within the first few minutes of palin's speech my phone started to light up with text messages. I could instantly tell that my liberal friends (and there are many) were nervous. palin the future president and next vice-president of the United States had something to say. the messages started with simple admissions like "she's doing well." As the humored filled speech unfolded my text messages increased. "she's doing well" became "wow." The evening ended with scared muses and hostile phrases like "we still have 2 more months" and "but how many hockey moms could there actually be in america." the liberals were scared.
How could one speech completely change their mind and make them go from laughing at Palin to fearing her? Palin was confident, funny, real and 100% American. Their whiplash over the last 48 hours was made more evident by the media's simplicity and their group think about Palin. Wolf Blitzer's bias came out like I've never seen.....he and CNN gambled that Palin was going down so they piled on her all day over the last several days. They questioned the "vetting process" and her qualifications -- they decided she wasn't up to the job. They reported on each other reporting about the rumors. It was a media circus made for CNN television. As US Weekly stories became worthy of political commentating, the frenzy about Palin's pro-life stance became straight-faced diatribes that questioned her parental skills. Grown feminists were asking if a woman with young children should be able to be VP. it was totally out of hand and the liberals were living in their own world as Wolf kept talking. was this the party of Hillary? Nope, it was the new Democratic Party of Obama where the radical left is in control.
Enter Palin -- the hockey mom and beauty queen knows what to do when her enemies are distracted by their own frenzy. she clearly knows how to take the pressure. but the media actually helped Palin out. they lowered expectations for themselves and their viewers and forced a "crisis" for McCain. reading the graphics on CNN and MSNBC earlier this morning led viewers to believe there was a crisis. my liberal friends were ecstatic: "she's a joke" one said. Liberals and their media friends had decided that Palin wasn't qualified to be a mom let alone the next VP. the media fed itself -- every outlet trying to pile on even more -- with little individual reporting. reporters told me that Palin would be out by friday.
But Palin came on strong and proved that small town American values are not hokey. She showed that her sound judgment and real world experience had more in common with regular people than obama's radical left. she gave voice to the parents of special needs children, economically struggling families, women who work because they have to, career women who choose to work, parents who don't miss their children's sporting events and rural America. she demonstrated that her appeal should not be underestimated as it was over the last couple of days. she proved you can be simple and strong, loving and ready to fight, a woman and a proud republican. as the east coast media elites and their liberal friends try and dismiss her as unqualified, Palin proved she understands America more than Obama. she is proud of her country even as she tries to improve it. and at the end of the day, she proved that her selection not only energized the base of the republican voters but extended a hand to the independents too.
the same reporter who first told me that "she'd be toast by Friday" told me after tonight's speech that Obama must be wishing that McCcain had picked Pawlenty.
What a country!
Read more reactions from HuffPost bloggers on Sarah Palin's speech
Richard, surely you jest.
I don't hold your breath for the demolition.
Yeh, I think the Republican base is energized but it's way too soon to figure Independants are going for Palin.
I hope this stays the theme and a message that is pounded again and again from sea to shining sea ...
http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx
So much for your theory.
that describes her speech and the GOP ticket to a "T"
Please provide some specific examples to back up the generalities.
I suggest the media stop the echo chamber of how well her speech went.
The response was overwhelmingly negative and I suspect will become more negative as time passes.
Please pay attention to the voters and not to other reporters.
Thank you.
[ Great - at last someone from outside the incrowd (ugh, a 60s term) ]
I'm still trying to determine what these "small town American values" are. [ Fair warning, I'm European, and therefore, a socialist ].
I crossed the US coast to coast on my bicycle (a 6 week tour) twice, in '86 and '96. This allowed me to watch the fly-over area closely. I found lots of people I could connect with, as long as I stayed away from politics (guns, "family values", the Federal Government, etc.)
I would never have thought that "small town values" (I live in a town of 5,000) include: Inevitable teen pregnancy by avoiding sex education (and apparently, not just in schools, but also at home); shooting innocent animals, using Gods name inappropriately (like: He leaded us to start the Iraq war), etc.
Wow, you must be glad I can't vote in your election ...
Those animals aren't so innocent either, they are wearing fur. Do you prefer giving them a choice, along the lines of Gary Gilmore for example? I'd actually like to see a video of PETA throwing blood on a Kodiak bear for wearing fur and eating meat.
Like most in the media today, you elect to tell us how "great" Gov Palin came across last night. In listening (sometime watching) tv all day, I kept saying to myself 'what was so great about the attack dog' like quality this speech protrayed. You like our wimpy media, simply bought into the mccain campaign's rove-like strategy of blaming the media. The substantive questions however are what specific policy positions did she outline. I heard none and wonder just how the entire media manages to fall in line when carl rove decides 'the media is biased' and must be stopped - and, low and behold they all fall in line. i suspect voters will decide over the next several weeks just how effective her policy positons are and to what extent they will be embraced by the voters throughout the country. my suspicion is that issues will dominate as compared to the hyperbole we heard last night.
His selection of Sarah Palin was a pure visceral, go-from-your-guts decision. In one stroke, he has energized and united the Republican Party, created a "future" for them and has raised his own stature as a decision maker
On a side note, I could have written Guiliani's speech last night! He finally said it so many words what most of the Country, especially Hillary Dems have been wanting to say about Obama for a long time but needed to be "politically correct" ...