Sarah Palin is quite the character. Is she the right kind of character, though? Is she the knight in shining armor for the tired and beaten-up Republican party or is she a caricature of Hillary?

I think she is a mixture of both.

She does seem to be a wonderful speaker, as she delivered a rousing speech during the Republican National Convention. However, during the speech, her snarky comments kept me from taking her all that seriously. With this speech, she was trying to establish herself and brush off all the comments from the media and the Democrats about her abilities.

Part of the time she spent introducing her family, which includes a baby with Down Syndrome, and introducing herself, which was refreshing and informative. Her commitment to those with disabilities is a wonderful thing to persue. However, when she got down to politics and her experiences, she started throwing stones in a house not made of glass, but saran wrap. She does have a lot of experience with oil resources, which will be important to Americans who are facing rising costs of everything due to the rising cost of fuel. She started out in the PTA and made her way up to mayor and eventually governor of Alaska. Her remark about her experiences as a small town mayor and how being “a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” lost me. Indeed, Barack Obama’s claim that being a community organizer in Chicago counts as political experience is slightly absurd. Nevertheless, the way she delivered that comment made her sound like the mean girl in the locker room loudly making fun of one of the other girls for not filling out her sports bra well enough. Further, there were many more things to make comments about, like when he said “For while Senator McCain was turning his sights to Iraq just days after 9/11, I stood up and opposed this war, knowing that it would distract us from the real threats we face.” So what? He was not in the United States senate at that point; he was a senator in the Illinois state senate, representing the south side of Chicago.

Also, her claim that “I suspended the state fuel tax, and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress” was a different tune than the one she was singing when she was a small town mayor, when she requested massive amounts of earmarked money.

She made a remark about Obama, “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.” Well, I think that Obama might be on to something – we have not actually “won” a “war” since World War II. What victories was she thinking Obama would mention?

I am not sure I can entirely get behind Sarah Palin. In light of McCain’s age, it is entirely likely that she could become the first woman president, which would be great, though I am not sure she is ready for the role. She is attractive and apparently has decent comedic timing, but what else? Riddle me this, GOP, what makes her so different than Hillary?

Find Palin’s speech at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7597238.stm

Find Obama’s speech at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2004/demconvention/speeches/obama.html.

Videos of both speeches can be found on the Editors’ Meeting Blog: blogs.washburnreview.org.