The MSNBC version was sharp, but short. I'm not sure what they cut out yet, since I haven't the time to listen, but here's the c-span one. Not as good a quality, but more trustworthy.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Palin's Speech
What the heck, it's history, and I did love the speech. Here it is, for those of you who missed it last night:
Republican Convention, Wednesday Night
Well, Mitt Romney, coming out in all his Happy Family Barbie style, showed once again that even if he believes what he is saying, he comes off as a phony. Never before have I witnessed a man who is so authentically inauthentic. Nice suit, though; said a few decent things about free markets.
Huckabee. Ahh, Huckabee. Still trying a bit too hard to be funny, but not the worst speech I've ever heard. Not much there there though. Nice little anecdote about the veterans and the desks.
Then came Rudy. Vintage Rudy. Good job from a man who is very good at making both a compelling argument and a fiery speech. The NY City background without the twin towers still chills me to the bone. It still doesn't look like my city.
/shudder
Then came the highlight of the night. Sarah Palin. She rocked and brought down the house. Simply a great speech. People are saying she is no Hillary Clinton, and they are right, she's no Hillary Clinton. She's a Ronald Reagan.
Huckabee. Ahh, Huckabee. Still trying a bit too hard to be funny, but not the worst speech I've ever heard. Not much there there though. Nice little anecdote about the veterans and the desks.
Then came Rudy. Vintage Rudy. Good job from a man who is very good at making both a compelling argument and a fiery speech. The NY City background without the twin towers still chills me to the bone. It still doesn't look like my city.
/shudder
Then came the highlight of the night. Sarah Palin. She rocked and brought down the house. Simply a great speech. People are saying she is no Hillary Clinton, and they are right, she's no Hillary Clinton. She's a Ronald Reagan.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Republican Convention, Night One
Well, really night two, but the former night one was preempted by Gustav.
Laura, as always, was the nice lady she is; Bush was boring.
Fred Thompson, who was my favorite of the Republican candidates during the primaries, gave a better speech than I heard all through the primary season. Pity he didn't have that gusto while he was running for the nomination.
Joe Lieberman, scourge of all gamers, most hated politician of nerds everywhere, gave a fairly compelling argument for Democrats and independents to cross over. He also reminded me of all the things I DON'T like about McCain, McCain-Feingold in particular, but still, I think it was a decent speech.
He did however show quite nicely how McCain actually has a record of crossing over and bringing both parties together vs Obama, who has zero record of that. He showed how much more of a record of reform McCain has, vs Obama, who has none.
That's not going to make me like him or McCain better; they are both still big government guys -- but the speech itself wasn't bad for what he wanted to do.
All in all, not a bad night for the Republicans.
Laura, as always, was the nice lady she is; Bush was boring.
Fred Thompson, who was my favorite of the Republican candidates during the primaries, gave a better speech than I heard all through the primary season. Pity he didn't have that gusto while he was running for the nomination.
Joe Lieberman, scourge of all gamers, most hated politician of nerds everywhere, gave a fairly compelling argument for Democrats and independents to cross over. He also reminded me of all the things I DON'T like about McCain, McCain-Feingold in particular, but still, I think it was a decent speech.
He did however show quite nicely how McCain actually has a record of crossing over and bringing both parties together vs Obama, who has zero record of that. He showed how much more of a record of reform McCain has, vs Obama, who has none.
That's not going to make me like him or McCain better; they are both still big government guys -- but the speech itself wasn't bad for what he wanted to do.
All in all, not a bad night for the Republicans.
Five Percent FTW
All I keep hearing about the Palin nomination is about how John McCain made his pick to get middle American, independent voters, especially those who voted for Hillary, over to his side. Now, while that may have had something to do with it, I don't feel it is what the pick is actually doing.
It has done two things, one people have noticed; and one only a few have seen. One, it has excited and energized the social conservative base of the party, a group that is so large that, IF you get them fired up for you, you own the presidency. We can see that the far left and vicious Obama supporters (who btw are a tiny minority of Obama's people) understand that; and as such are stopping at NOTHING to destroy Ms. Palin.
The second thing it has done is not being noticed, and time will tell if it actually bears out. One group of people she has fired up, and are talking about her all over the web, are libertarians. People haven't noticed that Bob Barr has been running at about five percent in most polls when all the candidates are considered.
McCain already HAS independents. he already had a significant number of former Hillary supporters who are disgruntled by the shabby treatment of the Obama campaign. He already had many of those who feel Hillary was robbed of the VP slot. Those were enough to keep him pretty close to being tied or slightly behind Obama in a year where he should be getting creamed.
No, that's not what he needs. What he needs are the people who do NOT like big government republicans, who are disappointed with big spender Bush and feel the Republican brand is "more the same" as the democrats. What he needs are the people who the Democrats do not know exist. Small "L" libertarians.
In this close election, he who wins the libertarians wins the race.
We'll see how this plays out; I still don't know where I am going to vote this year, but I DO know I am FAR more likely to vote for a McCain/Palin ticket than if he had picked another big government Republican like himself.
I can't say that he did THIS on purpose, or if THIS is what he was after when he picked Sarah, but it IS what is happening out there.
It has done two things, one people have noticed; and one only a few have seen. One, it has excited and energized the social conservative base of the party, a group that is so large that, IF you get them fired up for you, you own the presidency. We can see that the far left and vicious Obama supporters (who btw are a tiny minority of Obama's people) understand that; and as such are stopping at NOTHING to destroy Ms. Palin.
The second thing it has done is not being noticed, and time will tell if it actually bears out. One group of people she has fired up, and are talking about her all over the web, are libertarians. People haven't noticed that Bob Barr has been running at about five percent in most polls when all the candidates are considered.
McCain already HAS independents. he already had a significant number of former Hillary supporters who are disgruntled by the shabby treatment of the Obama campaign. He already had many of those who feel Hillary was robbed of the VP slot. Those were enough to keep him pretty close to being tied or slightly behind Obama in a year where he should be getting creamed.
No, that's not what he needs. What he needs are the people who do NOT like big government republicans, who are disappointed with big spender Bush and feel the Republican brand is "more the same" as the democrats. What he needs are the people who the Democrats do not know exist. Small "L" libertarians.
In this close election, he who wins the libertarians wins the race.
We'll see how this plays out; I still don't know where I am going to vote this year, but I DO know I am FAR more likely to vote for a McCain/Palin ticket than if he had picked another big government Republican like himself.
I can't say that he did THIS on purpose, or if THIS is what he was after when he picked Sarah, but it IS what is happening out there.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)