Palin hits back, thrills crowd!
THEHILL-Republican presidential candidate John McCain embraced his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, moments after she had completed a speech that dazzled the crowd packed into the GOP convention arena Wednesday night.
The nominee walked onstage after Palin won wild applause with an address that mixed aggression and humor with a compelling personal story from small-town America.
FYI
Transcript of Palin’s speech to convention
‘I accept the challenge of a tough fight,’ she says, accepting VP nomination
AP-The remarks, as prepared for delivery, of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in her address to the 2008 Republican National Convention accepting the party’s vice presidential nomination.
Mr. Chairman, delegates, and fellow citizens: I am honored to be considered for the nomination for Vice President of the United States…
I accept the call to help our nominee for president to serve and defend America.
I accept the challenge of a tough fight in this election… against confident opponents … at a crucial hour for our country.
And I accept the privilege of serving with a man who has come through much harder missions … and met far graver challenges … and knows how tough fights are won – the next president of the United States, John S. McCain.
It was just a year ago when all the experts in Washington counted out our nominee because he refused to hedge his commitment to the security of the country he loves.
With their usual certitude, they told us that all was lost – there was no hope for this candidate who said that he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war.
But the pollsters and pundits overlooked just one thing when they wrote him off.
They overlooked the caliber of the man himself – the determination, resolve, and sheer guts of Senator John McCain. The voters knew better.
And maybe that’s because they realize there is a time for politics and a time for leadership … a time to campaign and a time to put our country first.
Our nominee for president is a true profile in courage, and people like that are hard to come by.
He’s a man who wore the uniform of this country for 22 years, and refused to break faith with those troops in Iraq who have now brought victory within sight.
And as the mother of one of those troops, that is exactly the kind of man I want as commander in chief. I’m just one of many moms who’ll say an extra prayer each night for our sons and daughters going into harm’s way.
Our son Track is 19.
And one week from tomorrow – September 11th – he’ll deploy to Iraq with the Army infantry in the service of his country.
My nephew Kasey also enlisted, and serves on a carrier in the Persian Gulf.
My family is proud of both of them and of all the fine men and women serving the country in uniform. Track is the eldest of our five children.
In our family, it’s two boys and three girls in between – my strong and kind-hearted daughters Bristol, Willow, and Piper.
And in April, my husband Todd and I welcomed our littlest one into the world, a perfectly beautiful baby boy named Trig. From the inside, no family ever seems typical.
That’s how it is with us.
Our family has the same ups and downs as any other … the same challenges and the same joys.
Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge.
And children with special needs inspire a special love.
To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message: For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters.
I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26535811/
FYI
Palin delivers a knockout
HOTAIR-Perhaps the media and Democrats would have been better advised to set expectations high for Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech tonight at the Republican convention. After ridiculing her as a small-town yokel for the better part of three days, Palin would have looked good if she managed to avoid drooling during her speech. In the event, though, they could have set expectations as high as a Barack Obama acceptance speech, and Palin would still have exceeded them in a tremendous debut on the national stage.
Palin made it clear to the condescending media and her Democratic critics that she is no pushover, no cream puff. Her nickname, “Sarah Barracuda”, seems a lot more fitting after tonight. Not only did she defend her small-town upbringing, she attacked Barack Obama on almost every possible front, and for good measure went after Joe Biden and the mainstream media as well.
For instance, she sought to underscore Obama’s hypocrisy in talking about his love for working-class families while belittling them behind their backs, and included Biden in that criticism:
Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.
And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.
I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.
We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.
And on Obama’s lack of any real reform in his entire career:
We’ve all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers.
And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.
But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform – not even in the state senate.
Palin also took a shot at Obama’s rather grandiose view of himself:
But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed … when the roar of the crowd fades away … when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot – what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet?
She didn’t forget the media, either:
I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.
But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion – I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country. Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reasons, and not just to mingle with the right people.
In the moments after the speech, I told our on-air listeners that this was the kind of speech Zell Miller could have delivered. Palin didn’t deliver it in a shrill manner or sound like she had a chip on her shoulder, though. She sounded like she relished the opportunity to engage. Palin has no intention of allowing herself to get steamrolled by Barack “Sweetie” Obama, Democrats in general, or a mainstream media that suddenly found itself becoming the echo chamber for anonymous Kos diarists.
She didn’t just play the role of attack dog, although her description of hockey moms as pit bulls with lipstick played very well with the crowd. Palin delivered a stirring defense of small-town values and middle America, and told Americans that she’s one of them — just a mother who started off wanting a better education for her kids, then wanted to improve her community, and just kept succeeding all the way up the ladder.
Palin also delivered for John McCain as well. She gave this quote which will certainly resonate for weeks:
In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.
And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.
They’re the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners, or on self-designed presidential seals.
She extolled the virtues of McCain, calling him the real agent of change in Washington. Palin talked about the remarkable story of an American hero who may just finish the final steps of a journey from from a cell at the Hanoi Hilton to the White House, and what that says about his honor and our country. She evoked a stir of emotions when Palin noted that small towns across America have memorials to men just like John McCain, only he made it home — and that middle America understands McCain because of that.
Palin showed her mettle tonight. Alaskans tell us that she is “tough as nails” and doesn’t run from a fight. Tonight, she challenged Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and the media elite to a fight to the finish. And she has bad news for them: she has no plans to quit.
Republicans should feel cheered and elated by this event tonight. No matter what happens in this race, we have seen the future of the party, and it looks bright indeed
FYI
THEHILL
McCain needs substance, not theatrics, say analysts
John McCain needs to give an acceptance speech that shows substance over rival Barack Obama’s “theatrical” style, according to Republican officials and strategists.
About 38 million people watched Obama accept the Democratic nomination in front of a crowd of 80,000-plus at Invesco Field in Denver last week. To compete with that, strategists said, McCain will need to give a meatier speech on Thursday that stresses he is a leader with good judgment while Obama is a “celebrity” capable only of lofty but empty rhetoric.
Robert “Mike” Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), said in an interview with The Hill on Wednesday that McCain will present a detailed picture of “his vision for America” that will contrast with Obama’s vacuous speech in Denver.
“He was a mile high and an inch deep,” Duncan said of Obama’s speech, echoing the RNC’s appraisal of the Democratic National Convention. “Tell me what he said in that speech.”
Republican strategist Kevin Madden noted that McCain has “never been somebody who has tried to get by on the big theatrical production,” but added the media, and even Democrats, will compare the two men’s speeches.
“People will want to compare it and the theater,” Madden said. “In that regard, expectations are probably high.”
Duncan said the decision to cancel most of convention’s proceedings Monday night because of Hurricane Gustav would not dampen the GOP’s energy, adding that the enthusiasm returned almost immediately after programming returned to its normal schedule.
“You never go wrong doing the right thing,” Duncan said. “We got back on track [Tuesday] night.”
Ultimately, for McCain to be successful, strategists said, he will need to connect to ordinary voters and offer them concrete reasons to vote for him.
“He needs to paint a picture in his speech of what a McCain presidency would look like,” Republican strategist Todd Harris said.
FYI
AP: Attacks, Praise Stretch Truth At GOP Convention
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.
Some examples:
PALIN: “I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.”
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a “bridge to nowhere.”
PALIN: “There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform _ not even in the state senate.”
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: “The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.”
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain’s plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
MCCAIN: “She’s been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply … She’s responsible for 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. I’m entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain’s phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she’s no more “responsible” for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state _ by population.
MCCAIN: “She’s the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under “federal status,” which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska’s national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.”
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: “We need change, all right _ change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington _ throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.”
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.
___
Associated Press Writer Jim Drinkard in Washington contributed to this report.
It is amazing how scared the left is at the potential of Sarah Palin. While her speech last night surely acted like a wind to the wildfire of conservative enthusiasm, it also must have sent shivers of fear up the spines – wait, libs don’t have spines – shivers of fear up the backs of democrats.
The biggest kick in the gut has got to be her strength. Yeah, she’s a woman but she ain’t a victim. The woman has grit.
I like Palin. I’d vote for her in a heartbeat if she was the Presidential nominee, unless she put McCain or Lieberman or any other neocon on the ticket with her. But she’s not enough by herself to sway me to vote GOP as long as she’s surrounded and controlled by all those faux conservatives.
As with Obama they both had a few issues with facts but hey it is politics. And in fact I like Palin better than McCain.
The problem with what I have seen so far is more about issues with McCain and parts of the GOP.
I was stunned that the GOP was so supportive of No Child Left Behind. I was also stunned that reaching across party lines success like Education, Immigration, McCain-Feingold… are considered success for John McCain and the GOP. I just do not get it.
FYI
Obama Raises $8 Million After Palin Speech
HP-The political impact of Sarah Palin continues to be hazy — she’s clearly revved up the Republican base, and helped McCain’s campaign bring in more than $10 million since she was announced as his running mate.
But the Palin pick seems to be having a virtually identical effect on the Democratic base. Activists have frenetically picked apart Palin’s record over the last week, and an Obama aide told the Huffington Post that the campaign has raised $8 million since her speech last night “from over 130,000 donors – on pace to hit $10 million by the time John McCain hits the stage tonight.”
“Sarah Palin’s attacks have rallied our supporters in ways we never expected,” the aide said. “And we fully expect John McCain’s attacks tonight to help us make our grassroots organization even stronger.”
UPDATE: The Republican National Committee says it has raised $1 million since Palin’s speech.
“The woman has grit.”
Yep, they make em scary up here.
On the solstice this year I watched a young woman combat fishing at midnight with her six month-old strapped to her chest.
The woman was like a rabid labrador. She was completely ignoring her younger daughter who was in everyone else’s way trying to cast a line.
Redneck heaven up here. If only I was a redneck…