Sarah Palin Attacks Barack Obama, Speech Lacks Substance

Last night at the Republican National Convention, Sarah Palin took the stage and introduced herself to the country. She began by throwing her support around John McCain like she’d known him for 20 years, even though they’d only briefly met once before last week. Nevertheless, she praised his military and political service all the while dropping in anecdotes from her own family. She spoke of the war in Iraq, then mentioned her 18 year old son who will be deployed their next week. She spoke about America’s need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil (although never giving one alternative or the possibility of this being real), and then introduced her husband who has worked for oil companies.

Which reminds me, I have to interject here and mention that insane-oil-comment-of-the-night hands down goes to Rudy Giuliani. At one point during his factless speech, he somehow got the entire crowd of people chanting “DRILL BABY DRILL!” And by people, I mean Americans citizens. Two words: Dear God.

Anyway. Sarah Palin soon fell into the point of her speech though which was: direct, sarcastic, anti-Obama sound-bytes claiming he was too inexperienced to be president of the United States. What follows below are the direct attacks on Obama that Palin made in her speech last night, verbatim. And I think you’ll agree that all of them point to one fact: the republican party is not at all concerned with the facts of the Obama-Biden ticket and are more than willing to settle for half-truths, stretches of the truth, and sheer propaganda to once again brainwash the American people into supporting them. See for yourself. The evening was literally like a middle-school pep rally full of cognitive dissonance. Very reminiscent of Bush-Cheney and maybe even a little more vitriolic.

Excerpts from Sarah Palin’s RNC speech:

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

We’ve all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers.

And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.

But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.

This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word “victory” except when he’s talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed … when the roar of the crowd fades away … when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger … take more of your money … give you more orders from Washington … and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy … our opponent is against producing it.

Victory in Iraq is finally in sight … he wants to forfeit.

Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay … he wants to meet them without preconditions.

Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights? Government is too big … he wants to grow it.

Congress spends too much … he promises more.

Taxes are too high … he wants to raise them. His tax increases are the fine print in his economic plan, and let me be specific.

The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes … raise payroll taxes … raise investment income taxes … raise the death tax … raise business taxes … and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars. My sister Heather and her husband have just built a service station that’s now opened for business - like millions of others who run small businesses.

How are they going to be any better off if taxes go up? Or maybe you’re trying to keep your job at a plant in Michigan or Ohio … or create jobs with clean coal from Pennsylvania or West Virginia … or keep a small farm in the family right here in Minnesota.

How are you going to be better off if our opponent adds a massive tax burden to the American economy? Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election.