Sarah Palin had the chance last night to use her speech at the Republic National Convention to showcase what sets her apart from McCain's opponents and, even more importantly, from McCain himself. She could have talked about her first-hand knowledge of what it does to a mother to send her children off to war. She might have reclaimed her daughter's pregnancy from the media by saying that it is not the fact that her daughter got pregnant, but how Palin reacts to the pregnancy that reflects on her ability to parent and, ultimately, to lead. She could have apologized to taxpayers for her initial support of the "Bridge to Nowhere" and spoken about the lessons she learned as she reversed her stance on it. She, at the very least, could have defended some of her Alaskan earmarking, explaining why she felt that some of it was justified.
Unfortunately, she could not do any of these things. And whether she wanted to or not, we may never know for sure. The fact is that the McCain campaign wrote her speech, and probably suggested that she stick to it with absolute fidelity. She spentthe majority of her time at the podium vomiting fluff about McCain's qualifications for the Oval Office, her own (extremely dubious) qualifications to be his running mate and even attacking community organizers around the country. It's one thing to insult Obama, but it is simply embarassing that she (read: the campaign's writers) decided to lump all community organizers into one group who, according to her, do not have any responsibilities:
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.
Really? We all know how politics work, but she commits in that very sentence the same transgression for which she (rightly) condemns Obama in the next:
I might add that in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening.
This is such a glaring self-contradiction that it is hard to imagine that the writers gave their work a second glance, or that she gave so much as one read-through before going onstage.
Also, I wouldn't want to share so much as a bus stop with anyone impressed with the fact that she did away with the jet, the driver and the chef. Then, only a few lines later, they made her claim to have told Congress "thanks, but no thanks" regarding the Bridge to Nowhere.
She has been welcomed with open arms into the intellectual and political vacuum that has become the Republican party elite and seemed disturbingly at home with the factual errors her handlers put in front of her. It is especially disturbing because the errors included misstatements about her opponent and herself. That's not integrity - that's politics.
Then she goes on to exploit her family, including her newborn child, saying "And children with special needs inspire a special love." Yes, it's true. But, just like the PTA crap, it doesn't explain any substantive or meaningful aspect of her motherhood, career or candidacy. What has that love taught you? Why does it make you a better Vice Presidential nominee than someone with four times as much experience? Give us a policy carrot after a line like that - a reason to believe it's something besides fuzzy vote-grubbing.
Yes, Obama grubs with the best of them. But he consistently maintains the illusion of policy-based banter. Sometimes, it's not an illusion at all. But even when it is, we appreciate the mere effort. Obama has the luxury of preaching to the choir, not to mention the luxury of a nation largely tired of what has been going on for the past 8 years. He can afford theatrics and wonky schpiels focused mostly on tired campaign rhetoric.
McCain, on the other hand, should not have let his veep spend so much time cheerleading for him and talking up her own limited resume.
She should have been out there picking up some of the maverick slack that he has lost since he became enslaved to GOP standard operating procedures and his advisers' rather ill-advised change in direction from the 'Republican Democrats can vote for' to the 'Republican who really, really really hopes Republicans vote for him'.
Read Palin's speech in its entirety here.
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