I fervently hope for several things. I hope and pray that the audience that saw and heard the Sarah Palin speech was the largest in TV history. I hope every American listened closely to every word. I hope that the Republicans do not have a plan to dump her and that she survives on the ticket through Election Day. And I hope Sarah Palin gives a version of that speech in every state, and every city and every town in America and is heard by tens of millions of people.
Sarah Palin may be the most skilled politician in America. Sarah Palin may be the dangerous woman in America. That may not be enough - she may be the most dangerous person in America. She has a combination of beliefs and qualities which make her so. In her attitude about government and its role and uses, she has strong leanings to the libertarian side of the Republican party. She does not like government, does not want to use government, and campaigns against it. On social issues, she leans strongly to the conservative side of the party invoking such things as denying basic womens rerpoductive rights, advocating the teaching of creationsim in schools, banning books from public libraries and replacing sex education with one word - abstinence. By itself, I can think of no more powerful combination which would destroy much of what we have built here in America.
Now add her personal qualities to that powerful political combination. She is a very attractive woman. A package with such pretty wrapping is hard to resist and forces you to keep looking. And she can deliver a speech very well - perhaps better than any other speaker at the Republican convention.
You put that all together and its some combination. But its not a combination that will work in favor of the American people. She sticks to the script even though the script has been shown to be a work of fiction. She still rejected the bridge to nowhere in her speech even though we all now know she first fought for it until the writing was on the wall. She rails and preaches against Congressional earmarks, although she championed them as a recipient as mayor of that little town in Alaska.
And she delivered both of those lines with a smile on her face and with the most heartfelt sincerity you would ever want to see.
The biggest lines that received the most applause were the throwing red meat to the starving dogs smart-ass sarcasm. She had one sarcastic, smart-alecky line after another. Its like she got her coaching from the ghost of Lenny Bruce or they brought Don Rickles in for the event. And she delivered each of those barbs of partisan sarcasm really well. Perfect timing - other than the waiting a few too many times for the applause - beautiful smile, good reading skills using the teleprompter - just all around excellent delivery. She was smug, condescending and offensive.
I hope America sees this. Excessive smart-alecky sarcasm does not wear well on most people and particularly on a woman. A little bit is fine, and like pepper, goes a long long way. A moderate amount can be tolerated from the best like Rickles. But a boatload of it is overkill that only the most True Believer crowd could accept, embrace and love as this one did.
I previously called Sarah Palin possibly the most dangerous person in America. I believe this unique combination of philosophy, belief, skill and appeal could well help to destroy everything good this country has built since the 1930's and Franklin Roosevelt first introduced us to The New Deal. Somebody with the skills of a Sarah Palin could close lots of deals that a lesser talent could not close.
I hope everybody watched this. And then I hope everybody reads about her efforts to muzzle public employees who work for her. And then I hope everyone reads how she tried to get books banned at the local library when she was mayor. And then I hope everyone reads about how she campaigned for governor on a platform of public safety and against crime but then cut budgets impacting those areas despite the treasury being awash in surplus money. I hope everyone spruces up on the social pathologies of Alaska, high drug abuse, soaring alcoholism rates, high violent crime rates and high school dropout rates. And then they ask why as governor did she not use some of those extra monies to fight some of those things?
I think the way you defeat someone like this is to give them all the light of day to shout their message from the rooftops. Let them preach to the masses. Let her use her sarcastic lines over and over and over again until people can recite them word for word with her.
And then you simply tell the truth.
