8:13 p.m.: Incredible visuals at the end: pregnant teenage daughter, goofy (but handsome) father of teenage daughter’s baby, Down’s Syndrome baby. Does anyone not have a tear in their eye?
8:11 p.m.: She gets bonus points if that skirt is actually leather.
8:09 p.m.: Palin has just hijacked the presidential campaign. I’ve got a skeptical, Obama-loving wife and some liberal sons, and they all think she killed it.
8:05 p.m.: Palin has managed to make Obama look insignificant, McCain appear heroic, and herself: a grassroots American who won’t back down from a fight.
8:03 p.m.: I wasn’t prepared to like her, and I don’t. I LOVE her.
8:01 p.m.: Holy crap! She’s a pitbull and has opened a can of Whoop-ass on Barack Obama.
7:57 p.m.: I’m guessing Jack Bauer of “24″ would vote for Gov. Palin.
7:56 p.m.: Oh boy. She is Obama’s worst nightmare. An attractive politician with a great sense of humor is a lethal combo.
7:54 p.m.: The line about “authoring two memoirs” but not a single bill in the Senate was great.
7:52 p.m.: She’s made a great impression. Tough administrator, not a part of the old boys’ network. As my wife just said, “She makes me want to go to Alaska.”
7:48 p.m.: Governor’s jet on E-Bay? Classic.
7:46 p.m.: Do you hear that? It’s America falling in love with Sarah Palin.
7:42 p.m.: So far, she’s killing it.
7:41 p.m.: Is hockey an American sport?
7:39 p.m.: Did you see Cindy McCain checking out Todd Palin? My wife is in LOVE!
7:37 p.m.: Mother of a military man. Mother of a special needs child? What’s next? Mother of a pregnant teenager? Hold on.
7:36 p.m.: How uncomfortable is that boyfriend? He should be at his senior prom, not on display at the RNC.
7:35 p.m.: Wow. Playing the mom and aunt card! Nice!
7:33 p.m.: Great so far. Keeping the spotlight on McCain.
7:32 p.m.: Oh, I forget. If you’re following along, refresh often.
7:31 p.m.: What color is Cindy McCain wearing? Gatorade green?
7:30 p.m.: She does have a certain, ah, hotness about her.
I’m be blogging about GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s speech at the Republication National Convention here live. Spread the word.
The Latest on Faith and Doubt
33 responses so far ↓
1 Jerry // Sep 4, 2008 at 10:58 am
ok i admit… she won me over. I am officially a republican now
2 Jerry // Sep 4, 2008 at 11:00 am
but who is the old lady in the pale pink suit?
3 Jerry // Sep 4, 2008 at 11:03 am
I’m crying while I type this.. GOD BLESS JOHN MCCAIN
4 Guest // Sep 4, 2008 at 11:15 am
Enjoyed the commentary! She’s hard not to like - that’s for sure.
5 jesus // Sep 4, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Sarah is a milf. She’s hotter than my mom.
6 Couple of things on Gov. Palin’s brilliance : Stop The ACLU // Sep 4, 2008 at 1:16 pm
[...] LA Times religion beat reporter William Lobdell: Blogging Sarah Palin — LIVE! 8:09 p.m.: Palin has just hijacked the presidential campaign. I’ve got a skeptical, Obama-loving [...]
7 shekygreene // Sep 4, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Sarah Baracuda hit the winning jump shot. After a week of intentional and technical fouls inflicted by the Gray Lady (three front page stories in one day on her fitness as a mother and by extension, a VP candidate), she did the head fake, drew in the “D” and stuck the “J” tonight. Whatever doubts I may have held were erased tonight. She has won us over, including my Hillary friends who were here tonight. I don’t envy Sloe Joe Biden in debating the pit bull with lipstick. She is a treasure, and what a great story. She is the real deal.
8 Tarnsman // Sep 4, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Wow! Sarah Connors, ummm, I mean, Sarah Palin just owned Obambi tonight. And yes, I fell in love with her too. What a gal! Any woman that hunts and fishes has my vote.
9 JT // Sep 4, 2008 at 2:32 pm
she really was terrific, good humored, poised, beautiful and spot in with comparisons of mccain’s strengths to obama’s inexperience.
i like her and believe she has the right stuff.
i’m on board, gop can make history, too !
10 michelle // Sep 4, 2008 at 2:33 pm
America has their Princess Diana and
she’s a great ambassader for everything
america stands for
11 Bantaf // Sep 4, 2008 at 4:01 pm
She’s hotter than anyone’s mom.
I don’t know what her ex brother in law was thinking. You do NOT want to mess with this woman. Compared to her, Hillary is just shrill.
We haven’t seen a politician with this many arrows in their quiver since - God, maybe Teddy Roosevelt? If I were Biden, I’d be leaving politics about now.
12 JWE // Sep 4, 2008 at 4:19 pm
“The old lady in the pale pink suit” is John McCain’s 96-year-old mother
13 Drew // Sep 4, 2008 at 7:22 pm
We’ll see. There is a big downside to her adn one speech doesn’t make up fo rthat. Long way to go to November…
14 Sarah Palin vs. Angry White Men! « Riggword Weblog // Sep 4, 2008 at 9:14 pm
[...] MSMer Bill Lobdell: “I’m guessing Jack Bauer of “24? would vote for Gov. Palin.” Read his whole live blog. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Miss Congeniality Comes to Washington - HUMAN [...]
15 Palin As Obama? Heck No « Political Deformity // Sep 4, 2008 at 10:13 pm
[...] Naturally, they’re thrilled by it. But perhaps the most disturbing reaction that I can find comes from William Lobdell, who was a reporter for the L.A. Times for 14 years: Palin has just hijacked [...]
16 Jerry // Sep 4, 2008 at 10:26 pm
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.”
PALIN: “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.”
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: “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.”
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain’s plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
The AP report also showed how Palin’s champions have exaggerated the Alaskan governor’s ‘acheivements’:
MCCAIN: “She’s been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply … She’s responsible for 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. I’m entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain’s phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she’s no more “responsible” for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: “She’s the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under “federal status,” which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska’s national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.”
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: “We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.”
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.
17 drscott // Sep 4, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Wow, Jerry! That was the most excellent job of cutting and pasting ever! Did you write that yourself like Joe Biden wrote his college paper. Back then you had to retype it. Now all you have to do is cut and paste. Not the spirit of a real blogger but a nice try anyway.
18 Christopher // Sep 4, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Unprotected Sex Has Its Perks!
One minute you’re hooking up with your girlfriend after a keg party, the next you’re on stage at the Republican National Convention!
19 Drew // Sep 5, 2008 at 12:36 am
I prefer to let those who know her best describe some of her accomplishments in Alaska…
http://www.andrys.com/palin-kilkenny.html
20 Drew // Sep 5, 2008 at 12:55 am
You know, sitting back and looking, I have no idea what all the fuss, on either side, about Palin is all for. More and more I feel the Republicans want to lose this election. And to be honest, it is in their best interest to do just that.
If we examine some things though…
McCain gets the nomination. Most Republicans HATE John McCain. El Rushbo just a few short years ago was calling to have his party membership revoked, saying he was too close to the Democrats. Ok, Limbaugh is a total lacky, but never-the-less he reads right off the Party fax machine. They are going to have a hard time getting the base to turn out for McCain. They hate him more than they do Clinton, Johnny is a traitor in their eyes.
Next, what is the role of a V.P.? Anyone? Two primary functions for the veep in an election. First is to “deliver” their state. Alaska? 670,000 give or take? Totally not an important state politically. There are several towns in NJ where I live that have more poeople than that. Next is an attack dog, so the ticket holder doesn’t have to look mean. She may well be able to do that, but at what cost? It will be easy to turn attacks on Obama into racism. Also, her main appeal is to women. Most women do not appreciate negative politics.
So why does the GOP want to lose? Simple. Bush has screwed the pooch so bad that the next pres will look like a giant turd trying to fix it. The GOP has been distancing itself from Bush for a while now.
In 4 years the Obama Administration will probably get run out of Office faster than Carter did, and the groundswell will be for Powell, perhaps, or some other, to get us safely out of Iraq and to fix the Country.
The entire world wants Obama to win. And whoever does has one helluva mess to clean up, and it won’t be pleasant.
21 Christopher // Sep 5, 2008 at 1:31 am
Cost of Cindy McCain’s Outfit Tuesday Night: Between $299,100 and $313,100 (No that is NOT a typo).
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500 Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000 Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000- $25,000 Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100
The Average Family’s Home Is Worth $217,800 (see realtor.org).
22 Thranil // Sep 5, 2008 at 1:42 am
I’m sorry, but color me unimpressed. I am not moved by emotional speeches when looking for the candidate that will receive my vote. I look at the situation that we are in today, how we got there, and what we need to do about it (if anything). I make decisions based on who is more likely to put our country on a positive course. I have no doubt in my mind that this person is NOT John McCain. I have even less doubt (if that’s possible) that Palin is a nightmare of a VP choice for anyone who wants a change in direction in washington.
From my perspective, the bottom line is this: if you like how things have been going for the past 8 years (mired in unwinnable war(s), extreme deficit spending, almost non-existent healthcare, almost nill advancement in alternative energy, intentionally ignoring the issues around global warming, etc), then McCain is the right choice. If you think we need to change our direction (even slightly), then Obama is the better choice. I don’t think Obama is the best person for the job… he’s just a better choice than McCain IMO.
23 Jerry // Sep 5, 2008 at 1:48 am
Dear DrScott…
I am not a blogger.
I do not own a blog. I should have just used a link though.. so I apologize.
But since you brought it up, you realize that Palin didn’t write a single word of her speech right? Former longtime Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully is the man behind her speech.
Generally, politicians write their own speeches, or at least the first draft.
On the other hand, Obama wrote his speech himself.
24 Christopher // Sep 5, 2008 at 2:12 am
Governor Palin named one of her sons Track because she spends a lot of time running and the other son Trig because she spends a lot of time shooting.
Daughter Bristol has announced that out of respect for family tradition, she will name her baby “Bareback.”
– Traditional Family Values
25 Stevie Vegas // Sep 5, 2008 at 2:13 am
I would think you could refer to the Obama/Biden team as Palin Road Kill.
enjoyed the live blog last night
26 John // Sep 5, 2008 at 5:53 am
Jerry wrote…”But since you brought it up, you realize that Palin didn’t write a single word of her speech right? Former longtime Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully is the man behind her speech.
Generally, politicians write their own speeches, or at least the first draft.
On the other hand, Obama wrote his speech himself.”
Jerry, what are you naive. There’s not a single presidential politician of the last 25 years that writes there own speeches! That’s why they have these people called “Speech-writers”on their campaign staff….try looking the word up some time so you don’t come off sounding like an idiot.
27 Jerry // Sep 5, 2008 at 7:04 am
Writes “there” own speeches?
uh… nuff said buddy. two funny.
and if you look it up idiot you will see that his speech wasn’t a speech written by a committee OR a speech writer… Obama wrote the speech himself, working on it for two days and nights…. and showed it to only a few of his top advisers.
28 Jim,MtnViewCA,USA // Sep 5, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Uh…Jerry? We’ve seen Sen Obama without his teleprompter. Check out youtube. And doesn’t he even use a teleprompter for his “town hall” meetings? Who types the words that he reads.
29 Stacy Martinis // Sep 8, 2008 at 3:26 am
Funny, that no women have commented on this blog Bill. Men think she is hot and watch her lips as she speaks. I guess women listen.
And so does NY Times writer Judith Warner:
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/the-mirrored-ceiling/?ei=5070&emc=eta1
30 kristen // Sep 10, 2008 at 1:13 pm
As for me I believe John McCain and Sarah Palin present reality with dignity. The dignity being defined as a verb, if I may. Each statement is positive with encouragement and hope for the future of our lives, families, country, our world.
The democracy we enjoy will express where our country stands today. I want to encourage the each citizen to look at the track record of each candiate without prejudice for party, race or gender. Look as though you were looking into another countries government to offer advice.
Analysis character by research on your own of each candiate. We have a great privilege in voting; great privilege finds necessary great responsibility. Think real life. Analysis where our country is today, where are we going. Look for specifics that remain the same rather than change with the crowd, or city.
Democracy is about each citizen talking responsiblity for each day of life. That respnsibility is toward the candiate that will best uphold the elements of decision toward a stronger nation with values that reflect our purpose.
I am voting for John and Sarah.
31 Siren // Sep 10, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Oh Kahuna, you make me sad. All the intelligent women I know find Sarah Palin the ultimately insulting pander. They COULD have won some of us with a smart, savvy, politically successful woman. I don’t care how hot she is (because let’s face it, she is). They lost my demographic by choosing a screechy right wing hypocritical creationist and assuming we’d bite because she’s got ovaries.
32 Jenny // Sep 12, 2008 at 2:47 am
Siren! What about me? Am I not one of your intelligent friends? I love Sarah!
She’s smart, actually has accomplished stuff, not just gone to long meetings to talk about stuff. She votes yes or no, not “present”, can change her mind on stuff as more details emerge and not be ashamed of it. (i.e. the Bridge to Nowhere) She has high aspirations but is fallible like the rest of us.
Mostly I love her because she is a doer not a hand-wringer.
I’m an Indepublicrat who will be voting for John and Sarah.
33 Were fucked for sure // Oct 3, 2008 at 9:22 am
Is this dingbat for real? Biden is on point everytime. What planet is this chick from? Go back to Alaska, I wouldn’t vote for her if she was running for Dog Catcher! I was going to vote for McCain before watching this debate. Is she for real?????????
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