The Blog @ Spolitics

Attack of the Sarah-cuda

by Heywood U. Reedmore -- September 3, 2008 at 11:36 pm | In 2008 Election | No Comments

Four days ago, when the media attacks on Sarah Palin were just getting started, I wrote:

The left is slamming McCain for making a rash decision…but they’re the ones who have judged Sarah Palin before really seeing what she is made of. If she impresses, a lot of people are going to have egg on their face. Furthermore, their hasty pronouncements will end up helping Palin because they’ve lowered expectations. The stage is set for Palin to shine. We’ll see soon enough just how good a judge of character John McCain is.

For tonight, at least, there were a lot of people in the media wiping metaphorical egg off their faces. Palin issued a verbal smackdown on the Obama supporters and chattering classes who questioned her mettle. The only difference between a pit bull and hockey mom, Palin informed us, is lipstick. Well, her doubters have a big bite mark on their asses and it’s got a lipstick ring around it.

I didn’t catch all the post-speech coverage, but while flipping through I noticed the coverage at ABC and NBC was so somber you would have thought they were reporting on a funeral. And perhaps they thought they were — one for Obama’s campaign. At MSNBC, Olbermann and Matthews seemed stupefied.

Palin was confident, folksy, funny and tough. My bet is that a lot of people came away from her speech completely comfortable with the thought of her in the White House. I also suspect we’ll be hearing a lot less about McCain’s supposed poor judgment.

In the event you missed it, I’ve posted it below so you can judge for yourself. (She spends the first quarter of the speech talking about her family, so if you’re short on time, skip to 11:45 to get the red meat):

Update: Just to add, there were a lot of great lines in the speech. But this passage was perhaps the best because while serving as a body blow to the opposition, it also poignantly summed up the choice this election:

In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change. They’re the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals.