there are a handful of bands that on any given night are the greatest rock n roll band in the world. For that night.” All but Olbermann, Maddow, Campbell Brown and others at MSNBCNN knew a great performance when seeing one. Especially when surmounting a failed telepromptor. (Axyl Rose used to throw temper tantrums and cause riots when that happened to *him*). And her performance enraged them.
Third, Palin told the Dems ‘Your Kung Fu is weak.’ She is going to meet them head on. One wonders how Biden will handle that without coming across as a horse’s ass. We’ve always been fascinated by the misogyny of the Left while hiding behind feminist ideals. Our graphics here are designed to be fun or provocative. But the Left is away putting her on Playboy and Vogue covers, and in even more appalling circumstances. The dissonance, it burns! It burns! An attractive woman doesn’t yearn for a frappuccino on the Upper West Side. (Wait till they learn how conservative sexual icons like Jessica Alba are, etc.)
In-the-tank MSNBC team keeps asking if it is possible she can ever get up to speed on foreign policy. Questions they never dared ask the Boy King. Apparently, a white woman with conservative views goes in one murderous box and an inexperienced ‘community worker’ black candidate gets lauded even when he forgets the U.S. has 50 states instead of 57. Hilary truly and deservedly must be shouting in a mirror “I just can’t believe it !”
And how odd for the Left to say today that Sarah Palin can’t be VP because she can’t be Cheney. Just now, one of those idiots said ‘Sarah Palin would not be able to give the order to shoot down a terrorist plane heading to another target like happened in 2001’. We want a VP who can fill Cheney’s shoes?
The whole Dem spin machine at the moment seems stalling with too many feet pushing the clutch trying out different narratives. It’s all temporary and the ‘sweet sport’ of political boxing will settle down into defined strategies. Sarah Palin surely did knock the Dems off stride. Let’s see how the Dems come out of their corner with some eye-cutting.
She also had strong warm up acts. The chirping Carly Fiorina is dismissible for a variety of reasons, most prominently? She ran HP into the ground and was fired. Meg Whitman, however, showed basic skills which might position her future political opportunities. And then Rudy. He galvanized the base with electric humor and almost inverse Darth Sidious lightening. The Rudy we knew and worked directly with is gone. We felt disconcertingly inert watching him. No empathy or lingering memories remain. Yet he did ‘raise the roof’.
In the end, Sarah Palin began to take back her narrative from the mocking media and blistering Leftist blogs. Will it work? Watching last night, Bill Graham’s one night comment resonates. It’s possible – she may galvanize the base and keep Dems on their heels long enough. Along shot but possible. Something we did not expect as late 2 days ago.
Still, if the Dems blow this election they should be disbanded, their leadership hunted down like dogs and sent for rehabilitation working chicken farms. Maybe even for the Guangze Shengnong Enterprise Ltd.
Dr Leo Strauss says
re JIC, perhaps W will be kind enough to extend a ‘Blair Wing’ to his presidential library.
Too bad Blair didn’t have the Spice Girls behind him as he bestrode Capitol Hill singing off key Momento Mori (‘Remember you are mortal – all things pass’).
Perhaps he can follow Winnie’s footsteps and start a new series of memoirs, ‘The Spayed Years’.
A Random Quote says
“E.T – energy technology – is out there.”
~Tom Friedman
MTP
Anon says
“Indeed, even Vice President Dick Cheney, who had reportedly pushed hard within the administration for sending such advanced equipment to Georgia even before last month’s war, refrained from making any promises Thursday during his high-profile visit to Georgia’s capital.” (Jim Lobe)
Interesting that it was Cheney (and Rumsfeld) that also pushed to give nuke energy to the Shah.
Cheney – a one man wrecker
Anon says
So Doug Feith hears some stuff and tells a guy who tells a guy …. then Powell speaks … to make a long story short … after 4440 deaths …
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23551715-details/article.do?ito=newsnow&
Anon says
Meant to say that Harriss should prefer Palin if she is as religious as she is said to be because that will serve to discredit religion a bit in the eyes of people who may buy his books. Plus – the polarized nature of her support will serve to highlight the split between that Dobson faction and blue state sensibilities.
Plus Palin seems pretty well humored and intelligent in common sense sort of way – Even if she secretly supported splitting Iraq up into three pieces (Bide/Gelb), she would probably have the good sense not to say so publicly.
Unfortunately, Biden has a problem McCain has – He has to save face and he cannot admit error. Obama and Bush can both be accused of this (Bush is) – but they generally slide away from their errors and tack accordingly.
Biden is truly disliked in Iraq. That might not matter so much, but it could spell trouble if he showed similar boneheadedness in Georgia. Hey – why split Iraq now – (when they don’t want to split) – but fight splitting up Georgia (when Georgia is already split).
Comment has no hard and fast opinions on any of this – but avoiding big wars is gonna be a big issue – All that Caspian stuff will come to head in the next ten years.
Anon says
Strictly speaking Harris should prefer Palin over Biden – A basic tenet of his anti religious message is that the main villians (in his worldview) are the moderately religious (like Biden) rather than the hardcore like Palin (or so we are told) –
Also – Palin may be a bit a brighter than Biden on a raw IQ type of level. That’s just a guess – OIbviously Biden in more educated and more worldly. But that’s just a product of his long career.
Palin has that spark that all smart people have – You can pick it up when she took that pedestrian speech and made it sparkle with her perfect delivery.
Incidentally, Paris Hilton was also trashed as a dumb ***** just recently – but she showed her intelligence in that funny ad she did in reply.
Biden’s not dumb – he just lack coherence and often says things that make him sound sincerely confused about complicated issues. Ordinary.
Anon says
This is the kind of ‘tude that could get Palin elected – Dripping with contempt. Comment believes Palin will lose of she is treated with respect – Inverse – more respect, less reaction. But we suspect Sam Harris secretly wants McCain-Palin to win so he make more money selling books:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-harris3-2008sep03,0,3801278.story
Anon says
Much has been made of Palin’s hockey mom joke – But recall when the unique concept of the hockey parent made its tragic enterance:
http://www.time.com/time/pow/article/0,8599,192891,00.html
DrLeoStrauss says
Aldershot, the bunker has sustained so much structural damage over the years, am not sure how the comment section and changed text works — the code you used is certainly the correct one for the posting part.
Perhaps it is time to overhaul things . . . let’s peer under the hood and see what’s what.
DrLeoStrauss says
It’s still early September and Palin has yet to do a solo interview even with a second tier tv personality. It’s easy to win a battle — viewership, aggregate air time and still lose the war.
Comment says
Yes – Aldershot politicians lie – For example (a tiny example)
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/does-anything-c.html
Aldershot – what we were talk about was not the typical pol lie – ie: “I hate war” (McCain) – but rather – bold falsehoods that are insulting to the reader/viewer.
These lies McCain has used are used because he has long been a press hero and he has contempt for the media that never challanges him. The media thinks Obama is smart – so they hold him to that – he has to come up with rationales for everything – BUT! – The media ragards McCain as a Ol’ skool sailor – so they allow him to spread blarney.
They also do not challange Palin on lies – they think those are annie-oaklie type embellishments. etc
To compare – they have been talking about Biden’s plagerism for 22 years. 22 years!
Aldershot says
Doc, be a pal and fix my bold. How the hell do you make bolds, etc.?
Aldershot says
Yes, Virginia, politicians lie. And Sister Sarah is doubtless the cleanest of the four.
By the way, did anyone catch the [b]shameless[/b] Cindy RNC video? When you steal a married man, please have the decency not to romanticize how you met.
Aldershot says
Obama’s speech was ok; I guess I’m over the soaring rhetoric. The aerial pan of the stadium was breath-taking. I was truly impressed. When the fireworks went off, I had to laugh, it was soooo ridiculous.
But the important thing is that for many, it was their first significant exposure to him, and that was a home run for the campaign.
I was very surprised Buchanan raved so.
Anon says
The biggest problem Dems have is their incompetent base voters and how they think – Consider this small example – on an influnetial blog – where the Dems think this is good. The average voter only hears that McCain is a maveric and Palin is cutting taxes – they obviously do not have time to read the oh so clever argument hidden within. Look:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/jane-smiley-absolutely-gets-it-by.html
Lots of Democrats think that kind of thing works – but that link is an example of why Republicans win even when they should not.