I saw the speech waiting to meet the (delayed) New York plane at the Toronto Island Airport last night. There was a small crowd of incoming passengers (Montreal, Ottawa, so presumably mostly Canadian) waiting for the ferry to the city, standing in a semi-circle in front of the TV on the terminal wall, gathered there only after the previous speakers, who had been generally ignored. Mostly silent, some grimacing occasionally in disgust, some laughing openly or shaking their heads and smiling at various parts of the speech. Two or three guys (no women) chuckled at the "hockey mom" joke, which was about the only positive reaction I saw. Everything else was neutral or negative. The comments I could overhear were all of the same nature - - "election bullshit" and seemed to be an indictment not so much of Palin but of any and every politician of any and every party. I didn't get the sense that any of the people I overheard would have reacted any more favourably to Joe Biden. The ferry came in while she was still speaking and not one of the 30 or 40 waiting passengers and crew wanted to wait the 15 minutes till the next ferry to hear the end of her speech, which probably says something about the quality of it.
My own reaction was that this was a speech I had expected, she covered all the bases, didn't fuck up anywhere, but (and I say this with the Obama-and-his-teleprompter comments in mind) she clearly gave the impression of doing a good job of reading or reciting a speech that more sophisticated writers had prepared for her - - mechanically going through the motions. On the personal parts of her "story," I didn't connect. It sounded rehearsed, too carefully crafted, insincere. The promise to "special needs" parents particularly grated, somehow sounding like, "I'll help you with your problems when your problems are the same as mine," but that was as far as it went.
This was NOT the "out of the ballpark" speech that would be needed to dispel the negatives that are gathering around her. The hyperbolic claims both as to her competence and the Democratic ticket's incompetence rang hollow even as they were being spoken, with a partisan audience's cheers ringing in the background, but in the light of day they will appear to be truly pathetic.
The woman is the definition of lightweight, her own family is the living antithesis of her positions on sex ed, abortion and "family values" generally - - and I think when people understand what it means to be the mother of a Down syndrome child, they'll come to understand that nobody can be that and the President of the United States of America at the same time.
If anyone thinks she "knocked it out of the park," I did not see a single reaction from anyone in last night's little crowd that would indicate she hit a home run, or even gave a particularly effective speech. I think her speech was unremarkable in all respects, C+ to B-, which would be OK in a client of average qualifications for the job, but she's facing heavy criticism for being under-qualified and thus needed more than an "OK" speech.
