Palin - Moose burgers and semi-automatics

Triumphant Palin wows media and party
With a forceful speech that served as her introduction to millions of Americans, Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin yesterday seduced many who had spent days doubting her candidacy. It wasn't just a home run, said CNN's Wolf Blitzer at the St Paul, Minnesota, convention - it may have been a grand slam. "A very auspicious debut," said NBC's Tom Brokaw. It was a "perfect populist pitch", said Jeff Greenfield of CBS. "Terrific," said Mort Kondracke on Fox News Channel. "A star is born," said Chris Wallace on Fox, a view echoed by Blitzer and by Anderson Cooper on CNN.

Really? I saw a woman with a carefully crafted speech from Bush’s former speech writer rub all the hate spots of the Republicans with the usual tired tactics. McCain picked her because she will appeal to the crazy evangelical base without terrifying the independents. If McCain had selected Mike ‘Rapture’ Huckabee the Independents would have fled and if he had picked Romney the Morman, the evangelical’s would have fled, and anyone else wouldn’t have made a media splash. The problem of course is that it blunts McCains experience attack against Obama and it calls into question McCains judgment, putting a person with zero foreign relations experience other than shooting moose near the Russian border within a heartbeat of the Presidency next to the 200 year old McCain really asks questions about his judgment. That said anti-abortion, gun-loving Palin is a compelling story that connects with the anti-intellectual streak within small town America while marrying its cousin myth that ‘anyone can grow up to be President’ – and sadly as 2004 proved, their illegitimate offspring of ignorance vote en mass.