The Elephant in the Room

That would be what was left unsaid in Sarah Palin's speech last night at the Republican Convention. No, I'm not talking about her family's issues. I really didn't expect her to discuss her family's "issues" at length or really at all. That's not the elephant in the room that I am talking about. I'm talking about the mess that our country has become over the past eight years while George W. Bush has run things along with his misfit band of sycophants. An un-just war, a recession, inflation, corruption...it goes on and on.

Sarah Palin said last night that the job of politics is to "...challenge the status quo, to serve the common good and to leave this nation better than when we found it". The Bush administration has failed on every one of those counts. Miserably. But that is something that never gets mentioned by McCain's camp.

So what did she talk about? She rolled out the greatest hits list just like the rest of the speakers thus far. Keep our country strong, drill now, fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, blah, blah, blah. But basically that we should vote for John McCain because he is a war hero and Obama is not. That's it. Everything else is moot. Oh, and apparently we are now winning the war over in Iraq thanks to men like John McCain. "Victory is in sight." I didn't know that. Cool! When can our troops come home?

The Democrats had a similar list that they droned about, so I'm not giving them a pass either. I just wish, for once, that someone would truly talk about all the issues in play rather than just the ones that sound good to their partisan crowds. I know it ain't gonna happen, but that would be the candidate I would be most excited to vote for. As it is I get to pick the one that makes me the least sick to my stomach.

As I suspected, Palin is a strong, intelligent, confident and passionate public speaker. Like I said yesterday, I don't agree with her politics but that doesn't mean that she is wrong all the time. Just that we disagree most of the time. I especially liked how she, and the rest of the convention speakers that I have seen, have taken the fight to the "liberal" media rather than to the Democrats themselves a good deal of the time. Keith Olberman and his buddies must have loved that.

Her two biggest soundbites of the evening, in my opinion:

1. Do you know the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick.
2. Some candidates who use change as a way to promote their career. John McCain uses his career to promote change.

I'm sure I didn't get those quotes exactly right, but you catch her drift. The first one sounds like something that she has been rolling off of her tongue for years. It sounded like her. The second one sounds like something written by an advertising agency. Actually, most of the second half of her speech sounded like something that came right out of McCain's speech writing camp. So we know that she can read other people's words pretty well.

That's politics.

Chris Matthews on CNBC dismissed her as an alternative to Hilary Clinton (as some had speculated), but as an direct alternative to Barack and Michelle Obama themselves. A cultural torpedo, so to speak, aimed at their ship. One that won't dismiss small-town values or religion or national pride. Looks like McCain hired himself a bully to beat on the Obamas. A bully with a sniper rifle pointed at their hearts.

Now I can see why he picked her.

I despise all that she stands for, but for McCain's purposes she just might be the perfect choice for this role.

Random Wiki: I think I've officially become bored with this gimmick. Say goodbye to the Random Wiki. Sniff.