JIM LINDGREN ON PALIN’S SPEECH SO FAR: “After a middling start of her speech, Sarah Palin hit her stride. Palin’s speech so far is MILES better than Biden’s — and will probably be better than McCain’s.” I agree; her biggest problem is keeping the applause from stepping on her lines.
UPDATE: She’s effectively using her history and family to note that while Obama and Biden talk about helping ordinary Americans, she’s actually got a lot of experience on the subject, while their knowledge is more, um, theoretical.
ANOTHER UPDATE: “There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you.”
MORE: Reader Daniel Hollenbaugh emails: “Glenn – As a Republican, I almost hate to say it, but after seeing Sarah speak, I can’t wait for Saturday Night Live to return. Tina Fey will make a hilarious Sarah Palin.”
FINALLY: A little slow at the beginning, but a very strong speech, well-delivered. It’s as if she’s done this speechmaking thing before. The crowd is certainly behind her, and the fiance is on the stage with the whole family — and with John McCain. It’s like they’re taunting the press and the Democrats to go on with the baby-talk. As I’ve said, I don’t think they believe this hurts them.
Plus, politicians have speechwriters? Why wasn’t I told?
Orin Kerr: “I thought Palin was a natural tonight: She was as good as Obama can be, and I think that’s pretty damn good.”
And, from the comments: “Too bad it’s not a Palin-McCain ticket.”
A reader emails: “New Sarah Palin Topic: Is Air Force One safe from E-bay?”
Lorie Byrd: “Obama’s response — the speech was written by George Bush’s speech writer. Wow. How lame is that?”
The New Republic: Focus Group: Palin Was (Alarmingly) Strong. Some people are acting alarmed.
If you didn’t see it, judge for yourself — John Stephenson has the video.
Beldar is swooning.
And some thoughts from Roger Simon, who was there.
Dale Carpenter: “On the substance of it, I was relieved the speech was free of red-meat social issues. It was about economics, reform, cutting taxes and spending, and national security. In other words, it focused on the kinds of things that made McCain an attractive candidate beyond the social-conservative base of the party. After all the caricaturing of Palin in the past few days as some kind of religious extremist, the silence on these issues was noteworthy. . . . For someone who’s closer to McCain than to Obama on matters of economic and foreign policy, the main concerns about Palin are whether she has the knowledge, depth, experience, and general preparedness to be president. If you didn’t have these concerns before tonight, of course, the speech was great. If you did, like me, the well-executed and poised delivery of prepared remarks does nothing to allay them.” You can’t allay that stuff with a speech — giving speeches tells you some things, like how well somebody performs under pressure — but not everything.