Oral Exam, Part II

In the course of 40 minutes, Palin completely changed the narrative about herself - from "out of her depth" to "the future of the Republican Party."  Some may remember tonight the way Reagan's 1964 speech was later recalled - as the beginning of a lifelong political love affair.

But most importantly for a vice-presidential nominee, Palin served McCain well.  When she said,  "There is only one man in this election who has really fought for you" - it was the emotional high point of the convention. After her speech, when McCain appeared, many Republicans who had probably never cheered authentically for McCain before, cheered him without reservation.  It was an amazing, memorable political accomplishment.

MICHAEL WALDMAN
Tonight we got to see what John McCain glimpsed in his meeting with Sarah Palin.  She is energetic, appealing, much better at reading lines from a Teleprompter than, say, Mitt Romney (who looked deeply annoyed throughout his speech every time was forced to say her name).  Many politicians would have wilted.  She did a good job of making her time of several months as governor of Alaska sound like an epic triumph of public administration.  I can't think of any examples where a secondary speech, such as by a VP or a nominator, turned around an election.  But there are many times where a star turn propelled a political ascent for the person who gave it.  Those Wasilla State of the City addresses must have been fun.

At the same time, except when discussing energy policy, there was a weightlessness to the performance.  Her speech didn't come close to suggesting she is ready to be president or even vice president, or give much of a clue of her own actual beliefs.

Tonally, the speech was repeatedly sarcastic, even nasty toward Obama and Biden - not a policy critique (tax and spend, etc., etc., etc.), but in sharply personal terms.   She licked her lips in a mischievous, self-satisfied way every time she delivered an especially harsh line.  (One well delivered attack: Obama says one thing about working people when he's in Scranton, another in San Francisco.)  No doubt some of the lines don't hold up to much scrutiny, though that is hardly unusual for convention speeches.  After bragging about her own ethics bill in Alaska, she zinged Obama by noting that he had written two memoirs but no major legislation, ignoring his coauthorship of the federal ethics bill.

In keeping with the rest of the convention, she barely mentioned McCain's ideas, plans, or goals for the country. One would have little or no sense of the economic moment. She spoke of reform and the various lobbyists who oppose McCain (presumably she didn't mean Charlie Black), but gave little hint of what, precisely, they would have to fear from his presidency.  McCain could spell out a robust agenda tomorrow, I suppose.  So far we haven't heard anything close.