Not on the Fence. Can't Even See It.

I missed part of Gov Palin's speech at the RNC, so I went to the NY Times website and read the original text. Her pregnant teenage daughter, who is all over the news in the last two days, got her name mentioned once, but McCain's totally irrelevant experience as a POW was gone over in detail. Twice. 

There was a very odd small town sentiment to the evening, especially when you include Rude Guiliani's speech. They seem to think that if you were going to be leader of one of the most powerful countries in the modern world, it's better to be an "aw, shucks" small town hick that doesn't know cream of wheat from créme brulée, than to be erudite and worldly. To that end, a few people noticed that Palin was guilty of one of the worst Bushisms- pronouncing nuclear as "nu-q-lar." Well, somebody's about to get fired, because the speech was sent out to, and published by  the press exactly as the beauty queen read it- with "new-clear" spelled out phonetically to make sure she doesn't sound like the ignorant redneck she is.

I love how she talked truthfully about Obama's plan to raise taxes, but didn't mention that it would be done by eliminating the loopholes only available to the rich. It was fantastic that she bragged about firing her governor's chef, when she also brags about killing and skinning caribou, and her love of mooseburgers. Might as well throw in her recipe for mayonnaise casserole. It was sheer genius to admit her belief that enemies of the state should not be given the benefit of basic human rights when she said, "Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America... he's worried that someone won't read them their rights?" It was absolutely hilarious that she thinks Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's first name is pronounced "Terry." I was disappointed that she only used the word "maverick" three times, but she made up for it by saying:

"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change."

This from the woman who, just last spring decided to give a half hour speech at a governor's conference in Texas- almost an hour after her water broke while she was carrying a child that she knew had Down's Syndrome and was about to come three weeks early. Not only did she stick around to give the speech, she got on a plane and flew back to Alaska to give birth. Now, I'm not a doctor, and I think the best kids are billy goats, however, I have heard something said against pregnant woman flying in the third trimester. It probably has something to do with there not usually being doctors and medical equipment on commercial airlines (she'd sold the Governor's Jet on eBay). She wasn't trying to promote her career. If you're a governor, even going into labor takes a backseat to being on a national stage, right? Do we really need a woman who makes this kind of judgment call to be VP to a cancerous 72 year old with a bad ticker?