There’s There, There

Bruce Benidt from The Same Rowdy Crowd – one of the better (read:  more readable, less drearily awful) leftyblogs in town – seems to enjoy good oratory too:

Democrats have come up against a force here. It’s the same force — absent substance — that worked for George Bush. But Palin is ten times the speaker Bush was and is.

There is no comparing the two as speakers.  Bush is, at best, an adequate orator, with immense preparation and motivation.  He’s at his best one-on-one – not an inconsiderable talent with a job that involves so many personal meetings and so much mano-a-mano armtwisting  and cajoling.

But Palin stands out – especially given the absolutely awful state of political oratory in America today.  Indeed, this campaign is blessed with two excellent orators.  The difference, I think, is that Obama is a lot like an actor; he’s at his best with the big prepared speech.  Is Palin more like the stand-up comic, capable of rolling with the verbal punches?  She as a reputation of thinking on her feet; here’s hoping.

Personal opinion — she’s competely unqualified to be president should something happen to the aged McCain, and McCain’s choice of her is reckless and rash and would endanger the country he claims to put first. And some of what she said was just a lie — Obama will raise taxes on a steelworker, for example.

Tomayto, tomahto; if Obama taxes the company that sells the steelworker the gas to run his car, the steelworker pays for it. 

But I digress.  “Reckless choice” has become the Dem meme lately, begging the question “and so why is the even-less-experienced Obama any better?”

But, she did a very good job tonight, she jabbed at Obama with zest and a smile, and in a dull field of dreadful GOP speakers, she is not just a breath of fresh air but wind and rain and sunshine all at once.

Dull, dreadful speech is epidemic in American politics. Besides Palin, the list of good American political orators is painfully short.  Offhand, I can think of only a few; Tim Pawlenty, Rudy Giuliani…

…I’ll work on it.

Palin stumbled when delivering a few sentences about foreign issues — the only time she was dull and clunky. When talking about family and state government and no new taxes and small town values, she was kickass.

I agree.  About 80% into the speech, she got into some wonky material about foreign policy, and a little energy drained out.  But she recovered and, obviously, finished big. 

She’s trouble for the Dems. A smart pick by McCain in terms of getting elected. A frightening choice for the country.

No more frightening – if experience is the arbiter – than the top of the other ticket is.

4 thoughts on “There’s There, There

  1. Channeling Elton John from the classic years:

    And each day I learn just a little bit more
    I don’t know why but I do know what for
    If we’re all going somewhere let’s get there soon
    This post’s got no title just words and a tune

  2. Ah, an opportunity for the Left to exercize both ageism and sexism. If only Obambi hadn’t picked an old, white, Washington insider to help out with all of that “change”.

  3. Did anyone else here that Palin (and Giuliani’s) speech was even more remarkable in that the teleprompter was on the fritz during some of each of their speeches?

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