Obama, You've Got A Problem

"Traitor," my son Xavier growled as I delighted in Sarah Palin's speech.

I barely glanced at him because my eyes were glued to one of the most charismatic speakers I've heard since... Obama!

"I'm a free thinker," I replied. "I like to study people as objectively as possible. This woman has a brilliant delivery. She's got charm, poise, and you know what? She's effective. Look at the crowd."

"Hmmph," he said. "Looks like a bunch of Texas rednecks. Look at all those cowboy hats."

"Keep watching her," I said. "I think it's her smile that's winning people over. The crowd loves her. That's mainstream, small town America. She's gonna give Obama a run for the money, not John McCain."

And thus we watched. Sarah Palin rocked the RNC like Obama rocked the DNC.

What an amazing performance. She didn't write the speech; Matt Scully did, but she was well-prepared and impeccable in her delivery of it. There was a teleprompter in view that the MSNBC camera panned on briefly, but she was like a pro, you couldn't tell she was reading from it.

As I see it, Sarah Palin's greatest weakness will not be her lack of experience in the eyes of Republican voters, Independents, and disgruntled Hillary supporters. It won't be her crazy family issues or the rumors or the Baby Mama Drama.

It will be her inflexible stand on the anti-abortion issue.

White women in particular will be naturally drawn to her if they are not politically astute - but - they will think long and hard whether or not they would want themselves or their daughters to be forced to have an unwanted pregnancy, even under the circumstances of rape, incest, or knowing the fetus is severely handicapped.

Other groups who won't be voting for her will have strong feelings about these issues:

~ The strongly pro-Constitution crowd. She gave a hint when she said of Obama and terrorist suspects, "He's worried that someone won't read them their rights." Word up, folks, that's Police State and dictatorship mentality. Another hint was, "I'm going to DC to serve the people, not the liberal media." We can assume she won't be serving liberals, either.

~ The strongly anti-war crowd. She said something to the effect, "We've almost won Iraq, but Obama wants to forfeit it." The peace-niks won't be fooled; and this will be interpreted as McCain-Palin keeping us there for years to come.

~ The well-informed environmentalist crowd. While she sounded like she knows her shit about drilling, this is contrary to what James Kunstler and other experts have concluded: drilling will not solve our problems and the oil sucked out of Alaska is estimated to be only one year's worth of what we need.

~ The die-hard Barack Obama and Independents crowds. Only Jesus could make them vote otherwise.


One of her criticisms of Obama was stating that he wants to raise taxes and have bigger government. This is true. He'll have to because the government is broke and no way in hell can he implement the social programs he wants.

HOWEVER, her party will too. They'll raise taxes for the same reasons, but instead of having bigger government, will pay private contractors like Haliburton and Exxon to drill, drill, drill, along with corporate defense contractors, who are for the most part, running these wars and the future ones.

For the record, her daughter Bristol did appear to be four to five pregnant tonight, and if she delivers a baby in January, this means the rumors and my own suspicions that Palin played the old-fashioned game of let's pretend Grandma is Mama so the family won't be embarrassed are not true. I added an addendum to my earlier post, A Rovian Strategy, regarding this.

In summary, I enjoyed watching Sarah Palin. Would I vote for her and McCain? Hell no, their politics scare me, but I will give credit where credit is due: her speech delivery was as fantastic and unforgettable as two of Obama's.

This GOP ticket will reap a huge harvest of white voters in exactly two months. They'll capture the strongly pro-life crowd, those who aren't bothered by McCain's long term war plans or his thin knowledge of the economy or her canyon of inexperience in foreign policy, and of course, the folks who don't want a black man in the White House no matter how smart or qualified he is.

They may win because we are part of a TV-trained generation where show is more important than substance. Take note that although Palin gave this great speech, the press was not allowed to question her afterwards.

This is a clue that she's like a terrific actress who can remember her lines, but isn't trusted enough to speak on issues because she might blow it. Remember, she didn't write the speech, she just delivered it. I'm not saying she's an airhead; from my previous posts on her, you know I think she's already proven herself to be incredibly shrewd and fiercely ambitious.

Overall, McCain and Palin present well together and have spun this country's desperate need for oil into a terrorist and olive or brown-skinned Islamic enemies issue. They and their families are the way many of their supporters wished they were - attractive, well-dressed, successful, and wealthy... their American dream.

Obama, you've got a problem.