Sarah Palin's big speech

"Sarah Palin has entrusted her first make-or-break speech to my friend Matthew Scully, the former Bush speechwriter (maybe he can slip in a line vowing to take on the factory farms!) What are the key goals for the Palin address tonight?"

Just more evidence that all speech writers should be shot on sight. How, pray tell, does anything Sarah Palin says that she doesn't write tell us anything about a) what she really thinks or b) how she really thinks? Arguably, we could have avoided the worst of the last eight years if Dubya had had to write everything himself. So much attention is paid to Biden's acknowledged plagiarism without mentioning the almost 100% plagiarism by every politican who does not begin each speech by saying "according to __________, who wrote this speech for me . . . "

JFL,
In general this is how it works. Someone who is going to give a major, prime time speech sits down with a couple aides and speechwriters. They go over the major themes they want to get across and then the speech writer goes and puts the words down on paper and adds the nice rhetorical patterns and all that. The speaker then looks over the speech, making edits, changes, etc. It goes back and forth like this until they think they have a good final product. So just because someone has a speech writer doesn't mean their own thoughts and themes aren't included in the speech.

It's not like Scully is just going to write a speech, hand it to Palin and say "here, read this tomorrow night".

Well, I'm pro-life and I can still think of reasons not to want Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency. Chief among them, the question of whether, at a time when so many people are hurting economically, we really want a person in the WH who previously left a city approximately the size of my apartment complex $20 million in debt. Great executive experience there!

Democrats have shown that they can be every bit as bigot as the religious right when it serves them, well I hope that it will backfire baldy for them.

I'm a man, atheist, pro-choice, but i despise those people (dailykos, digg, somethingawful forums) who are spinning one salacious rumor after the other, and spin them in a very rational and organized way. There is here a lesson for them to learn, I hope that they learn it the hard way.

Yeah I don't know about you but me and my pro-choice buddies just HATE life. Whenever I see life it just makes me so mad. That's why I never look in a mirror.
Posted by: frank | September 3, 2008 9:32 AM

Yep, and fecund families - ooooh we just really hate those.

Lancelot really has our number there - when I see people who choose to live in a way that is different from the way I live, well it just makes me want to go out and pass laws to prevent that from happening!

Sheesh!

I'm in the Doug Kmiec demographic, a republican who supports Obama reluctantly because I'm pro-life. I agree that some of the scrutiny of Palin is unfair and is probably motivated by animus against pro-lifers but, at least for me, that is not the problem. I am very worried about the possibility of Palin becoming president because I haven't seen any evidence that she knows anything about foreign policy or even national domestic policy. She seems to be a very unserious vice-presidential pick. I can understand that conservative bloggers empathize with her culturally, but I would have thought that the Bush administration would be a reductio ad absurdam of the idea that merit doesn't matter (see Gonzales, Miers, Goodling, et al). I'm a bit surprised at how few conservative pundits seem to recognize this.

Rod,

Listen to Steve on this one, Rod. Extreme lefties and extreme rightwongers do not make the decisions. People in the middle do, people like Steve.

I can understand that conservative bloggers empathize with her culturally, but I would have thought that the Bush administration would be a reductio ad absurdam of the idea that merit doesn't matter (see Gonzales, Miers, Goodling, et al). I'm a bit surprised at how few conservative pundits seem to recognize this.,

Amen, Steve.

RinNYC,

I assure you there are more folks than Steve and Doug, myself among them. IMO, we don't talk about it a lot with our face-to-face peers (considering the reaction Steve, Daniel and I get to pro-Obama comments here), but I think the trend will be clear in the voting booth, in the numbers of pro-life voters who go Obama/Biden.

I personally know at least a dozen dedicated Christians who attend church weekly or more in Santa Fe who are planning to vote for Obama for the same reasons as Steve and I. I believe there is as much a chance of abortion declining in the US under an Obama administration as under a McCain one, while the likelihood of reckless military action is greatly higher under a McCain administration. That's enough for me right there, without even getting in to any additional issues regarding the economy, conservation, etc...

Lord have mercy,
Doug

Media-driven culture vulture hysterics ensued immediately after John McCain announced that he had chosen Sarah Palin when the world knew practically nothing about Palin except 3 things:

1.) She is pro-life and Christian, choosing not to abort a baby with Downs Syndrome when 90 percent of such babies are aborted.

2.)She is governor of Alaska, a state which people in the lower 48 know nothing about except what they learned from watching "Northern Exposure".

3.) She is a woman, and an attractive one at that.

All of these things make her "other" in the eyes of the mainstream culture. No wonder the ridicule and rage was so swift but the ferocity of the hatred directed at her comes mainly from #1 -- the culture of death can't abide "breeders".

Like the voter with whom Rod spoke, I was pretty tepid about the election, and voting for McCain purely for the life issue and the hope of a good supreme court nomination. Yesterday, I gave them money: the first time I've ever donated to a political campaign. The reason is precisely the harsh attacks of the past few days. They reminded me of the stark decisions we're facing, and the nature of the other side.

The mainstream media has spent months tip-toeing around this empty suit, pretending that a junior senator and radical leftist is worthy of the presidency because of his nice (empty) rhetoric and his creamy mocha skin. Then a woman with the "wrong ideas" gets in the race, and suddenly they're tearing into her and her family like wild animals. Like Clarence Thomas, Palin strayed off the plantation, and that just won't do. The rage this inspired in liberals has been briskly clarifying for many, including me. The idea that Obama has been treated to similar attacks from the mainstream media is delusional, and no one who suggests such a thing is worthy of serious consideration.

So I gave the GOP money, and I've ordered a batch of lawn signs: two things I've never done before. I'm not even registered as a Republican. (My first vote was for Dukakis.) Make of it what you will, but I know I'm not alone.

Speechwriter Matthew Scully is indeed a potent writer, and (according to the WSJ) has been working closely with Palin. I'm sure with his words she will make a good impression.

But from a writer's perspective, I think it's sad that a man like Scully, who loathes cruelty to animals, and people who take pleasure from killing animals for sport, is writing a speech for a woman who thinks hunting from helicopters is perfectly all right.

Sounds like selling your soul to me.

FWIW re: "hands-on experience when it comes to setting foreign policy goals", per Sowell's latest piece, neither McCain nor Obama nor Biden (nor Palin) have any experience actually setting foreign policy goals -- the vast majority of previous Presidential candidates haven't had any either.

Doug Cramer,

I know dozens more myself. You hit it on the head.

You are caring so much about unborn and call an abortion a "murder" but I did not read a word about those already born being killed in Iraq. Bush sent Americans to die in a needless war. May we call him a murderer?

I have a crush on Sarah Palin, and think her family is awesome. Other than Ron Paul and maybe Pat Buchanan, she is the first national pol I've ever felt any real passion for.

When US Weekly slams her as a liar ("Babies, Lies & Scandal"- just the very latest noxious and hysterical slurs I've read against her) - all I can say is the hypocrisy flows pretty freely. Bunch of money and celebrity addled paparazzi scandal mongers ("the stars are just like us!") passing judgment on a mother standing by her daughter who made a mistake, both making courageous moral choices in the public eye.

Let's just say I'm missing all the purported lies and scandal, here.

This is a moment of clarity for me. I know- and love - a lot of people like Sarah and Todd Palin. I'm from small town Northern Maine, and our culture and economy revolve around snowmobiles, fishing and hunting. People there are tough, politically independent, and basically socially conservative. Things sometimes get a little messy, we but mostly work through it. Forgive and forget, judge not, love your neighbor, and hope (and then be glad when) things work out.

So I am very confused. I do not understand all this malice and judgment being thrown at the Palin family. Judgments from people, many of whom would transparently prefer that Bristol Palin have aborted her child.

Cause that's how the hipsters over at the Daily Koz roll: if "god" forbid you ever get a parasite in your tummy, kill it! That's the ethic in Democratic (no, national political) circles. The press and public never know when one of their politician's kids gets knocked up. The baby always dies, and their reputations are safe.

The fact that we know about Bristol's baby, makes me very glad. Her pregnancy would have ended up in the Wassila gossip and Alaskan State press no matter if her mother became Republican VP nominee or not. But Bristol Palin has chosen to bear her child, anyway. She made a mistake, but they're gonna work it through. I love them for it. Tough, principled, unafraid the hypocrites' judgments.

I'll say it again: I admire her, and her family.

I wasn't going to vote this election, being much like Rod's friend, a politically disaffected pro-life Catholic, who loves quixotic things like Wendell Berry and wishes he could still vote for William Jennings Bryan.

But this reminds me: this is a spiritual war. And even if in their cynical calculus I am being used to keep a slew of warmongering usurers into power, the more fundamental fight is very clear:

And I stand emphatically with Bristol Palin, and her baby. I cannot stop the hypocrites in their greed and lust for violence. But I can love and support my friends.

And even if I have never met them, the Palins are friends of mine.

I look forward to voting for Sarah, with pleasure.

I assure you there are more folks than Steve and Doug, myself among them. IMO, we don't talk about it a lot with our face-to-face peers (considering the reaction Steve, Daniel and I get to pro-Obama comments here), but I think the trend will be clear in the voting booth, in the numbers of pro-life voters who go Obama/Biden.

I don't doubt the genuineness of your personal stance, Doug. But polling data suggests there's been no movement at all by religious voters toward the Democrats since 2004.
None.

Certainly many religious people have been disaffected from the GOP, and from the McCain campaign in particular. But they aren't going over to the Democrats or Obama. And anecdotal evidence suggests that the Palin pick has massively excited conservative Christians.

Obama understands this perfectly well. The best evidence that he is writing off whatever religious and pro life support he may have had is his decision this week to run radio ads in key states that present Obama's uncompromising support for abortion the central issue of his campaign.

Let me get this straight:

Barack Obama OPPOSED a bill which would have required the medical aid be given to infants born alive in spite of an attempted abortion, but the GOP position against abortion is the radical one?

Yeah. OOOOO-kay.

What cold is the sky on your planet?

Trust me, Obama doesn't want to have this campaign be about abortion. I can tell you why in four words: Born Alive Protection Act.

I just don't understand why women are being duped into wanting to be super woman. Our societies scales are so off balance and this is the biggest contributor to pregnant teens like Bristol. And yes, I can speak because I was a teen mom. Mothers, when you are absent for whatever reason - disfunctional home, single parenting, working two jobs, addiction, whatever the reason - the odds for having your teen daugther get pregnant or worse, increase significantly.

We, women, yes are needed in the HOME. It does NOT mean we will have perfect children, but won't BEING THERE for your daughters decrease abortions? Single or Teen parenting? Why are we no longer taking stock in our future by nurturing healthy children, sacraficing what we can give to them for what we give to careers??? I charge our relegious and spiritual leaders to urge our mothers to embrace their positions as mothers and focus on family. It is a good question to ask if Mrs. or Mr. Palin did not become engaged enough in their daughter's life choices, what does it say for her to want to further abandond her family to run as VP? That said how good is THAT for the country?

Not that I'm going to vote for her, but I'd be much comforted if she could show some understanding of, or at least respect for, science research and application. Especially as this relates to clean, local energy production and long-term ecological health. She comes from a state that has so few people and so many resources (admittedly dangerous to access) that I don't know if she has any understanding of the complexities regarding resource management in the more populated states. The high tech, energy intensive socitey we live in, combined with a large and increasing population, means issues regarding such water resources and industrial pollution are critical and complex. I don't want a repeat of political appointees editing key portions of scientific reports, and I don't want the next vice president doing as Cheney did here in Oregon when he flew into town, diverted the Klamath river to the farmers and produced a river of dead salmon.

Palin is more qualified than Obama, though neither, IMO, are what I would want in a President. Were Obama the VP pick, I might be more favorable toward the Democrat ticket, or more willing to cut him some slack, just like I cut Palin some slack, since she's the VP pick, not the Presidential nominee.

But Obama is not the VP pick. He's the Democrat idea of a President, not a VP.

No thanks.

Let's go back to the 2nd-place winner in a party's primaries being the VP. Let's take the choice of VP out of the hands of the primary winner and put it back into the hands of the primary voters.

"Before he got seized by "man love" and went over to the Obama campaign, no one had ever heard of Doug Kmiec.'

That's clearly not true, Kmiec was on TV a lot commenting on legal issues from a conservative perspective. He currently has an endowed professorship at Pepperdine where Kenneth Starr is dean. He was the head of the office of legal counsel under Reagan. He's not a manufactured celebrity with a big mouth but a well-known conservative pundit on legal issues.

I really like Governor Palin, but I am finding that I need more information about her and her positions on the issues. She is being asked relevant questions by the press because she is running for high elected office and most people are not very familiar with her. As far as I can tell, Senator McCain's campaign did not thoroughly vet her. Or, if they did, they are not sharing what they learned with the rest of us. I would think that any citizen would want answers to the policy questions that the main stream press have posed because the answers should matter to all of us. She is being considered as a candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States; second in command to a man who is 72 yrs old and who has survived torture and cancer, both of which may shorten his lifespan. I don't wish ill to the good Senator, but these are facts that need to be considered. It is called planning for the worst case scenario and it is a necessary and relevant issue that needs to be addressed.

There is also the question about her newborn baby and meeting his needs. I have worked with families with special needs children and their baby, Tryg, who has Down Syndrome, has special needs that will require an available and emotionally and physically present parent. I wonder who will be attending to and parenting this little guy. Who will be putting in the time that his medical care, infant stimulation, early intervention, and parenting will require in order for him to develop to his full potential? If she runs for VP, I know who will NOT be doing this and, to me, it matters that his needs are optimally met and he is not unintentionally harmed by all of this. If she is not available, then her husband will need to step up into this role. That is my idea of family values, but as far as I can tell, nobody is talking about this.

Those are my thoughts on the presumptive VP candidate and I am looking forward to learning more about her and her positions.

Sarah Palin turned me off, speaking before the Pentecostal Church, Palin painted the current War in IRAQ as a messiarnic affair which could act the will of the Lord. She went on to say pray for our Military men and women who are striving to do what is right. Also, for this country leaders, are sending U.S. solders out on a task tat is from GOD.
She exhorted the congregants sure that we're praying for, that there
is a plan and that plan is GOD'S PLAN.
Familes who has lost love ones in this War must be in a state of shock as i am.
Thanks.

Ok, all you Lib's writing comments on here like your s dissatisfied conservitive...whom are you to cast the fist stone at Palin? You should get the stick out of your own eye! You best read OBAMNATION before you try to make her out as the wrong choice, you don't see the depth of Obama in the media as she has been covered in just a few weeks as compared to 19 months of No in depth look at Obama's assoications and values.. Go Hockey MOM..stick the puck in Washington we in really needs to go ;o)

You do realize that the majority of the speech was written before they even chose a VP.

And for the assumption that a 17 year old telling her mother she is pregnant is based on a "good relationship"? Well let me tell you a true story:

I was 17 and I told my mother I was pregnant... out of fear.

I was a promiscuous 17 year old because I was subjected to years and years of sexual abuse within my family and learned as early as in the first grade that my body was not mine and I was not allowed to say "no". A perfectly normal reaction to a very abnormal situation. It is decades later and I am *still* healing..

In fact, I was lucky I didn't get pregnant from the abuse, however it all occurred over the course of 5 years before I was old enough to bleed so apparently that makes raping a child okay, because you can't knock her up. Of course, I was looked down upon by society, when in reality it was my "perfect family" that was to blame. Yep, as long as things looked good on the outside, that was all that mattered. Sound familiar? I'm just glad it all played out in a small town, not on the national stage. My mother may have been clueless, but she was not that cruel.

So please don't assume that because someone (who from the looks of it would no longer be able to hide it anyway) tells her parents she is pregnant that it is because they have a "good relationship". That is not always the case.

And do keep in mind that she told them when she was so far along that legal abortion was no longer an option.

Thanks to Lisa lou, who reminded us that things are not as they
may seem sometime. Someone has said that the young man with
the pregnant dau. at the convention had posted on his face book
that no F----- Way was he going to marry that girl.
I hope that this whole thing is not a charade putting that
young girl thru for the sake of her mother's ambition.
I pray that the family is truly the loving supporting family
they claim themselves to be. All of those children need parents
who are not so concerned about their racing, hunting,politics, etc.

First I must say that Mrs. Palin read her speech very very well.

I am stunned and shocked however that in promoting such insluts wins her votes?
Since when are we at the such a low level of thought, does she not know that she is losing the independents and those that voted for Hillary?
I am shocked that a supposed world leader, The United States of America, can honestly think that she represents moving forward into the 21st century.

I am a registered Republican and I was planning to vote for John McCain in the great state of New York, but last night I was shocked to hear Mrs. Palin's rhetoric and the sarcasim through me over the top-

She is not a good example- to speak in such a disgraceful way in front of her 5 children, the children that sit in my classroom and young ones around our great nation- You are not successful in the long run if all you have as ammunition are insults!

She not only insluted me but many I know- we are a community a great American community- A strong community builds family. It is clear that her Journalism degree did not teach her about nation building and the construction of 20th century world powers.

I do not wished to be aligned with Russia and in saying that they invaded Georgia for oil she created an analogy with the motives of the Bush Administration in invading Iraq.

I also do not wish to be aligned with Chavez in Venezuela- in stating that the United States wishes to create energy independence- That is what Chavez is doing too!!! I am not Chavez~!!!

What is she doing? doesnt she realize that she is making it seem that we are better than everyone else, in this global world we cant be becasue we have to live with everyone else!!!

I feel like she is sabotaging the race for McCain!!
The McCain ticket has lost my vote and many other Republicn votes in the great state of New York because of Mrs. Palin.

PS how insulting to wear a "Hot for Sarah Palin" button!! That is absolutely sick!

I will be casting a Green Vote this year!

It is interesting that the Palin pick is following exactly the Rove strategy of the last two elections: split the Roman Catholic vote to the Republicans and get 80% of the evangelical vote. Rove was brilliant (well, in the same way Machiavelli was brilliant) in convincing Catholics that GWB was the "Christian" candidate (even though Kerry is RC) and at the same time telling evangelicals that Catholics are more papist than Christian. That he was able to do both was stunning. But what he did that made the real difference was organize at the city block level. The choice of Palin has excited the evangelical base, but excitement isn't enough. The problem (and, from my perspective, the good news) is that 60 days is too little time to organize. Excitement is great, but it's insufficient. The funniest part of this whole thing is the republicans' derisive take on "community organizing", laughing it off as if it were like playing in the sandbox. I've been involved with community organizing now for ten years (and something the republicans leave out or don't know is that Obama's particular "brand" of organizing is congregation-centered organizing, not labor union organizing) and it's clear to me that it was Obama's skill as an organizer that defeated the Clinton machine. He has an organization in every state and they've been working for the last 8 to 18 months. And the people they are working with--the young and many disaffected voters--are people who won't show up in the polling of "likely voters", so things are likely not as "close" as they seem. It's just a riot that the republicans have no idea that the very thing they are dismissing as child's play is Obama's core strength and will put him over the top handily.

Steve

Community organizers save lives, make people have hope and empower them for the future. Sounds like the American Dream to me. When you help others you help yourself. I guess this is where Obama learned about what it means to start from the ground up. He learned that you never look down or mock or belittle others. Thank you for understanding that the people at the bottom have pride in themselves and want to do better. You are on the pulse of small town and middle America. When Sarah Palin treated community work so badly, I shook my head. She was not attacking Obama she was attacking community activism. For all the community activist out there do not be discouraged you are needed and appreciated for your dedication, hardwork that goes unappreciated and your love for the world to become a better place. To bad Guliani, Palin and the republican party don't get it. My hats off to all the community workers out there, we need you more than you need us.

I am a Republican and I do not and will not support Palin as Vice President. Her cruelty towards animals is unacceptable. Her way of hunting is not hunting...it is a coward's way. She is barbaric. I wanted to like her, and I really did at first...until I found out about her. If she gets in office our wildlife will disappear faster than it already is. Please, please, please, do not vote a woman like this in office. A woman vice president would be wonderful, but not THIS woman. She didn't even know what the vice president did a month ago. That speaks volumes about her...that and her sadistic cruelty. I am so disappointed in her...she doesn't believe in womens' rights, she doesn't want to recognize that many of our animals are endangered, she makes rape victims pay for their own kits, and she also allowed a law to let people shoot dogs if they annoy a neighbor. The more I find out about Palin, the more I despise her.