By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor
St. Paul, Minnesota 9-4-2008
Greeted by a tidal wave of applause (not quite at the Triumph of the Will level), Alaska Governor Sarah Palin stood in front of the Republican National Convention last night, and, lord knows how many millions of Americans at home (will they beat Obama's 35 million TV audience?), as a small-town outsider ready to join John McCain in "a tough fight in this election against confident opponents at a crucial hour for our country." She was met with thunderous applause.
Palin appeared immediately after Rudy "9/11" Giuliani softened up the crowd with a full throated and systematic condemnation of Obama and a warm (maybe even heartfelt), embrace of Governor Palin.
She appeared nervous at first, her voice maintaining a nervous edge for the first few minutes. And then, she took off. There were awkward moments in the speech, but almost all of them were immediately followed by crowd-pleasing zingers that brought the convention to its feet again and again.
Amazingly enough, her teleprompter quit working in the middle of the speech. She continued, from memory, to deliver her speech without the teleprompter. Republican websites have already compared this performance to one of Barack Obama's who, when his teleprompter malfunctioned during a recent speech, "was left stuttering before a crowd unable to advance his speech until the problem was resolved."
Palin tore into Obama and Biden, and she did it well. She did everything she needed to do and more. This all adds up to one gnarly dogfight between now and November 4th. I don't think there was a blunder, misstatement, or mistake Obama has made in the last two years that she didn't bring up, and mock. She proved she is no shrinking violet and went into the traditional Republican VP attack dog mode with ease and vigor.
"The American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of 'personal discovery.' This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn't just need an organizer," Palin said.
Of course, this speech is one of the critical, but easiest, steps she must take in the next two months. She has the base hooked, now it's time to go after that other pesky 50% of the voters.
There is still that albatross hanging around their necks...The President. I may be wrong, but I don't believe she expended any oxygen talking about President George W. Bush, other than obliquely, to say they would go and clean up Washington.
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