2008 in Review - Sarah Palin's National Address (Sept)

Before Tina Fey (with help from Palin herself) reduced her to a caricature, there was a moment when Palin had the whole country watching.

The criticism of the media during the past week was right on one point.  There is most definitely has been an elitist bias against Sarah Palin.  And not just from liberals.  The reaction to the speech revealed it.  

Any response to the speech which talked about meeting or exceeding expectations was making some unwarranted assumptions about Palin before she stepped up to the microphone.  She’s young for national politics and new to national politics and from a small and remote state.  However, none of those facts were relevant to whether she could deliver a speech.  It’s not like she’s never done it before - you don’t get elected governor of any state without gaining experience in making speeches.  Whose expectations were met or exceeded?   Did the commentators expect her to freeze up when she got on stage, stutter badly or utter some horrific gaffe?

There is a certain small and petty segment of the country which hoped for such a result.  I am not one of them.  The idea that some people would be gleeful over a major candidate for office being undone makes me ill.  Schadenfreude is a national obsession these days, stoked by reality TV and gotcha journalism, and when it is added to the hyper-partisan politics of this decade, it is a stomach-turning mess to behold.  The sad losers who posited, wholly without evidence, that Palin’s baby son Trig was actually born of her teenage daughter have no place in civilized society and since censorship is right out, the best treatment is to ignore them.

But back to Palin’s acceptance speech.  I wanted it to be memorable for its positives.  Given the distinct possibility that she will be Vice-President of the United States, I want Palin to be more than her supporters could hope for.  She has no national political experience, sure, but I want her to seem like that little problem is only a matter of time.  Barack Obama had no national political experience in 2004, but by the time he finished the keynote address of the Democratic National Convention, everyone knew it wasn’t for lack of ability.  

The fact that I might not have chosen Palin as my running mate wasn’t relevant when she walked onto that stage.  She was chosen; she’s one of the two people who will be our next Vice-President.  Therefore, I wanted Palin to show me that she has a facile mind, a quick grasp of issues, and a clear ability to inspire - because we just might need her to have those skills.

One of the retorts heard this week to the argument that Palin is not experienced enough to be Vice-President is that she is not some “politician” but a regular woman and mother, a normal citizen of our country, the same as you and me.  That argument always gives me pause.  I don’t want our leaders to be “regular people”  I know lots of regular people, of outstanding personal character, good moral fiber and even good managerial skills.  But I want our leaders to be extraordinary, because two of the people we’re voting for are going to have to make the hard decisions on domestic issues and exercise statecraft in world affairs.  I’m not nearly as interested in Palin’s “experience” as I am in her abilities.

And for that reason her speech was disappointing.  Evidently someone had decided that she needed to be “introduced” to America but then made her do it herself, and then introduce her family by name too.  It was the oratorical equivalent of a “Hi, my name is” name-tag.

The real problem was that the small and personal story of Sarah Palin never really progressed into something larger.  She then discussed how she got there.  She had a nation on the edge of sofa, leaning toward the television, to hear why she was McCain’s choice for the second-highest office in the land, and she answered “hell, I don’t really know myself.”

I found myself contrasting her speech to Rudy Giuliani’s, which immediate preceded her on the stage.  They both laid into Obama, repeatedly and sarcastically.  But I realized that he commanded the camera, he made declarations.  Palin never did.  

The Republicans are having trouble grasping the brass ring of “change” when it comes to developing new energy technologies.  The section of Palin’s speech addressing energy suffered from that lack of focus.  She boasted of hammering out a deal with big oil companies that they didn’t like, and boasted of putting money back into the hands of the average taxpayer.  But she didn’t actually describe what she made them knuckle under and agree to, because her accomplishment was not one that really fits the Republican program -- claiming a larger share of the revenues to go to the state from a natural gas pipeline sounds an awful lot like taxing business, even if the money goes to the citizens.  From that ambiguous beginning, she rattled off a list of energy alternatives that she promised Republicans will deliver, and suggested that Democrats wouldn’t.  The problem, though, is that the list was identical to the one Obama  highlighted himself just last week.

Palin then spent a minute cataloging the taxes that she claims would be raised by Obama, as the first half of painting him as a tax and spend liberal.  She didn’t identify any spending priorities that she disagreed with, merely pointed out that Obama was going to spend more money.  And that, unfortunately, was the end of the constructive criticism portion of her speech.  Most of the rest of her “attacks” on Obama were no more than snarky asides like “he’s written two memoirs but no legislation.”  Interspersed with such partisan sniping, she provided solid and repeated support for McCain.  

Overall, she seemed most comfortable with boosting McCain and twitting Obama.  And that was why my final impression was one of disappointment.  We won’t hear more than a sound-bite or two from Palin again until the vice-presidential debate, so this was her chance to show that she was more than just “qualified to be vice-president.”  This was her one, and probably only, chance to show leadership qualities and to vault over the argument that she lacks experience.

This speech, though, was ultimately small and personal -- her personal story, her personal reasons for dis-liking Obama and her personal reasons for supporting McCain.  She could be our next vice-president.  I wanted her to give me a reason to want her to be vice-president.