If the Obama Bin Biden campaign managers are participating in anyway in the current media feeding frenzy then they are likely to rue that decision. If they are not, they better figure out a way to destroy the canvass the media and some pundits are painting of Sarah Palin. The bar is being lowered in such a dramatic fashion that if Sarah Palin can walk, smile, and talk in complete sentences without crying she will triumph. The folks busy trying to portray her as a northern version of the Elly May Clampett beware. You’ve set the expectations at a level that most folks will expect Palin to appear before the Republican Convention wearing a bearskin, toothless, breast feeding her baby and unable to speak without drooling on herself. Richard Roper reportedly referred to her as Ted Nugent with a vagina. Well, isn’t that special.
But what happens when she stands before thousands of convention goers and millions of viewers and turns out to be funny, normal, and blessed with an enormous amount of common sense? Oh, oh. No question there is alot riding on her speech. She could bomb and that would torpedo McCain. Game over. But if she does not bomb, it is likely a game changer. The questions swirling around her and her family will only gin up more interest in her and what she has to say.
Do you remember Dan Quayle’s initial appearance with George H.W. Bush? Are you familiar with the expression, “don’t act like it is your first time in the end zone?” Well, Quayle acted like it was his very first time. He was so excited and so enthusiastic that he looked like a winner of the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes. He came across as a lightweight.
Palin certainly did not remind anyone of Quayle during her first appearance. She correctly projected the attitude of someone pleased to be asked to do the job, but also came across as a serious person. Go ahead. Underestimate her. Make fun of her. And attack her children. Her ability to take on and defeat the Republican old boys club in Alaska should be a warning to the Democrats and Obama fawning pundits, who are making fun of her small town roots and common sense. She is not afraid to fight battles that most seasoned politicians run from. And she does not fight for a tie. She won. Palin comes from a land where mother bears watching over their young can be extremely dangerous. You don’t want to cross them. And judging from Palin’s past, I think the same warning is warranted.
No Quarter
9/2/8
Magnolia Tribune
