just a couple thoughts about last night's speech that came to mind - musings and so forth....
- Teleprompter blues - that is the first time EVER I can recall seeing the words on a teleprompter when shot from behind - They're usually at an angle and not shot directly with the cameras. Did anyone else notice this? It was interesting - big font with underlined words for emphasis - exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from a pre-canned speech written by the White House for a generic VP candidate. Pretty sloppy though as it reminds everyone when they see it that this isn't from the heart, but from the professional speechwriters.
- Two days of seclusion made a big difference between the woman I saw at the announcement and the one I saw at the speech last night. However, the good news is as we finish the vetting process, it appears her judgement is almost as bad as McCain's - I expect the handlers to get her some prescripted canned answers for the VP debate - I hope the Obama/Biden team plans ahead for it.
- Having said that, she strikes me as the kind of woman that has much more charisma one-on-one then in front of a stage, but if it's her job to be the culture warrior in this campaign, she'll be able to manipulate her core audience pretty well.
- While she may have had the sympathy of the room, I just didn't see her coming off well vs. the undecided voter - if you aren't already drinking the kool-aid, I didn't see much there to draw in anyone else.
- Levi Johnson - I feel more sorry for that poor bastard then anyone else in recent memory - for a sec. I thought I could almost see the shotgun at his poor back and with every handshake I imagined McCain saying "screw this up for me and I'll have you buried alive in the desert" Putting him next to Piper, where the cameras always flashed back to them, was probably not the best idea in the world - I'd have stuck him between Guiliani and McCain's Mother
- Somewhere in the world, Karl Rove is saying "excellent" in his best Monty Burns style - but again, they'll need more then the base on this one, and I look forward to the Media actually doing it's job and calling bullshit on the rubbish that are the McCain/Palin talking points.
RB