A Fine Figure of a Republican
Lee on Sep 03 2008 at 11:13 pm | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Lee's Page
The title is what Time Magazine labeled New Jersey’s Senator William Warren Barbour in 1940. The expression takes on a better curve for Sarah Palin, but it fits the occasion of a very partisan and frankly rather phenomenal speech tonight (transcript).
I suppose I’m surprised by the surprise in so many media reactions I’m seeing. Then again it’s a reminder that we on the pro-Palin political right have been following Sarah for over a year now, and this sort of thing is still very much an introduction for others.
Michael Crowley for instance calls Palin’s speech “alarmingly strong” and describes emails from liberal colleagues as “panicked.” I think that’s probably an ungenerous assessment. There is afterall a reason so many on the left have been trying to destroy her these past few days. You saw it this evening. Sarah does have a certain magic. Even when she fumbles in a long speech as she can, it tends to amplify her humanity. A characteristic interestingly shared with Barack Obama and almost totally alien to wizened veterans.
The amplitude of the attention and the stress of the experince is of course very new for Sarah, but you’d never know it from looking at her tonight. I realized I’d become a little emotionally invested in this candidate over the course of the week, with its grotesque slander and innuendo campaigns in the press. When the Republican party in assembly gave her a near endless welcoming ovation I kept saying “don’t cry, don’t cry,” which was slightly sexist for Sarah and slightly for my own sad benefit.
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I think Palin is a credit to how strong a woman can be when going through adversity. She spoke as though she was unscathed by the criticisms that befell her this past week. Being a single mom who raised 5 children, I was highly impressed and felt that she was my kind of gal.
… I kept saying “don’t cry, don’t cry,” …
Heh, I was thinking the same thing. I kept watching her for signs of becoming verklempt, but she just looked happy and natural.