Miscellaneous

Palin etc

By jeremyblachman

I don't understand the insistence that this is the biggest speech of Palin's life, and this speech will make or break her vice-presidential candidacy, and that we are somehow going to know something more about Sarah Palin after her speech tonight. Her speech, like every speech at these conventions, is being written by speechwriters and vetted by advisors and crafted with great care to get across whatever message it is they are trying to get across. Whether it is a good speech or a bad speech is no more a reflection on Sarah Palin than whether her outfit is pretty or not. Sure, she might have some input into the speech -- I'm sure she's had some input into the speech -- but does it really say anything about her if the speech is awesome? Or if it's terrible? It says whether or not the McCain speechwriters are any good, and whether Palin is any good at reading a teleprompter and standing in front of a big audience and talking. Those are perfectly nice skills to have when running for office, but who cares? So the speech will be fine, and afterwards all the commentators will be talking about how she really proved her mettle tonight and the media will really have to ease up on her... because she read some scripted words out loud and didn't trip over herself on the way to the stage? I don't get it. I don't get why Obama's speech last week got everyone so excited -- we know he's a good speaker, and a bright guy, and we assume that he has access to some pretty awesome speechwriters, so what does it tell us? -- and I don't get why the media are playing up tonight's speech, or any of these convention speeches, like they demonstrate more than they really do.

Full post as published by Jeremy Blachman's Brand New Weblog on September 03, 2008 (boomark / email).