Palin Speech Appeals to Hockey Moms of America

 

 

Courtesy of The Christian Science Monitor

Granted the seemingly hopeless tasks of awakening the religious right, reenergizing the voter base and reunited the fractured Republican party all the while assuring experience voters that a year and a half as governor is experience enough and family values voters that her pregnant teenage daughter is not a sign for concern, Gov. Sarah Palin took the convention stage last night with far from favorable odds.

 

Yet the 44-year-old mother of five was able to accomplish the task, sarcastically degrading her opponent while convincing a nation of hockey-moms that she could be the final crack in the glass ceiling. 

Palin is no Hillary Clinton- and in comparison- Senator Clinton’s address to the DNC was more moving and better delivered.

In fact, Palin wasn’t even the most energetic speaker at the RNC on Wednesday night, being out done by former New York mayor and Presidential Candidate Rudy Gulliani.

But it was Palin’s uninspired normalcy, her ability to show she is truly an Alaskan hockey-mom and not a harden Washington politician that exemplifies her effectiveness as a candidate. 

Yes she stumbled over lines, keep talking through obvious applause-lines and often times undermined key points with poor tone and intonation, but it was with these faults that Palin was able to further distance herself from Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama.

Palin used her acceptance speech to introduce Republicans to her family and her story, and avoided bogging done her address with tedious policy and idelogical rhedoric. And in an election in which Republicans hope to gain ground with independents and Clinton Democrats, it may just be the candidates themselves, and not necessarily the political beliefs they hold that determines the outcome.

Questions still remain about Palin’s ability to survive in a national race, and only time will tell if the Troopergate scandal or her pregnant daughter will come back to haunt the McCain-Palin ticket.  

Critics speculate that Palin will have trouble matching up with Sen. Joe Biden in the Vice Presidential Candidates debate, but it will be how effective Palin is at preserving her hockey-mom appearance, and not necessarily the substance of her answers, that will win or lose the debate.

Palin’s RNC speech was only step one of a long path towards the vice presidency- a road marred with more inquiries into her family and personal life, as well as questions of whether the youngest Vice Presidential Candidate ever, is ready to step in were something to happen to the oldest Presidential Candidate ever. 

Yet Palin’s convention success brought one step closer to the White House, and, for the women of America, put one more crack in the glass ceiling.