I spent the first few days reserving much judgment about Palin. I first became worried when she was introduced to the public by McCain last Friday when she apparently believed she could cherrypick her way through history by scooping up Hillary supporters. Now, she has impressed me less and less with each day. It's not just about the questionable investigations. It's not just about her experience and readiness. It's mainly that she can assume, rather superficially, that she can win over people by agitating emotions, not relating to their deep problems. Ms. Palin, we the American people are not impressed by this.
The speech would have been the 2nd "hail mary" by the McCain campaign. The speech was predictably vitriolic and, to me, it screams desperation. That is a key pattern to be noted here. Obama needs to keep his theme going, but now must shift gears and be much more forceful. Talk about what is at stake if we are divided. And, honestly, I do strongly trust Obama and Biden to tear apart Palin's spiteful speech. However, it must happen first. Democrats MUST sell the point that they are the ones who can right the country. It isn't a given. That being said, let's move on to some of these matters.
Apparently, Palin couldn't care less about division. Notice how she contrasted the cities and everyone else. Suddenly, "community organizer" is a derogatory word. The red meat attacked more than politicians, but the electorate itself.
McCain and Palin are insouciant. These were the people who told us it "wasn't important" when troops came home from Iraq, as though they were objects to be used for some logistical purpose. These were the ones who told us the economy was strong, even as families who fell victim to predatory lending and now face foreclosure sink into divorce, violence, depression, or suicide. They have been careless enough now to insist, rather cynically, that the American people can be driven by vitriol and not the issues themselves. It was an egregiously self-centered, self-pitying litany.
I have faith we will. I don't want to speak to soon, but I believe the McCain camp is peaking. This is not a prideful thought. It's a disturbing thought, because it speaks volumes about where we are as a nation. In a country where 37 million people now live in poverty, where some of the most depressed corners of Washington or Detroit have higher rates of AIDS than some sub-Saharan African nations, and where the answer to a crippling violent crime rate is to ignore the continuous generation of new criminals under the spell of poverty or abandonment and instead use violent means to kill off prisoners, this is a very poor standing for a country that prides itself as being number one in the world. The speakers at the Republican convention continued to shrug these alarming issues and distract those who are not directly affected with pseudo-issues.
It's clear that Palin, using venom to intentionally keep people asunder and distracted, has now confirmed that she is willing to gamble the odds of winning with the prospect of her irrelevance and her legacy being remembered as disgraceful. Now, McCain, who is responsible for sponsoring Sarah Palin, has done just the same to himself. But this is so as long as people can trascend this garbage. The electorate must say NO to this. The clocks have begun to count down.