Saint Sarah Beats Expectations in Saint Paul

Dividing a presidential convention between two cities -- Minneapolis and Saint Paul -- that are a half hour cab ride apart is a very good way to deflate enthusiasm and raw political energy, but tonight. . .finally. . .this convention woke up with a spark provided by former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani and then a powerful home run speech by Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Expectations of Palin had been set so low by all of those who doubted her abilities and experience that perhaps any semi-competent talk would have done the trick, but clearly she was comfortable speaking powerfully to tens of millions on television and a packed stadium in St. Paul.

Substantively, I strongly disagreed with her tongue-in-cheek dismissal of Obama for wanting to stand by those who deserve to have their rights read to them in a way consistent with democracy. She portrayed herself as being a believer in liberty -- distrustful of government, and then seemed to argue that some accused (possible terrorists) didn't deserve the benefit of doubt that liberty promises and argued that an empowered government could judge who was evil and who was innocent without regard for basic human rights.

Palin talked a lot about fiscal responsibility, of sacking her chef, and selling former Senator and Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski's state-provided luxury plane on EBay and wanting to bring those practices to Washington -- but she mentioned nothing of the irresponsibility of waging the second most expensive war in American history with no regard to raising revenue to pay for it.

Like Bush and McCain and Cheney, Sarah Palin embraces war and lowering taxes. Suggesting that that is a fiscally responsible posture is neo-Orwellian.

Palin tried to build on the silly meme that Obama is somehow positioning himself as a modern Messiah:

What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger. . .

It is the government of George W. Bush that she and McCain are trying to succeed that has made the reach of government into people's private lives the most extensive and invasive in modern history -- and the size of government as measured by the gap between receipts and expenditures is also the largest in American experience.

Palin, like George W. Bush and Cheney, seems to think that by asserting falsehoods or juxtaposing contradictory goals like maintaining a large forward based troop presence in Iraq but keeping taxes from going up sells just fine to Americans.

She may be right. I think that in contrast to Obama -- whose selection of Joe Biden was smart and important in shoring up the Obama Team's gravitas -- Palin has been set up by McCain to be a new kind of 21st century "saint."

She has a large, seemingly wonderful family -- juggles her home cooking with running a large state as its chief executive. She has a snow mobile racing husband who is a North Shore oilman and she tackles corrupt "lobbying interests" and their cozy deals with politicos wherever she goes.

It's a great story on many levels. Her husband is even a member of the United Steel Workers. Faint applause on that line though.

But despite my substantive differences with Palin, this performance tonight beat expectations and moved her to a new level. Her competition at this incredibly flat, low energy confab in St. Paul is thin -- so one could easily argue that she had a lot of room to pull off a success. But that is too cynical.

She did a great job -- and stared her doubters and the challenge down.

There is much about Sarah Palin we don't know yet. Unlike Biden and Obama, we didn't get much time to have our own public vetting of her before McCain's decision -- so there will be more fits and starts and twists and turns as other parts of her life are dredged up, over-analyzed, and judged by the American public.

But this is going to be very close race, particularly if nothing new and surprising shows up on Palin.

What no one will say just yet -- but which I think the McCain folks tried to convey is that "Saint Sarah" just made her real debut in Saint Paul.

-- Steve Clemons publishes the popular political blog, The Washington Note

Comments

[likewoah]

I can see how one could make the argument that she beat expectations, especially given the wholly un-nuanced coverage of Palin that has been in MSM outlets (as well as on some HuffPo posts). But on the other hand, did she do anything really surprising?

I mean seriously, did anyone expect her to get up there and not be a powerful, charming convincing speaker? Did anyone doubt her family narrative (fully 205 of her speech) would be compelling, even saintly, to a big group of U.S. voters? The woman is a former beauty pageant contestant and mother of 5 who takes tremendous pride in shooting things - big things - with big guns. Of course she was going to meet or exceed expectations in this department.

On the other, did she give any indication that she was experienced, thoughtful and independent enough to contribute to a Presidential administration as anything but an attractive mouthpiece for someone else's speech? I think not. In fact, she may have even fell short of my already low expectations for executive judgement and moral character.

[Sarah-Wyoming]

Sarah Palin did everyone a huge disservice tonight. The pundits said she was throwing punches. I thought they were the scratches of a bitch fight. Her demeanor showed how UNready she is for the serious international office of VP. Nastiness, child-like sarcasm and lies should not project her into the White House, the convention go-ers showed their true colors in their support for her comments.
I cannot see how this country could elect John McCain, knowing she is second in command.

[doodlefarbe]

"how UNready she is for the serious international office of VP. "

International office? I thought she was just running for VP of the US; I'm glad you've awakened me to her broader aspirations.

Next thing you know, she'll be claiming VP is like a "fourth branch of government" or some such.

[LiberalDem]

Sarah Palin is the Republican's newest attack dog-she's just got a pretty exterior. If you look behind that face, you find a mean-spirited, power-hungry personality who will walk over anyone in her way.

[RRonin]

Palin's speech was red meat to the foaming at the mouth mega conservatives, but what does it say to the rest of the electorate?

[mairs]

To parrot what the Obama detractors said for months, she has a speech. And in addition, one fed to her without her having written any of it. She has a pretty face, sparkling eyes, nice hair, and enthusiasm. That's nice. For everyone to grab onto this as if it was a lifeline seems pathetic, but what do I know.

[Herrington]

She hit a home run with arch conservative Christian fundamentalists. The rest of the world will wait and see if the sportscaster talent for reading a teleprompter will translate into substance of any color. And you do not have to look far past the pretty face an pleasant voice to find an ogre and an enemy to middle American women and men alike. Consider that the bulk of her speech was sarcasm, sarcasm and difficulty with some of the big words.

Still, bringing out the base, in this case baser than usual, may backfire on McCain if the public does not delight in the ascendency of an "F*n redneck" to the helm of the country.