[Laura Heidy-Halberstein]

So.....I've not had time to digest it all - any opinions already formed?

She's articulate with a tele-prompter, preparation time and a host of speech writers, but when do we get to see Sarah Unscripted?

[Mike Slippkauskas]

I think we did see her unscripted. Her snarling relish said it all for me.

Perhaps this is a minor issue because poetical and it's odd for me to be defending Obama, whose own speech I just lambasted on a nearby thread (I'm a democratic socialist, à la George Orwell). But why this obsession with Obama's "clouds of rhetoric" (that's rhetoric on my part; I know the answer)? To craft one's words and to deliver them with passion used to be hallmarks of care and sincerity. Now they indicate their opposites.

What we heard last night was close to fin de siècle Vienna's politics "in a sharper key," falling just short of a call to violence. (And, no, I'm not approaching a Hitler comparison. I won't destroy my argument that way.)



[This message has been edited by Mike Slippkauskas (edited September 04, 2008).]

[Michael Cantor]

What I heard was a call to class warfare. Obama didn't do that, McCain never has, Biden hasn't. But it's all Palin has to offer. And it can destroy any real discussion of issues - and what's left of our national dignity and direction - unless we get beyond it.

[Janet Kenny]

Yes, I think the accusation is going to be: "If you don't like her, you're a snob".

That's a really cynical defence and I'm terrified it will work.

Because the whole world will be affected by her if the heartbeat fails, I looked for depth. I didn't find any. I found smugness and brashness and not a little conceit.

I think Australia has seen her type before. Our Pauline Hanson was very similar.

[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited September 04, 2008).]

[Rick Mullin]

She was arrogant. And the belittling of "community organizer" troubles me in the context of Palin vs Obama.

At the moment, Microsoft spellcheck recognizes Obama, but not Palin. Let's hope that doesn't change.

RM

[R. Nemo Hill]

The if you don't like her/him you're a snob thing worked with George Bush. All those refrains about lowered expectations during the debates. Of course, in Bush's case it was an out-and-out lie. The tiny germ of sincerity here makes this even more frightening.

All that crap about community service vs governorship--the subtext being one community is better (and more "American") than another.

And all that crap about always having been proud to be an American. No matter what silly or grievous shit your country has done, it's great. After all, it's a mark of a lack of patriotism to confess and regret socio-historical blunders. The genocide of the American Indians, hey, I'm proud of it! The internment of Japanese during WWII, good for us!

Thank God I'll be traveling for 5 weeks, far away from television's terrifyingly high-stakes advertising wars.

Nemo

[This message has been edited by R. Nemo Hill (edited September 04, 2008).]

[Janice D. Soderling]

While everyone in the greater community is busy discussing Palin, US troops crossed into Pakistan today on ground assult raids that destabilize the new government, and Cheney is busier than ever setting up Tiblisi for more Russian violence by maintaining a discernible presence that provokes Putin. Even as we speak, Cheney is on his way to Georgia to stir up trouble there.

It's scary, but it is not Palin that scares me. Not yet.

[Rick Mullin]

Michael's observation is quite chilling. If all the class antagonism that we've managed in the US--even throughout the 2004 election--is funneled to an overt rallying call for class warfare...well...

I think Michael's observation is also quite accurate.

And I envy Nemo his well-timed trip.

[Mike Slippkauskas]

Kudos to the T.V. producers who picked out five or so brown-skinned faces in the crowd. But the more panoramic shots of the hall told rather a different story.

[Quincy Lehr]

"Class warfare"? Bollocks. I'm all in favor of class warfare--strikes and movements for social justice and expropriating capitalists and stuff like that. The Republicans, to the extent they are "class warriors", are warriors for the capitalist class (not that the Democrats are terribly different in the fundamentals).