The American Spectator

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Poetry in Motion

9.5.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 7)

And the ugly attacks, you know the ones I am referring to, they make the attackers look ugly. Obama tries to keep his distance, but his defenders are destroying themselves, and making him look bad by association.

Meanwhile, they are giving her an opportunity to look good by responding with grace, which she is succeeding in doing. In one fell swoop, they are setting her up to prove that she is the right pick, by weathering their storm. Obama may have 3 yrs of campaigning nationally for President, (starting only half a year after taking office as Senator), but he has not had to face this type of ugliness.

Up to now, Obama has always won by fighting dirty. But this time, he may have met his match in Sarah Palin, a smiling bull dog in lipstick. Truly she is "The Right Lady."
-- Jim Bailey

Sarah Palin delivered a powerful speech. No doubt Democrats are less confident now than they were 24 hours ago.

In spite of all the MSM hoopla over the impending "culture war" during the remainder of this campaign, what struck me watching the convention last night is the large degree to which the GOP has been co-opted by left wing 60's values. To wit, you have Sarah Palin. Governor of Alaska. GOP vice presidential candidate. Hockey mother of five children. When introduced by Senator McCain she praised Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton and the 18 million sisters who have put as many cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America. Sure there are differences of opinion concerning reproductive rights and other issues, but women are intelligent individuals of good will who can have honest policy differences. Last night was a 60's feminist's wildest dream come true.

Marginalized, silenced and possibly nearly extinct are the types who think Sara should be home in the kitchen marinating the moose and raising her five children. And, if she had just been doing her job, Bristol would still be a virgin. Gone are the days when illegitimacy brought embarrassment, humiliation and shame to the family. Okay, maybe this doesn't constitute the GOP's full embrace of sex, drugs and rock and roll, but the airport meeting wasn't a scene out of Leave It to Beaver either. Perhaps the greatest service Bristol Palin has done for this country is to remind us of the fact that it was the intolerant, judgmental right that made what was once considered "private issues" into political wedge issues. I don't recall seeing the milk of human kindness flowing from the pens of the pious in defense of Jamie Lynn Spears or her family. Perhaps one has to be Republican to merit that grace. Nevertheless, to see GOP back away from this is a good thing.

Boys and girls: this is not your granddad or your dad's GOP and last night was not their nominating convention either. As W dirt bikes off into the sunset, I wonder if Ike, Barry, Richard and Ronald are spinning in their graves.
-- Mike Roush

Enough already. Yes, the Right has to offset the vitriolic attacks of the Looney Left, but the hyperbole from the Right is equally disquieting. Governor Palin is a fantastic choice from and for McCain. She is articulate, strong, pugnacious, tenacious, and, not to ignore the elephant in the room, a beautiful and vivacious woman. Palin is an accomplished fighter of the corrupt, a righter of wrongs. Governor Palin drives the Left to distraction because she is all they idealize -- in theory. Palin is all they could ask for -- except that she is a staunch Republican. Palin has the potential to be the heir to the Reagan revolution, but she is not the Second Coming (of Ronald Reagan).

When McCain first announced his choice for VP, a collective "Who!?!" could be heard around the country. Many, both Left and Right, spoke of Palin's advantage of low expectations. Once the Left saw the true woman, they understood she was a real threat to them and launched an unprecedented attack campaign against her. (That the attacks are highly hypercritical and without basis in truth do not completely negate their effects.) The Right has since gone beyond damage control and into an insane frenzy of their own. Palin may very well prove to be all that people say she is, but only in time. If Palin falls short of the mark, it will largely be due to how high the bar has been raised by the very people who wish to see her succeed. (The gods invented irony for their own amusement.)

Remember well the words of Fredrick Nietzsche, "Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated."
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

Gov. Palin's speech Wednesday night amounted to nothing less than a game winning, walk off, home run. I look forward with anticipation to the VP debate between Gov. Palin and Sen. Biden. I fully expect it to be a walk off, grand slam to win the series. My only disappointment is that Gov. Palin is not at the top of the ticket with McCain as her VP. I will hope for a one term McCain administration with a GOP ticket of Sarah Palin and Gov. Bobby Jindal in 2012, and hope that I am still here to see it, even though that might be enough to cause the socialist republic of New England to attempt to secede. I expect that California will join Mexico, and Oregon and Washington will join Canada if such a ticket were to be elected.
-- Ken Shreve

In the election of 2012 Sarah Palin will beat Mrs. Bill Clinton like a rented mule.
-- Frederick Baughman

CHECKMATE
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s A Surge of Confidence:

What a scream. Criticism the Obama people/MSM throw at Mrs. Palin merely call attention to the deficiencies of the Democrat candidates. Did the GOP war room guys foresee this? If so, what a checkmate. Even Bristol's pregnancy has played a dirty trick on the Dems. By trying to use attacks on Bristol to attack her mother, they put themselves in the position of railing against pre-marital sex, free love, things dear to the hearts of Lefties. I think the Obama people should demand a maternity test.
-- Ty Knoy
Ann Arbor, Michigan

That the Democrat media is up in arms against Sarah Palin reveals how frightened they are of her. That they are covering up the fraud case of Joe Biden's brother and son is to be expected. Pregnant teenagers are fair game for sexual harassment, but lying and cheating adult siblings and offspring are off limits -- typical of America's second rate Democrat propagandists. That Obama and Biden's anti-Semitic and anti-Israel record are being ignored is par for the course just as is their indifference to Obama's links to felons and terrorists and Biden's lifelong ethical lapses. One wonders if Obama's choice for a running mate was influenced by his funneling millions of tax payer dollars to one of Biden's sons? That the Democrat nominee is friends with a terrorist and receiving campaign contributions from foreign Muslims with terrorist contacts means appeasing our enemies will be even easier for Democrats, because their candidate is owned by them, but that isn't newsworthy.

Letter to the Editor

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