As the world waits with bated breath for Sarah Palin's speech tonight accepting the Republican nomination for Vice President, it is important to remember what an empty and meaningless event it will really be.
Her speech is being written by a team of Republican speech writers, and probably not a single word in it will be written by her. To the extent that it addresses specific issues, she will probably have no personal knowledge or experience regarding those issues. In fact, she will probably be allowed to speak only in generalities and slogans, because her handlers are no doubt terrified that she may later be questioned about something specific contained in her speech.
I would be shocked if she were to specifically address any of the controversial issues swirling about her and the process of her selection. So we will gain no new understanding of these matters.
In essence, tonight's speech will reflect one thing and one thing only -- how good she is at memorizing or reading someone else's words on a teleprompter in a convincing manner. And we already know that she is skilled at reading other people's words on a teleprompter, having seen footage of her reading sports scores as early as 1988 for a KTUU-TV Anchorage television news program:
http://www.youtube.com/...
We will get absolutely no measure of the woman from tonight's speech. All we will learn is if she has the poise to read a speech being viewed by millions of people without appearing excessively nervous.
The nation deserves much better than this. But this is all that the Republican party will offer us tonight.