Last night Sarah Palin delivered a beautiful speech to introduce herself to the American public. It was a rousing speech full of attack phrases aimed at the record of Barack Obama's experience. Now although it was a great speech as far as delivery goes, it was just that, a speech. Much like the rousing speeches that they accuse Obama of delivering, Gov. Palin brought new life to a republican party that was dying with every ad that John McCain launched.
But there were many flaws in the message she was sending. In fact she provided the investigative news agencies with plenty of ammunition that they previously lacked, so much so that articles are appearing on various news sites faster than I can read them. I won't comment on them because as fast as they are appearing, some are disappearing just as fast as they are being posted, which means they probably can't validate their stories. The good thing is she launched a vicious attack which in return opened her up for counter attacks, and she won't be able to use gender bias as an excuse. As Hillary said, if you dish it out, you better be able to take it, and last night she did a whole lot of mudslinging.
First of all, there is very little going on in the barren state of Alaska that merits national attention. Although it is the largest state in the union in size, it ranks 47th in population, and there are 17 U.S. cities with higher populations. In fact, Alaska only has one city with a population over 100,000 and that is Anchorage at 280,000. And when you think about the city that Gov. Palin was mayor of, Wasilla, I've gone to school in my lifetime with more people than lived in that town. So when she attacked him about community service compared to her being mayor, I can guarantee you that there were more people in the community that Obama serviced in Chicago than the city she was mayor of.
So her speech was a success among her supporters, but now she has to face the real media and start answering questions on her own. Yesterday was her introduction. I have no problem with the fact that she didn't talk about issues because we all wanted to know who she is. She has fire and passion, but Alaska is not like the rest of the country and she still has to prove herself able to handle the real world and media. She attacked them last night for doubting her credentials, but she didn't have to respond to anyone last night. It was much like George Bush's first term as president when Ari Fleischer handled all of his press conferences while he gave prepared speeches. Sarah Palin, be prepared to "Meet the Press'' this weekend.
