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 I hate to admit it, but Sarah Palin handled herself very well tonight and gave a good speech. She was tough and confident, went right on the attack, but above all-- to my surprise-- seemed inwardly calm, to all appearances. In her display of basic inner confidence, she actually reminded me of Barack. I did not expect this.
On the other hand, her speech was short on policy substance, other than the two usual Republican points of cutting taxes and achieving "victory" in Iraq. She had just about nothing to say about abortion, gays, health care, the environment, or any other national policy issue.
She surprised me, and I assume most people at the convention, by speaking positively of Harry Truman, who after all was a Democrat, and also by bringing up that her husband Todd was a proud member of the Steelworkers Union. So she was not only confident, and not defensive (indeed rather offensive in attacking Barack for being all speech and no action, and by saying we will need more than a "community organizer" in the White House, and that-- surely this was the most "intellectual" moment in her speech-- the White House is not a place to "discover yourself," but she was also not afraid to be a "Republican maverick" (as she repeatedly described John McCain) in speaking positively of unions and of Harry Truman, whom she identified as representing (like herself) "small town American values."
It was not a great speech but a solid and confident one; given my (and I presume many other people's) expectation that she would struggle, perhaps it seemed "good" by contrast to the low expectations I had.
Certainly she was not challenged by any questions, as she will be in debates and before reporters, but given that she had the total control that one has in giving a speech before a friendly audience, she was quite good at doing so.
I felt she definitely vindicated McCain's Choice, which had looked like a huge blunder up until she gave this speech.
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