Sarah Speaks

She gave a pretty good acceptance speech, Palin did -- she is an effective speaker. Took a couple cheap shots at Obama, but that's part of the deal -- and it will undoubtedly get folks to thinking she's tough. That will include the Democrats, I suspect, and having put the chip on her shoulder, I would expect to see somebody quick to knock it off.

You want to play? Fine. Catch this.

One of the reasons the D's have lost elections in the past is that they aren't quick enough to sling the mud back when it hits them. I believe they might have learned that lesson.

Gonna be interesting to watch.

Palid -- oops, typo, but an interesting one, I'mon leave it -- didn't really offer much more about who she is, and I think that should have been part of it. Some of her claims for what she did and didn't do for Alaska are going to be found wanting -- already had the PBS guys shaking their heads -- She told the feds she didn't want their Bridge to Nowhere -- but she took their money and didn't give it back.

Hello?

I don't much care for the shoot-the-wolves-and-bears-from-the-air stuff, either. It's one thing to sneak up on Bambi's mother on the ground, but it seems rather unsporting to do it from a helicopter. She's seen to many Die Hard movies, maybe.

If it turns out Palin forced a guy of of his job because he wouldn't fire her ex-brother-in-law from the state patrol, she's toast. Doesn't go with the "reformer" tag to be caught doing that kind of thing. But she's hired a lawyer, and maybe she's innocent.

I think the main effect of Palin's speech, for me, anyhow, was to delineate the differences between the R's and the D's. No clouds in the visions -- here's one, here is the other, choose the one that you like best.

Or, as is often the case, the one that you dislike least.

So far, the R's attempts to replace Obama with McCain as the candidate of change seem pitiful, and I think that will be a hard row to hoe. In order to be new and improved, you have to be new, and McCain has been there a while. He gave up the title of maverick when he rolled over on his back and let the Current Occupant scratch his belly at the previous Republican convention. I respected the guy until then. After that, not so much.

And all the whistling past the graveyard trying to show that Palin has more experience than Obama and Biden combined is a two-ton tub of cotton candy -- no substance and sure to rot your teeth if you eat it.

Leaving out the personal stuff about being willing make her daughter into the most infamous unwed pregnant teen on the planet -- which I personally don't think reflects the kind of thing a self-styled "hockey mom" would leap at the chance to do, the contention that being the mayor of Podunk and Governor of Alaska, with more bears than people (at least until the choppers get into the air) is better qualified than a couple of U.S. Senators to run the White House? Silly on the face of it. Last Governor of a big state, no previous chops save running a baseball team, who got the job is the Current Occupant, and we all see how well that went. War. Famine. Death. Can Pestilence be far behind?

Lot of style, Palin, but not much substance, and what there was of it was not to my taste. I could not, in good conscience, vote for anybody who opposes abortion in all cases, including rape or incest; is ready to drill all over Alaska and everywhere else there's an empty lot for oil that won't be a drop in the bucket -- and that not for ten years; nor keep the war in Iran going for a hundred years, if that's what it takes to win a "victory."

McCain isn't the right guy this time; neither is Palin the right woman. My opinion. And my vote will reflect it. Usually, I urge people to vote, regardless of their choice, to be part of the process. Not this time. If you want to vote for McCain/Palin, stay home. We'll be better off as a nation. Four more years of Almost George is a bad idea. Throw in Dr. Laura, it gets worse ...