So, the GOP has been running hard on the "words don't matter" line for awhile (along with "experience matters") in their attacks on Obama. Now Palin swaggers into the spotlight and suddenly words matter and experience doesn't, and this VP candidate is supposed to help a longtime Washington insider bring change to the Beltway? Curiouser and curiouser.

Smells like desperation on the part of the reactionary movement to find anything they can pin their hopes on, and Mammon help the GOP to hitch their star on McCain/Palin. And what are the stakes, precisely? These candidates are held entirely captive to their brimstone base's fevered paranoiac political fantasies, and have simply nowhere to go by way of having an actual platform.

I mean seriously, how is continuation of Bush/Cheney change precisely? What, by making their regressive tax cuts permanent? By starting more wars of opportunity abroad? By further undercutting American workers in the interests of global capitalism? By finishing the destruction of the republic?

Seems to me that Palin can pound her fascistic fists all she likes, McCain can summon his plastic folksiness all he wishes, and they're still stuck ladling out the same old same old while trying to portray it as being new and improved. They have nowhere to go but down in this quixotic windmill tilt, no matter how fiery and indignant Palin gets, or how cynical and sarcastic McCain becomes.

They're selling political products the majority of America doesn't want to buy. So, apart from selling a cult of personality, they offer nothing at all. That's going to bite them on the ass in the coming weeks.

Don't be demoralized, Democrats and Independents -- change can come, if you fight for it. And McCain/Palin simply aren't offering it, and they know it.

Look. You can disparage Palin's speech all you want, but, as Cooper said, it was a great speech, full of excellent sound bites, one liners, outstanding delivery, good timing, and endearing facial expression.

If you don't think this woman is dangerous, think again. She may well sink her own ship, but I wouldn't underestimate her potential as a campaigner.

To Quintana:

I was going to write my own response to Sarah Palin's speech, but yours was more concise and just as accurate. Sometimes, it's better to praise another poster and focus attention on that post than just throw a similar opinion into the mud.

Here is Quintana's post:

"Petty, Shallow Palin

This was a joke right?

I've never in my life heard someone talk so much, and say so little.

Watching this convention and its delegates was like watching a lunchroom full of rowdy junior high kids- lots of noise and put downs but nothing of any substance."

Shalom,

ZWrite

How dare they insult my intelligence?

How DARE she say "The Bridge to Nowhere - Thanks, but No Thanks"? ... AGAIN!

We KNOW she was for it and LOBBIED for it.

We KNOW she was against it when it Congress cut it out.

We KNOW she took the $400 mil and put it into the public fund.

We KNOW she took that fund and passed out CASH, MY Tax money, to Alaskans

WE KNOW the FACTS.

How DARE she tell this story a SECOND TIME?

American families are struggling every day. They are handing out our money in Alaska!

How DARE John McCain stand in back of her and smirk?

The nation has a $9 Trillion debt.

How DARE the Republicans stand up and Cheer?

ENOUGH!

I hope the Dems have the Brains and the Guts to call them on this.

Focus back on McCain and Poor Judgement.

It is not about Palin, Obama and experience.

It is about POOR JUDGEMENT. McCain caused all this flap and distraction. I do not want this guy getting the 3 AM call and start shooting from the hip. It is STILL reckless, despite how well Palin looked.

Refocus the campaign. McCain does NOT have the TEMPERAMENT.

A simple minded speech, by a simple minded person, for simple minded people.

Regarding the difficulty of seeing Palin browbeating CIA analysts - au contraire Mr. Shapiro. I think that this woman governs by browbeating - after loyalty tests, my way or the highway attitude, and the-law-only-applies-to-you history.

The facts about Palin's political performance have been revealed by the AP in an article today.

Actually, many of us don't think the speech was particularly brilliant.

It reminded me of a less skillfully delivered version of the 1988 speech offered by the then Governor of Texas (my mind is blanking on her name right now) discussing George H.W. Bush.

Now, I'll admit, Ms. Palin will go from this platform on to greater things in the Right wing of the Republican party and will likely be the religous right's standard bearer in 2012.

She did what McCain needed her to do, energize the religous right. But when you need to do that much work to energize your own party, your in a bad way.

Barak Obama faced a similar challenge with his own party base but he didn't just pick a running mate off the rack to answer that fracture. Instead he brought his party together on his own terms using his allies in the party and his own charisma, something John McCain simply couldn't do.

There was no standard bearer for the Religous right who could give John McCain what he needed the way the Clintons did to their base, so McCain rather than finding a complementary VP who could help him woo moderates was forced to shore up his base, and waste energy stemming the tide against him, instead of building bridges to the future.

McCain is behind and is playing Defense.

One should realize that is not a good place to be. Criticism of Ms. Palin's speech just shows how little she helped with who McCain needs most, independants and moderates.

Moderates look at her borrow and spend history, her lack of middle ground on social issues, and her rather unseemly abuses of power, and are turned off.

She needed to overcome that, she didn't. In 2012 she might be able to, when shes' at the top of the ticket, in the way Regan did, but for now, there are just too many fiscal republicans who look at her and see the worst aspects of George Bush, just as conservative republicans see what they believe are the worst aspects of George Bush in John McCain.

She got a crowd of volunteers to cheer her. That's not that big a deal. But we can easily wait for the poll numbers and neilsen ratings to find out if she really did accomplish anything.

Right now we're all just blatering our opinions about how she effected a single person (ourselves individually).

After Obama's convention he topped 50%, we'll have to see if McCain can do the same.