I watched the Palin speech earlier this evening, and I feel she hit a grand slam--with the Republican base, that is. The crowd clearly adored her.
The mainstream media has already reported that she flip-flopped on "the bridge to nowhere," and she lied about that in her speech. She won't be able to duck that. Also, they can't hide her in hotel rooms forever. Eventually she's going to have to come out and be interviewed in depth on issues and debate Biden.
Obama and Biden can discuss just about any complex policy issue in detail off the cuff. It remains to be seen if Palin can.
She also lied about Obama's tax plans--saying that he would raise income taxes + about 10 more things. It was disgusting the way the GOP crowd sat there with their mouths agape when she said that. Who would vote for someone like that? No one! It's not true, but the GOP faithful are faith checkers not fact checkers.
For the GOP, however, Palin provides an energizing influence. She was, it seems, picked for McCain to get the influential Evangelical organizations behind him. One of their own, anti-choice, pro-creationism one heartbeat or melanoma cell away from the Presidency. This is what gets the Left Behind foot soldiers out there knocking on doors, raising money, and voting.
It's a scary prospect for us. If there ever were a political litmus test for the American Presidency, it should be pro-choice, pro-sex ed, pro-contraceptive, and pro-science. You got one anti in there, you're out. Palin-McCain is 4 for 4.
Yes, Palin-McCain. There's still JMac's acceptance speech tomorrow, but what we may have seen tonight is the making of the Republican candidate in 2012.
I think the correct Obama strategy may be to just ignore Sarah Palin and wait for the Biden debate. You don't want her eating up news cycles and making the McCain campaign look fresh. She may get chewed up by the media on her own, anyway, if any of them ever look to report the news rather than repeat the news.