Sarah's Smackdown

Gov. Sarah Palin went off on Barack Obama at the Republican National Convention last night.

She openly mocked several ridiculous statements he and his wife have made. The question is whether the average voter was aware of his initial statements and therefore whether her contrast to them will be fully understood.

So far, liberals question whether she was too sarcastic. She was pretty harsh in some of her statements. But this kind of honest and direct rebuff of Obama might be welcome to a lot of voters who just want their politicians to say what they think. Palin certainly showed how she felt about Obama and his view of the country. Remember, he is the one who said people in small towns bitterly cling to guns, religion and mistrust for people who are different. He is the one who indicated he could make the ocean stop rising and heal the environment (megalomaniac?). Michelle is the one who said she has not been proud of her country before. Palin merely showed how little she agrees with statements like that. By showing in sharp contrast her view of the country, and how she believes the typical American views this country, it makes one wonder how anyone could ever have supported a candidate who says and believes such rediculous things about the average American and this country.

Liberals also claim, falsely, that Palin and Rudy Guiliana were mocking community organizers. This is simply not true. They might have mocked being a community organizer as sufficient experience for being President - and this is probably a deserved criticism. Moreover, the Obama campaign specifically mocked Gov. Palin for being "the former mayor of a town of 6,900 people." It was these remarks that Palin and Guiliana were referring to. If the former mayor of a small town is not fit to be President, then a former "community organizer" is even less fit to be so.

One other criticism I have seen comes from Eve Fairbanks at The New Republic, who finds fault with Palin identifying herself even more closely with small-town people. Her position is that the criticism of Palin comes from the fact that she was the mayor of a small town and Governor of state with a small population. However, the liberal elitists continue to miss the point that America is made up of small towns and voters in those areas might be very happy to see that someone just like them is running for the second highest job in the country. Remarkably, Chris Matthews on MSNBC hit it right on the head when he noted that the speech was not aimed at women or Hillary supporters, but instead of blue collar voters that Obama has had a hard time appealing to. Ms. Fairbanks missed this point and in fact, Palin speech might just have been a home run (or maybe hat trick is more appropriate) with that key demographic.

Edit: Both Obama's campaign manager (in an email to supporters) and Gloria Steinem (in a piece for the LA Times) have claimed Palin's speech included deception and lies. However, neither pointed to anything deceptive or untrue. Maybe they didn't like it because it hit a little too close to the truth?