Associated Press - Palin stretched the truth in speech

Well the speech is over and to the surprise of no one, Sarah Palin did a good job.

But a few things caught my eye -

1. That attack on the media will backfire. As articles have shown, we don't know that much about her. Hell, McCain didn't know that much about her when he selected her. Trying to bully the media isn't going to play out well publicly. It just gives the impression that the campaign has something to hide.

2. All of that talk about attracting Hilary Clinton voters just went out of the window. Palin did nothing concilatory to appeal to those women. Her tone was mean and sarcastic. The delegates may have loved it but remember some of those same delegates loved Pat Buchanan's 1992 speech and we all know how that played out.

3. The crack about community organizers and the comment about Obama wanting to read terrorists their rights are going to backfire on her.

4. And the most important thing (by way of Americablog), Palin was highly deceptive about many things in her speech:

Ballsy move to lie to America during one's introductory speech. But, that's what Palin did tonight. AP said Palin "stretch[ed] the truth. She lied:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

The gloves are truly off here. When the hype and afterglow of Palin's speech is over, I am interested in seeing what is going to happen.


The Palin paradox and other things (because it's not all about her)

In the words of Addison DeWitt in All About Eve, tonight Sarah Palin will give the performance of her life.

No matter how the media tries to hype her speech up as a do or die situation, we all know how it's going to end. She is going to walk out to the podium under thunderous applause before her speech and will be hailed as a "gutsy underdog" when it's over.

Short of cutting a loud fart in front of the microphone, Palin will do just fine tonight, causing conservatives to heap her with more platitudes than Michael Jackson received when he started winning awards for the Thriller album.

But I find the line of defense that she is being attacked due to sexism highly funny. It would be more funny it if weren't insulting.

For months, we have all be inudated by claims, phony anecdotes, and out-and-out lies about Barack Obama.

And when folks pushing those claims got called to the carpet, they feigned shock saying "oh so it's wrong to even criticize Barack Obama. We are only just trying to find out the truth."

Now they take the opposite road with Sarah Palin. Give me a break.

When Palin has a book written on her by an attack artist like Jerome Corsi, then we will talk. Other than that, everyone is well within their rights to scrutinize her.

After all, John McCain certainly didn't.

But don't be fooled by this circling of wagons. According to this link, not all Republicans favor Palin.

And according to an MSNBC poll, people (by a large margin) think that the media should not back off investigating her background.

In other news . . .

I want to link you all to this very interesting story by a young black gay man. He recounts coming out to his family and introducing them to his partner.

In this fast paced world of bullshit, it's nice to spotlight brave folks like him.