I should state up front that I’m not easily influenced by speechifying. I never got what people thought was so great about Bill Clinton’s speeches–I had trouble stomaching them myself, because they always seemed so fake and disingenuous. And I never understood why Reagan was called “the Great Communicator.” Most of his speeches left me pretty cold as well. I mean, I was fine with the content, but I just never got the all the adulation.

Same thing with Governor Palin. She gave a good speech, had a lot of nice swipes at The One, and I liked most of what she said, as far as it goes. It’s probably too much to expect a lot of policy, given that she’d just come through several days of one of the most vicious media assaults in history, and had to just get the audience to know her. Her voice doesn’t seem as strong as I’d like, but I think that for most people, it must increase her likability factor. It’s also impressive that she managed to give it with teleprompter problems, with no obvious flubs. She either had good notes as a backup, or she really knew that speech. Had Obama been in a similar situation it could have been disastrous (which makes one think of the potential for a very dirty campaign trick if one could breach the security and get control of his prompter during a big speech).

I think that she’s going to be a very good debater, and show people that she’s much more knowledgable than the stereotype so far.

The latest from the fever swamps:

If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged race and class war, fueled by a deflated and depressed country, soaring crime, homelessness – and hopelessness!

The frightening thing is that these people probably really believe this stuff.

[Update a while later]

The ends justify the means:

If health insurance for all, an end to the Iraq War, an end to torture and illegal wiretapping, and a sane energy policy can be obtained at the price of destroying one teenage girl, her family, and the surrendering our self-respect I see that as a cheap trade.

And to think that these creatures consider themselves our moral betters.

That’s how the McCain campaign describes stories about their not properly vetting Governor Palin. Surely the media, with all its vaunted layers of fact checkers and editors, would never do such a thing?

I want to say that I appreciate both Senators Obama and Biden strongly declaring that candidates’ children should be off limits. Of course, they know that this stuff is poison, and can severely damage their campaigns with the non-nutroots.

I hope that their campaign staff (and surrogates) are listening. They can’t be held responsible for what Kos and TalkLeft and their ilk (including, sadly, Andrew Sullivan) do (and I expect the vile behavior from those quarters to continue, and I also expect a big backlash against it from McCain supporters, both current and future). But I also hope that if evidence does come to light that a staffer has been feeding this stuff to the bottom feeders that Senator Obama follows through on his pledge and has him or her (or them) shown the door.

No, she’s not going to step down. This is only going to make her and her supporters more determined to stay in and defeat these digital brownshirts (and their enablers in the press).

When will Barack Obama drop out?

Is the mainstream media like the World Wrestling Federation?

Does John Kerry have any idea how pathetic and stupid he sounds trying to paint Sarah Palin as another Dick Cheney? Apparently not.

How epic is the fail, on so many levels, of such a comparison? Of course, it also assumes that if he can get people to make such an association, that it’s politically helpful to him. This kind of idiotic projection of their own derangement and hatred on the American public is one of the reasons that the Dems haven’t been able to get a majority of the popular vote in over thirty years.

Hilarious. I just wish that Stephanopolous had asked him to elaborate.

Over at MSNBC. Actually it’s more like Bonnie and Clod.