Reaction to Sarah Palin's Convention Speech

Tonight I did something I haven't done in a long time--I watched a speech at a political convention. I have to start by saying that, in general, I hate speeches at convention for the same reason I really can't stand to listen to State of the Union addresses. It is almost impossible for even the best of orators to get a good rhythm going when they are interrupted constantly and for prolong periods by excessive applause.

But I must admit that the historical implications and the media frenzy got the better of me. If she killed, I wanted to see it. If she broke down and left the stage, I wanted to witness it. So at 9am, I turned on ABC (Peter Jennings still affects me to this day) and was greeted with Rudy Giuliani.

Now I like Rudy. I admired the way he handled himself during 9/11. I thought he was make a good president and was disappointed when his campaign faltered and badly. I was shocked, therefore, to not think much of his delivery. He certainly nailed his talking points but I thought he came off angry and mean-spirited. I know part of his role tonight was to play the attack dog but I thought he could have handled it more deftly. His less than stellar performance had an unforeseen consequence--it made Sarah Palin appear much better than I expected.

If Giuliani had given the speech of lifetime it would have been a hard act to follow. But he didn't. In comparison Palin appeared poised and her timing was much better. True it was impossible to tell because of the ridiculous number of interruptions, but I think it would be hard to argue that she gave a poor performance.

I think the highlight quote of the night from Palin was:

There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you.

Cliche perhaps, but appealing to peoples patriotism in a clever manner in never a bad idea in a convention speech. I think the other killer line of the night was delivered by Giuliani:

"One final point. And how dare they question whether Sarah Palin has enough time to spend with her children and be vice president. How dare they do that.

When do they ever ask a man that question? When?

I have no idea how large an audience of women that plays to but they are out there.