Sarah on the stump

Give Sarah Palin her due, she delivered a terrific speech to the Republican convention last night. It was do or die for Sarah. With all the questions about her meager experience and minimal qualifications, she had to be much better than just adequate; she had to electrify. Clearly she did that in front of an audience that wanted badly to love her. And with all my negative bias going in, I was surprised to find her smart, witty, and utterly likeable.

I told Mary I thought she was charming. Mary’s response was less favorable, especially after I said she was charming.

Even given that her speech was almost certainly written by other people, she still delivered her punch lines with mastery: "Here's how I look at the choice Americans face in this election. In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change." In only one line did she come across as snarky about Obama: “What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?"

We’ll see how the polls play out, and especially the only poll that really matters, which is the election in November. But in her performance last night she succeeded in fully winning the hearts of the Republican conservative base and probably won over some undecided voters who are easily swayed by mere likeability.

For those who actually look for substance, she’ll still face the issues of her fitness to step into the presidency any day after January 20th. In addition to all the experience questions, she’ll have a hard time defending her record as a reformer who will cut government spending. As mayor of Wasalia, she hired Washington lobbyists and secured over $20 million in earmarks for her town of fewer than 7,000 people. When she says that as governor, she just said no to the bridge to nowhere, she doesn’t add that she still kept the money and spent it on other Alaskan highway projects.

But Sarah made clear last night that she’ll be a formidable campaigner. Unlike Dan Quayle, who always seemed to have a deer-in-the-headlights look about him, Palin was composed, confident, and, well, charming.

She’s cute. She hunts moose. It’s rumored she rides a motorcycle. Can she turn back the waters?