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My wife and I watched the speech last night, as far as I know, she has never voted Republican for any office.
I've worked at some level on every Presidential campaign for Democrats since 1984 (except for 1988, I was on a local campaign).
She turned to me and said, "We've just lost."
Why, because despite what people are hoping here, the speech did exactly what it needed to do, and since I like lists, I'll make one.
1) Highlighted difference between the two camps in a way unfavorable to the Democrats. The line, "Being a small town mayor is a bit like being a 'community organizer' except you have actual responsibilities" is devastating. It doesn't degenerate community service, it juxtaposes that it is not important for national office than being a mayor. Obama inadvertently brought this on by comparing his running his campaign to Palin being a mayor, instead of Palin being a Governor. Let's be honest, people mocked Palin's time as a city council-member and mayor as being irrelevant to office, then these same people try to defend community organizer. It's a losing argument.
2) Invited comparisons to skills between the top of the ticket and the bottom of the ticket. Most critics of Palin's speech are acting as if she is running for President and Obama is not. People are writing, "Well, anyone can read off a teleprompter" which is EXACTLY what critics have been saying about Obama. Both deliver effective speeches, and attacking her for that ability, just reinforces that Obama doesn't have much else going for him.
Saying "Palin is too inexperienced to be a heart-beat away from the Presidency" makes people openly question the experience of whose will 100% be president if elected, not maybe or a heartbeat away.
3) Appealed to middle America, where elections are won. Republicans won't win the major cities, they never do in national elections. They run up the score in rural areas. Palin is middle America, and she will connect with middle America. Making fun of the very people needed to win elections is not a winning strategy, yet, you constantly encounter this "strategy" on Democratic leaning sites.
4) Listed actual accomplishments and used humor. The selling of the Governor's private plane on E-Bay was brilliant, it feed the conservative base with eliminating wasteful spending, it feed into the middle American about not being pretentious and doing what many people do when selling unneeded items, E-Bay it.
5) It attacked Obama while mentioning his name all of ONCE. It allowed listener to fill in the blanks. The line, "Some people used change to promote their careers and others, like John McCain use their careers to promote change" doesn't mention Obama at all, yet EVERYONE knew who she walking talking about, so it waters the seed that Obama is just using change to get elected. Then when listeners try to mentally rebut this, they can't come up with what real change Obama has implemented.
Was the speech going to win over large numbers of hard core Democrats? No, of course not, but it galvanized the base, and spoke directly to those undecided.
Calling Palin names and trying to dismiss her based on her gender, or whining about the fairness of it all doesn't win elections, nor will praying that somehow Biden destroys her in a debate.
Palin is a game changer in the election, and Democrats had better start preparing.
