Palin's Speech

Re: Palin's Speech

Holy sh*t.

She's going to completely kick Biden's as$.

based on what? she delivered a very sarcastic, condescending speech that she probably didn't write. She did deliver it very well, but she didn't prove that she is knowledgeable on matters of the nation or the globe.

And as far as people being sexist about her - her own party is doing it! I saw a button that said "Hottest VP", and a couple others along those lines. Who does that help?

I"m not sure why it's so crazy to think a state governor could write an impressive speech, whether you liked it or not. You can see video of her other speeches from over the years and this does indeed seem to be her own style. To me that sounds condescending (not that you are trying to be) within it's self, there are smart, capable women out there, who can articulate themselves.

The speech was written by former Bush speechwriter, Matthew Scully.

Re: Palin's Speech

I"m not sure why it's so crazy to think a state governor could write an impressive speech, whether you liked it or not. You can see video of her other speeches from over the years and this does indeed seem to be her own style. To me that sounds condescending (not that you are trying to be) within it's self, there are smart, capable women out there, who can articulate themselves.

Presidents don't normally write their own speeches - why on earth would she have written this one? To extrapolate the comment I made regarding the likelihood (and truth) that she didn't write it herself to infer that I would be surprised that there are smart, capable women out there who can articulate themselves is - a hard path for me to follow. Most politicians don't write their own speeches - that is the plain, simple fact.

ETA: And I didn't find the speech impressive, but admittedly that is to be expected based on content/platform alone. Still, I found the tone to be inappropriate and Karl Rove-like. If the only way Republicans feel they can get things done is in attack-dog mode, then that's too bad. What I did say is that she delivered the speech well - which is a gift that many politicians don't have.

[Flynn]

Re: Palin's Speech

Her delivery was excellent. She has more charisma than the rest of her party put together.

I think the content was freakishly scary -- but I'm not the target audience I realize. No surpise there.

I think the Biden / Palin debates will be extremely interesting. I will tune in -- absolutely.


It's hard to "like" someone who you fundamentally disagree with on almost every level and I realize many people feel that way about Obama too. It goes both ways.

If you agree with Palin you probably thought she was fantastic. For me, the image that came to mind when listening to her was Dolores Umbridge.

I will say Huckabee can deliver a speech and for me personally comes across as a good guy despite content that makes me and . For some reason he is extremely easy to "like." :huh:

As a woman I really wanted to like Palin but respectfully disagree with her -- but that didn't happen for me last night.
Different strokes...

[Vanquisher]

Re: Palin's Speech

For me, the image that came to mind when listening to her was Dolores Umbridge.

THat is freaking hilarious!

[Flynn]

Re: Palin's Speech

We're such a bunch of Potter heads. When I ready Lily's question yesterday I was thinking, "hmmmmm, broom or invisibility cloak...."

I KNOW! I almost didn't write this but felt the group would take it the right way because we are such Potter heads.

Re: Palin's Speech

Oh ... and can anyone help me with "Drill baby, drill!" ??????????

[fluffhead]

Re: Palin's Speech

I was very disappointed with the rabid drilling approach, and the lip service she gave to alternative renewable fuels. Of course it's to be expected, what with her husband's profession, and where she's from, but to promote herself as "taking on big oil" and "working for the citizens" and then saying driill drill makes me a little nauseous.

She's certainly very likeable, but I also think she's a very good actress. And how about that whole "I said no thanks to the bridge to nowhere" business? She's certainly milked that one sufficiently.

So I don't know what I'm going to do come November. Maybe stay home. McCain has said he's against exploration of the north slope, and she says that it's going to happen in their administration. humph.

[Sheherezade]

Re: Palin's Speech

Yeah, the Bridge to Nowhere stuff kills me. The state took the money anyway, right? Just killed the bridge project. It plays well to say you aren't milking Washington- if only you'd also applied that pork barrel spending you "stopped" to the national deficit.

Re: Palin's Speech

I"m not sure why it's so crazy to think a state governor could write an impressive speech, whether you liked it or not. You can see video of her other speeches from over the years and this does indeed seem to be her own style. To me that sounds condescending (not that you are trying to be) within it's self, there are smart, capable women out there, who can articulate themselves.

Presidents don't normally write their own speeches - why on earth would she have written this one? To extrapolate the comment I made regarding the likelihood (and truth) that she didn't write it herself to infer that I would be surprised that there are smart, capable women out there who can articulate themselves is - a hard path for me to follow. Most politicians don't write their own speeches - that is the plain, simple fact.

ETA: And I didn't find the speech impressive, but admittedly that is to be expected based on content/platform alone. Still, I found the tone to be inappropriate and Karl Rove-like. If the only way Republicans feel they can get things done is in attack-dog mode, then that's too bad. What I did say is that she delivered the speech well - which is a gift that many politicians don't have.

Yeah you're right, I wasn't really thinking about the percentage of speeches written by speech writers. I just, well, feel bad for her - she really is getting kicked down by people who think her connection with the public is somehow different that Obama's connection with people, that he = awesome, and her = pretty girl. Anyway good point.

Re: Palin's Speech

I just, well, feel bad for her - she really is getting kicked down by people who think her connection with the public is somehow different that Obama's connection with people, that he = awesome, and her = pretty girl. Anyway good point.

Well, he's also been solidly on the national stage for four years, since he made the keynote speech at the 2004 DNC. She's been on the national stage for a good 6 days now.

Re: Palin's Speech

Oh ... and can anyone help me with "Drill baby, drill!" ??????????

This annoyed me to no end, and what an awesome loop for a democratic campaign ad too! DH and I are very pro environment, and have been to Alaska, have had several family members based there. DH is an avid backpacker, and is very liberal when it comes to the mountains. If he had it his way no one would be able to build a home on a mountain - kinda hard to convince people of that. I think some areas are ok to build on but the mountains should be maintained by the governement. It makes me ill thinking they'd wreck on of the last beautiful and truly untouched areas of American soil.

This election is very hard for me to choose on - can't wait till the debates.

[alison]

Re: Palin's Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GliQjmuf ... re=related

So cute!!!

Re: Palin's Speech

LOL!

You'd think the campaign would at least spell out for her what THEIR expectations are (since it varies greatly by administration). Or at least someone would tell her to STOP SAYING THAT ON CAMERA!

Re: Palin's Speech

http://news.yahoo.com/story/ap/20080904 ... heck/print

Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn, Associated Press Writer
Wed Sep 3, 11:48 pm ET

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.

Some examples:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.

THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.

MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.

THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.

FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."

THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.

FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."

THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.

[SuzySunshine]

Re: Palin's Speech

Yeh, I don't understand Huckabee's comment at all. The only thing I can think of is that he was thinking as a percentage but he should have said it that way. Who vets these speeches anyway.