Fish out of water.

[icarus]

Typed as I watched Palin's speech:

Welcome to amateur hour. She's totally out of her league. She's not used to being on camera and keeps twitching her hands in a weak sort of hammer motion. Her voice is nasal and strangled. She's not very dramatic as a speaker and has the pedantic manner of a first grade teacher. Her hair is in her eyes. She keeps smirking at her own jokes.

She can deliver a cutting remark. But falls apart when it's supposed to be inspiring. How is she able to kill a section on McCain's torture and survival?

A well-written, should-be-stirring, but poorly delivered speech. She knows it's dying. Her manner is scared and growing dispirited. She's not able to hide it either, she just doesn't have the experience. The audience seems more professional than her.

Ah. They've trotted out her family. That works. What a cute baby.

McCain just came out. Oh, what a relief to see him. Here is a pro who belongs at this level.

Palin is a fish out of water, more like a city council member than a governor. I guess Alaska is pretty low-key and local. There's no way this woman could handle beltway politics.


ETA: Republican bloggers say that she seemed off-balance because her teleprompter broke. That story is bullcrap.

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm not inclined to believe them, but her poor performance last night doesn't matter in the face of her poor performance in Alaska.

She left Wasilla deeply in debt, spending money on big ticket showpieces (a park, a stadium) when they needed a sewer system. Instead of steadily building roads over a five year period, which would have required no borrowing, she borrowed heavily and put the small city into debt. She had the city build on land the city technically didn't own, and that's now been in litigation for seven years, draining Wasilla of funds. She left most of the daily work running Wasilla in the hands of an admistrator.

She has consistantly abused her power persuing petty grudges: first when she was mayor, she went after the librarian's job because the librarian refused to ban books. There was an outcry in the town and Palin was stopped.

She's currently enmeshed in a scandal as governor where she demanded a state trooper (who'd divorced a family member of hers be fired). She claimed she had nothing to do with that, but now it's been proved that there were two dozen contacts demanding the trooper's firing. She then fired Alaska's top cop for standing up against her. Her recommendation for his replacement was a man with a charge of sexual harrassment. He was withdrawn after a public outcry.

She's known to be vengeful and speaking out against her in small town rural Alaska is guaranteed to be met with reprisals.

Her vaunted "maverick" and "warrior against corruption" is based solely on her quitting an oil commission job. But she has a long history with earmarks. Locals say she just hated the job and the commute, and found an excuse to quit.

Her level of experience is so very low, and her performance has been poor at every level.

[rabidfan.livejournal.com]

For someone that the McCain camp supposedly "completely vetted", it would seem that she brings a lot of unpleasant baggage with her that can only harm a presidential run. Why, when there has to be other women (if that was the aim) with right-wing/evangelical (if that was the aim) affiliations with a less problematic past did they choose her?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I have no idea. And I think they're bonkers.

Apparently that adorable baby of hers has Downs syndrome. My aunt Marianne had a mentally disabled child -- taking care of him was time-consuming. What is Palin going to do as VP? Dump him on a nanny?

[rabidfan.livejournal.com]

I would imagine she already has them built in...she has lots of older children and a husband. It's not like he's going to be an oil worker once they're living in Washington. I wonder how those conversations go over at the dinner table. I can't imagine most men being very happy with that sort of spot light on their family dynamics.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yep. I was right to doubt it.

The teleprompter story is bullcrap (http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/The_teleprompter_did_not_break.html). It scrolled a little fast but that's normal for teleprompters.