Disappointed in Palin's Speech

You have said it exactly right! Thank you for this article. I am so fearful of more partisanship, and it seems the Palin speech has just polarized the two parties again. This is terrible for the country. I thought we were going to move forward, but this has set us back once again.

She had been scathed for about five days straight... she brought humor into her humorless situation that the media and other opponents had placed on her... she had a huge load to bare, standing in front of the entire world, McCain's campaign on her shoulders, and if she would have messed up they would be eating her alive right now...

The president is somebody that leads other people... her humor was a sign of leadership and an affective way of challenging an opponent without coming across as angry or unpersonably nasty. If the other side has leadership abilities they will be able to aptly counter these challenges and put their opponents back on defense again... if not? well, a little humor can come in handy.

I agree completely with this article. Palin used a mocking tone, show casing only a smirking disrespect for Barack Obama, without offering any substantive solutions to America's problems. And seeing the republican solution to the energy and environmental crisis being summed up as drill baby drill - talk about a short termed, small minded, anti creation persective.

Chris, don't used that osama line, it just shows weakness and typifies the current approach of the out of ideas republican party, if you don't have any real solutions for america - just attack attack attack.

Her first job, frankly, was to introduce herself to the country. She did.
She also needed to show that sleaze like Babygate is so hurtful that it should be abandoned or that she's tough and purposeful enough to stay on task despite it. She did the latter quite well.
Anyone who faults her for not delivering a deep and substantive speech is really, really naive or was going into the speech looking for fault the way I went into it looking for moxie. I found what I was looking for - and so did Ms. Vanderslice.

Actually, you don't 'run' for VP. Nobody votes for VP. The VP is 'along for the ride'. At best, some who pull the lever (maybe many) for president do so because they liked their VP pick.

However, what is the actual, and indeed, nearly the ONLY job of the VP, if the President they are 'attached' to is elected?

To be ready to serve as PRESIDENT if the President is unable to fulfill his duties due to illness, injury, death or resignation (or any other reason that might come up).

So, being qualified to be President is absolutely something that has to be considered in a VP pick.

After all, that's how we got Presidents Tyler, Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Arthur, Roosevelt, Coolidge, Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ford.

That's 9 Presidents out of 43. Or almost 20 percent.

I totally agree--at a time when this country needs unity the hypocritical Republicans can only fall back on their usual Rush Limbaugh style of attack, be snarky, and avoid the issues. Sarah Palin towed the line in her speech and did nothing to reach out to women, the poor, minorities, or the disenfranchised. She also put down the idea of doing community service as being irresponsible (for a party so against government offering a helping hand, they also seem to scorn those who dedicate their lives to helping others without the help of government)--conveniently neglecting the fact that Obama gave up a lucrative career to work in his community and that he went on to serve in city, state and federal government (sorry--that's more experience than Ms.Palin can offer). As far as the problems within her family, I, as a Democrat, know that people are fallible and feel that the personal matters of the candidates should not be fodder for the press (e.g., having a 16 year old pregnant daughter)--therefore the Republicans will get the grace of that over-riding character of the Democratic Party, but without a doubt, if the shoe was on the other side of the political fence, the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Ann Coulter would be all over it (any outrage at the blogs suggesting Obama is a Muslim/terrorist?). Cynical, sarcastic, hypocritical--compassionate only in the months leading up to an election. Unbelievable (literally).

She made a great speech and she seems very confident and that's a big part of what being a politician is about. But what about what she said:

Obama's tax plan is going to cost the average taxpayer more? How does she figure that? Find any independent economic expert that comes to that conclusion.

She said no to the bridge to nowhere? Well, kind of. She original supported it big-time when it helped her politically, then she turned an about face when it hurt her politically. And McCain's claim she saved the taxpayers 40 million by stopping that bridge. Truth is, she kept the 40 million dollars in Alaska and used it towards other projects.

She's a good speaker and will probably make a great politician, but I don't like being lied to.

All I saw were really old white people with guns and pregnant daughters shouting "drill baby drill"...
Perfect for our country, exactly what we need more of.