Palin Turns on the Northern Lights

The crowd in the convention hall has been hungry for close to a week to see the newest star of the party, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. While the cheers for Senator John McCain have been loud, those for Governor Palin have been downright boisterous.

It seems like the more the media has tried to lampoon her nomination this week, the more the crowd has stridently made known that they absolutely love her. There is a palpable feeling that every attack on her is an attack on one of us, because her profile matches up very well with most Americans.

What I liked about her speech was her ability to speak directly to the viewers at home while marinating electricity within the convention hall. She had the ability to be humorous as evidenced by the delivery of some of her jokes. She had the ability to slice without being caustic. She showed the independence known to be characteristic among westerners. She was endearing. She was able to let people know that she was tough and showed the kind of personality that is needed to make a difference.

The interesting thing to note is that this week the media has portrayed her as being in way over her head and not ready for the task. They spent the last five days doing everything to make her selection look like an absolute mistake. This seems to have backfired though. As this attention only stirred curiosity in this candidate, and convinced them to tune in on Wednesday night and see this train wreck of a VP pick.

What the folks saw at home was something remarkably different. By not just surpassing the low expectations that had been set by the media, but by blowing them completely out of the water, she has cemented herself as a major asset for John McCain and the Democrats worst Nightmare personified: A strong, independent, humorous woman, who isn't shrill, who is grave enough to dispel any fear that she isn't up to the task of serving as Vice-President.

The cheering was wild, and it may sound funny, but I believe it could be louder.

In order to keep the evenings at the convention running smoothly, there are handlers within the crowd that try and control the length of applause. The try and curtail it so that that the evening runs on time, and so that speeches aren't interrupted, so much as to lose the almighty 10pm-11pm EST time slot.

I believe that Palin's speech would have gone much longer had it not been for the handlers.