Sarah Palin Speech - Some Thoughts
I watched the Sarah Palin speech the other night. Normally I would avoid something like that, but she seemed such an unusual choice that I wanted to hear what she'd say and how she'd say it.
She clearly spoke well. Of course she had a teleprompter, but she really hammered home some of the lines. My favorite was probably the joke about the difference between hockey moms and pit bulls. The answer, for those who missed it, is lipstick. It's time for the Dan Quayle comparisons to end.
From a political standpoint, the most interesting part of her speech was the reference to "special needs" children. It is now obvious that one of the reasons she was chosen is her likely appeal to a large and focused group of voters - parents and other family of children with special needs. This doesn't apply to all such individuals, but there is a substantial segment of that population that is, with good reason, extremely motivated by a narrow set of issues surrounding special education, and other aspects of how government deals with kids with these problems. Since her new baby boy has Downs Syndrome, and her sister also has a kid with special needs.
I was talking about this yesterday with a Democrat friend (yes I have Democrat friends ... and yes I have friends) who saw the same thing. We were musing over how many votes this might get McCain - We were both guessing in the 100,000 to 500,000 range.
It's far from clear that McCain will really do anything for special needs children, or that Congress will go along with him if he tries. If they do something, most likely it'll be window dressing that wastes lots of money and does little for the kids. But nevertheless, it looks like a savvy (okay, cynical) appeal to a key voting bloc. It's already working - according to a press release by the National Alliance on Mental Illness on Sarah Palin.
What bothered me most was one of her attacks on Obama - that he supposedly wants to make sure that we read the terrorists their rights. This is just another variation of politicians pretending to be tough on crime - a shill for wasting huge money on the military, police, prisons, courts, protecting abusive cops and for harsh treatment of innocent defendants and "guilty" defendants who suffer from mental health problems. And let's not forget people who benefit from medical marijuana and those who suffer from serious drug addictions and get caught up in the war on drugs.
In the end, her speech did a good job of moving her past the momentary celebrity thing - the Sarah Palin nude and Sarah Palin hot photos fascination. She did good in front of a teleprompter. Now we'll see how she does taking questions off the cuff, or in a debate with Joe Biden. On that one, I'm thankful for her. If McCain had chosen Lieberman the VP debate would have been the biggest snoozefest in history.
She clearly spoke well. Of course she had a teleprompter, but she really hammered home some of the lines. My favorite was probably the joke about the difference between hockey moms and pit bulls. The answer, for those who missed it, is lipstick. It's time for the Dan Quayle comparisons to end.
From a political standpoint, the most interesting part of her speech was the reference to "special needs" children. It is now obvious that one of the reasons she was chosen is her likely appeal to a large and focused group of voters - parents and other family of children with special needs. This doesn't apply to all such individuals, but there is a substantial segment of that population that is, with good reason, extremely motivated by a narrow set of issues surrounding special education, and other aspects of how government deals with kids with these problems. Since her new baby boy has Downs Syndrome, and her sister also has a kid with special needs.
I was talking about this yesterday with a Democrat friend (yes I have Democrat friends ... and yes I have friends) who saw the same thing. We were musing over how many votes this might get McCain - We were both guessing in the 100,000 to 500,000 range.
It's far from clear that McCain will really do anything for special needs children, or that Congress will go along with him if he tries. If they do something, most likely it'll be window dressing that wastes lots of money and does little for the kids. But nevertheless, it looks like a savvy (okay, cynical) appeal to a key voting bloc. It's already working - according to a press release by the National Alliance on Mental Illness on Sarah Palin.
What bothered me most was one of her attacks on Obama - that he supposedly wants to make sure that we read the terrorists their rights. This is just another variation of politicians pretending to be tough on crime - a shill for wasting huge money on the military, police, prisons, courts, protecting abusive cops and for harsh treatment of innocent defendants and "guilty" defendants who suffer from mental health problems. And let's not forget people who benefit from medical marijuana and those who suffer from serious drug addictions and get caught up in the war on drugs.
In the end, her speech did a good job of moving her past the momentary celebrity thing - the Sarah Palin nude and Sarah Palin hot photos fascination. She did good in front of a teleprompter. Now we'll see how she does taking questions off the cuff, or in a debate with Joe Biden. On that one, I'm thankful for her. If McCain had chosen Lieberman the VP debate would have been the biggest snoozefest in history.
Labels: sarah palin, speech
posted by Albany Lawyer at 7:05 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home