My thoughts on Palin’s convention speech

So… Sarah Palin’s speech was fantastic last night, wasn’t it? Granted, I think she had a really, really slow start – so slow that I started getting nervous that she was going to flop the whole thing. But she picked up some motion and really delivered a great speech. What exactly made it so powerful, though?

Authority – The most important thing she did in this speech was establish herself as an authority. If there was anything that was 100% absolutely necessary – this was it. She’s an unknown in the political realm and the one sticking question over the weekend has been, “What are her qualifications?” So she gave them.

But instead of just listing her job as mayor and governor, she went a step farther and compared her experience with Obama’s. Why is this good? It does two things: First, it just highlights Obama’s do-nothing career as a politician. At one point Palin said that listening to Obama speak might make you forget that he’s written two memoirs but not a single piece of legislation. Snap.

The second thing the comparison does is drag Obama into a fight he does not want to be in. There is nothing the Democrats want less is a fight between their Number One and our Number Two, because you know who comes out a winner in that fight? John McCain.

More than just executive experience though, Palin managed to talk about foreign policy like she’d been studying it for decades. Sure, no one buys that Palin is as equipped to handle foreign policy as McCain is – but they don’t need to. If Palin’s readiness to be commander-in-chief is bothering someone, all she needs to do is ease their minds by letting them know that she isn’t ignorant. They aren’t voting for her, they are voting for John McCain – and everyone should be comfortable as long as the VP has got a pretty good idea as to what’s going on. Which is more than we can say for Joe Biden.

Biography – The “narrative” card is being played big time by the GOP this year. On the top of the ticket we have a guy who Americans are going to see as a true hero who has always put his country over personal ambition. The Democrats are going to try and nail McCain with their class warefare nonsense that we hear every 4 years, but McCain’s status as a former POW helps to play down that card. But not entirely.

Enter Sarah Palin. She is the working class of America. Unlike Joe Biden who, despite not rolling in cash like many Washington elites, has never had to worry about finances since he took his comfy job in the senate at age 29. The Obama camp is going to emphasize Joe Biden as the working man who still takes the train home every day but who are they kidding? The man has had a personal staff since before he was 30 years old. Sarah Palin on the other hand is a former union member, married to a union member, who served on the PTA and City Council before running for mayor and governor. She raised a family of 4 (now raising a family of 5) and spends her weekends hunting and fishing.

The great thing about her speech last night though wasn’t that she spent ages emphasizing her working class roots, but that her working class roots shined through her speech. She doesn’t have to tell us she’s giving us straight talk because she so so far removed from the “elite politicians” that she doesn’t even give the vibe of dishonesty and ambition. Sarah Palin just sounds like who she is – a working mother who has faced and overcome the same troubles everyone else has.

The Attack Dog – Finally, I was very impressed at how she took on Obama and the media. Consider it a middle finger to everyone wondering whether or not she was going to be able to take the pressure. The traditional role for the VP has always been to go on the offense so that the president doesn’t have his image tarnished as a bitterly negative candidate – and it’s good to see Palin resuming that role.

The most effective part of her attacks, though, wasn’t in what she was saying but who they were coming from. As I emphasized before, her working class roots are key to her appeal. She can take Obama head on for his empty gestures about sympathizing with the workers in Scranton because she was one of those workers. When Obama turns around in California and says they’re “bitter” and “clinging” to their guns and religion, she doesn’t have to say she is offended for the workers – she is offended with the workers. The biographical element to her attacks make them ten times more effective than listening to someone like Mitt Romney talk about the same things.

As you can tell, I’m thoroughly pleased with the speech from last night – and right am wondering how in the world John McCain is going to top it. For those that haven’t caught it yet, it looks like Palin’s speech got almost the same amount of viewers as Obama’s last week even though she was on almost half the amount of stations he was. Impressive.

This campaign is getting exciting, and it was good to see Sarah Palin let everyone know exactly what they’re getting into when they try pushing her around.