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]

Hahahaha!

Actually, it would very difficult to not seem mean or condescending.

[bramble-rose.livejournal.com]

*g* ah. So maybe we won't be hearing so much anymore about her vast experience governing vs the inexperienced newcomer Obama?

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

From the Guardian reporter Oliver Burkeman's convention liveblog: "The "reform" line that Palin made plain tonight is crucial to them. It's what justifies McCain's selection of an outsider; alchemically, it turns a lack of experience into a plus point."

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

If you have to work to turn weaknesses into a plus, doesn't that mean you have weaknesses in the first place? I mean, they shouldn't have to spin her credentials out of the gate.

[bramble-rose.livejournal.com]

I don't think I understand. That's good? Is it a distancing thing from the current administration?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I think that's the strategy: a fresh outsider to take on Washington, by golly! They need to deal with the fact that most people feel the country is going in the wrong direction, and that the Republican party got us into this mess in the first place.

Too bad she showed up for the fight in oven mitts instead of boxing gloves, eh? She didn't come off as someone who could take on Washington at all.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, that line's an outright lie. She was mayor of a town of 9,000 and governor for exactly 1.5 years. She's bush league.

[elf]

Oh, but she had nearly a decade of experience on the city council first! Of a town of, my, several thousand people, all of pretty much the same religion and cultural heritage, with strong social ties to each other! (The town's pop has been estimated between 6500 and 9000, depending on when in her "career" you look.)

...I think the Yuletide Treasures coordinators have more management experience.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yultide coordinators for VP? *waves a little flag*

I lived in DC for some time, and beltway politics are ruthless and brutal. If she and McCain won, she would be so lost.