September 4, 2008 - Sarah Palin
Got home just in time to catch Rudy and Sarah Palin. Rudy gave a great speech. Then it was the moment the entire country was waiting for. Like the rest of the country, I was going to meet Sarah Palin for the first time. The first minute was a little stiff. But then she started rolling.
Let me sum it up by saying that I didn’t think I’d see another Ronald Reagan in my lifetime. I was wrong and the new Ronald Reagan wears a dress! The reaction by the audience and the commentators was awe. The left commentators were stunned silent. Not only did Sarah Palin pass the test for VP and probably win the election for John McCain, she is the Republican front-runner for President in 2012. Wow.
Here are reactions from some of my favorite writers and commentators:
"Don't you think we
made the right choice for the next vice president of the
… John S. McCain
In short, Sarah Palin is
the emblem of what feminism was supposed to be all about: an unafraid,
independent, audacious woman, who soared on her own merits without the aid
of a patriarchal jumpstart, high-brow matrimonial tutelage and capital,
and old-boy liaisons and networking.
… Victor Davis
Hanson
Okay,
it’s almost three in the morning here in Minneapolis and I am about
as dog tired as I have ever been, but I couldn’t resist putting in my two
cents on Sarah Palin’s performance tonight, since I saw it live. In
all my years writing movies, going to drama school, etc., I have almost
never seen anything so dramatic. It was the rebirth of Frank Capra
for our times - Mrs. Smith Goes to
The
big losers tonight are obvious: Joe Biden, who will look like
hackopathropus erectus next to her, a dinosaur out the Washington
everybody hates, and Hillary Rodham Clinton who, I would bet anything, was
staring at her television set in horror tonight at the possible first
woman president of the
… Roger L. Simon Blog
She’s
one of the most talented politicians in
“They
are the ones who do some of the hardest work in
Said
the governor, “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
Sarah Palin is a sensation. Conservative Republicanism is now represented by a genuine political-oratorical star — a virtuoso.
So,
[
… Jay Nordlinger (National Review Online )
It was just what we've been longing for. I think this is as excited as I have seen the conservative base since 1994, 1993, it's been 14 years. And John McBrilliant pulls this off with the gutsy choice of Sarah Palin. ...
She relates to more of your precious Democrat voters than any of your politicians could ever hope to, and that's what they know and that's what frightens them.... Rush Limbaugh Web Page
I've been trying to convince my fellow conservatives that they have been wasting their time in a fruitless quest for a new Ronald Reagan to emerge and lead our party and our nation. I insisted that we'd never see his like again because he was one of a kind.
I was wrong! Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he's a she. And what a she!
Last night was an
extraordinary event. Widely seen beforehand as a make-or-break effort --
either an opportunity for Sarah Palin to show that she was the happy
warrior that John McCain assured us she was, or a disaster that would dash
McCain's presidential hopes and send her back to
Obviously un-intimidated by either the savage onslaught to which the left-leaning media had subjected her, or the incredible challenge she faced -- and oozing with confidence -- she strode defiantly to the podium and proved she was everything and even more than John McCain told us.
What we saw last night, however, was something much more than a just a woman accomplishing something no Republican woman has ever achieved. What we saw was a red-blooded American with that rare, God-given ability to rally her dispirited fellow Republicans and take up the daunting task of leading them -- and all her fellow Americans -- on a pilgrimage to that shining city on the hill my father envisioned as our nation's real destination.
In a few words she managed to rip the mask from the faces of her Democratic rivals and reveal them for what they are -- a pair of old-fashioned liberals making promises that cannot be kept without bankrupting the nation and reducing most Americans to the status of mendicants begging for their daily bread at the feet of an all-powerful government.
Most important, by comparing her own stunning record of achievement with his, she showed Barack Obama for the sham that he is, a man without any solid accomplishments beyond conspicuous self-aggrandizement.
Sarah Palin didn't go to Harvard, or fiddle around in urban neighborhood leftist activism while engaging in opportunism within the ranks of one of the nation's most corrupt political machines, never challenging it and going along to get along, like Barack Obama.
Welcome back, Dad, even if you're wearing a dress and bearing children this time around.
… Michael Reagan Townhall.com
She is a natural politician — in the best sense. She doesn't read the text — she makes the words her own. She absorbs energy from the crowd and radiates it back. She communicates with her expressions. It's an impressive performance.
… Cliff May
Yet if you didn't sense last night how deeply Sarah Palin channeled some of the country's deepest, most powerful currents of pent-up indignation and yearning, you don't sense the trouble we Democrats are in.
Rhetorically, she was the anti-Obama,. She was stirring precisely because she was so artless, matter-of fact, and "American" — with no cadences or grand, historic resonances, but with plenty of mother wit and shrewdness. Credit her as much as the speechwriters.
… Unknown
My sense is that what most Americans will remember about Sarah Palin last night was her poise. She's been put through the spin cycle for a week, her family has been dragged through the mud, and she came out last night with spunk, if not fire.
… Shane Coffin
Nobody could watch that speech and still consider her a joke, no matter how flimsy her credentials and qualifications may seem on paper. The joke, it seems, is on those who'd been laughing at her. Last night the laughing ended — and the cheering began.
… Tom Shales –
Like
others I was wowed by Palin's speech. I expected it to be pretty
good — and better than pundits expected — but it exceeded my
expectations. I have one thought on the substance. Including
an extended discussion of international energy markets was quite
shrewd. It allowed her to play to one of her strengths — energy
policy — while simultaneously undercutting concerns about her lack of
foreign policy experience. She talked about the significance of foreign
production and the geostrategic importance of pipelines with a level of
sophistication that few would have anticipated, and it worked. Had
she tried to get into the nitty-gritty of
… Jonathan Adler
There are a lot of very relieved and excited conservatives and a lot of very impressed independents out there tonight.
… Yuval Levin
A brilliant speech, brilliantly delivered. So many good lines. Sarah Palin shows us all that she is a superb communicator, which of course is so essential to a successful politician. Obviously, I think of Reagan. Personally, I loved the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick. With a smile and a great quip, she signaled to her opponents that she is tough. Don't tread on me. I'm here now. I'm serious. I'm purposeful. I have strong convictions and you're not going to intimidate me. Nor will you push this lady around. A Western frontier version of Thatcher? Gosh, does the Republican Party need her.
Overall, I think she connected really well with middle class working folk in cultural and social terms. This is no small feat. Very important. Values matter. Dems are in trouble here, big-time. The more they go after her culturally, as they have already, the more trouble they'll fall into.
Gov. Palin did mention oil and gas drilling, and she effectively connected her Alaskan natural gas pipeline to Tsar Putin's global aim of energy blackmail. The lady knows a bit more about high table geopolitics than her critics think.
Palin, however, can expand her oil and gas drill, drill drill to get to gas prices and the economy. She laid the groundwork tonight. It's only a short stone's throw from tonight's speech to an effectively fleshed out message. She did finger Obama as a tax and spend liberal. Good.
Wouldn't
it be great if she and McCain adopted a strong pro-growth tax reform plan
to reduce tax-rates across the board, get rid of the corrupt loopholes and
tax earmarks defended by the old order in
Watching her phenomenal communication skill, and her disciplined yet positive style, I can't help but be optimistic. In part because she herself is clearly an optimist. I'm a sucker for optimism. Lord knows this country, and the GOP, needs it. Sarah America. I like it.
… Larry Kudlow
I teared up when this 44-year-old woman, with her proverbial hair down, felt completely comfortable and confident talking about her love for her husband in a packed arena: “We met in high school, and two decades and five children later, he’s still my guy.”
She showed us that even a
small-town gal from
Immediately after her speech, National Review Online readers e-mailed me to tell me they had just watched the next Ronald Reagan, the long-awaited successor. What I think we’re seeing is a new generation of conservatism.
Other readers asked me why Palin didn’t talk about “life.” Here entire speech was about it. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. American exceptionalism. With love and spirit and good humor.
There are miles to go yet in this election. But Sarah Palin has gotten off to an excellent start. And Americans — men and women reminded of what’s important, boys and girls inspired by her energy and accomplishments — are better people for having met her, this woman in love with her country, her family, her God, and this gift of life in America.
… Kathryn Jean Lopez
"She didn't have to prove she was 'of the people.' She really is the people."
...
Willie Brown, the
former California Assembly speaker and