She's not really a bad public speaker but she's nowhere near the level of those who spoke at the DNC. I should think that she'll do better at the convention when the Rep speech writers and coaches have a chance to work with her some more.
At least a governor is an executive rather than a legislator. That's my point and it is irrefutable. Another way of saying it is that she has 1 year and 9 months more governmental experience than Obama...
I think this was a good play for McCain. Ultimately, he had to take a risk -- the status quo wasn't going to work, especially after this week for the Dems. She energizes the base, and more importantly, she brings something different to a ticket that desperately needed it. Could it blow up? Absolutely. But I thought she came off well today (granted, I only saw the second half of the speech), and it's a risk he had to take. Regardless of the polls, McCain is a huge underdog here, for obvious reasons, and a safe pick wouldn't have cut it.
Well, I consider this a somewhat surprising yet necessary move for McCain. It is unquestionably a desperate move for a camp that clearly thinks they're playing from behind and needs something fresh and exciting to shake the base. It's a hail mary. Let's see how it plays out.
If McCain is elected, you can bet she'll have the deals on drilling for oil/natural gas in Alaska signed, sealed, and delivered. If McCain croaks in office, we'd have President Whats-her-face.
It is going to be very tricky for Biden to debate her without looking condescending and generating sympathy for her.
It's almost like he scrapped his original pick last night after hearing Obama's speech and went into desperation mode. Biden is going to eat her alive in the debate.
I just saw Palin's speech and she's better than I expected and delivered a very solid speech. I really liked the line about taking risk in politics as this is a HUGE risk for McCain. One thing that I found kind of interesting in her speech was that she didn't even mention Obama at all. The only Democrats she mentioned where John Glenn, Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton. Generally the VP slot is meant to be as an attack dog and we've already seen Biden start to take that role. I am curious to see how much she will take that on especially in the debate against Biden. I still think this pick is a huge gamble for McCain but I will give him credit for some chutzpah. To counter Obama getting Biden, an old Senator seen as a Washington fixture, it made sense to get a younger governor who is seen as an outsider. I didn't realize he would go about as far as you can get from DC. These debates are really going to be interesting as there is going to be a complete contrasts in style and message between both the tops of the tickets and VP slots.
I'm also curious how the VP debates will play out. Biden is so blunt and aggressive he's probably going to attack her so hard people will feel sorry for her. I guess the flip side of this is McCain will be the aggressor in the Presidential debates.
I like that the mayor versus city council member is emphasized by people already. The most difficult job in Walissa was probably either snowplow driver or moose warden. On the flip side, she can say that Alaska is closer to a border with Russia and North Korea than any other part of the US.
