Media Elites Weigh In On Palin's Speech

Well, they weigh in on something. Some decide to question her hair style. Gloria Steinham sneers at the fact that Palin is not one of them.

They question her use and reliance on one of President Bush's speechwriters. That's as if Sen. Obama, Sen. Biden or any other politician doesn't rely on speechwriters for important statements? It's condescending and lame all at once, and I'll again point out that no one questioned where and how Obama put his speech together.
Gail Collins thinks that Palin was a horrible choice, but the best under the circumstance. Were they saying the same thing about Joe Biden? I don't think so.

The media had to admit that Palin gave a great performance, but immediately went on the attack over her experience. Where exactly was this criticism of Sen. Obama when he is not only at the top of the ticket, but has less experience than Gov. Palin albeit his "experience" includes roaming the halls of Congress for a couple of years?

The New York Times editorial page would like to know what exactly John McCain thinks is wrong with Washington. Well, let me remind the Times of one of my biggest pet peeves, the McCain Feingold Campaign Finance Reform package. I consider that law to be a violation of the First Amendment (but the Supreme Court ruled otherwise). It was designed to change how financing campaigns could occur and how campaigns should be run. It would appear to be a pretty strong signal as to what McCain thought was wrong in D.C. That is, if the NYT bothered to notice.

What exactly has Obama said about D.C. politics that has got their vote? Nothing. He simply promises hope and change. And the Times continues its sneer:

Sarah Palin, the vice presidential nominee, was a combative and witty relief at a torpid convention. But it was bizarre hearing the running mate of a 26-year veteran of Congress, a woman who was picked to placate the right-wing elite, mocking “the permanent political establishment in Washington.”

Right, that's the same 26-year veteran of Congress who has run against the GOP time and time again, who flirted with being John Kerry's running mate in 2004, and who the media generally considers to be a maverick politician.

That's compared to Obama's choice in a running mate, Joe Biden, who is the epitome of status quo politics - who has been in D.C. longer than McCain and has a far less distinguished legislative record. If it was bizarre to hear Palin talk about change and the permanent establishment in Washington, what about Obama's calls for hope and change while picking one of the very permanent members of the DC establishment in Biden?

The Times continues to show that it doesn't have any idea that it understands economics either, complaining that the extension of the Bush tax cuts would cost the government $1 trillion dollars. Sorry, but that's taxpayers' money, not the governments. Any elimination of those cuts is a tax hike.

The Boston Globe says that Palin has very little foreign policy experience. It is a concern, but what about Obama? His foreign policy experience is what precisely? It's less than a full term in the Senate where he spent most of his time actually running for President.

The media is continuing to engage in stereotyping and misogynistic views that ask how women can be successful in the workplace while having families and kids. The question isn't asked of men, so why ask it of Gov. Palin. The media is bending over backwards to say this isn't sexism, but the fact is that they are raising it as a subject.

UPDATE:
You don't say. The media is purposefully trying to attack Gov. Palin and is not providing unbiased coverage. Anyone who has been paying attention to the news for the past week could see that.

Meanwhile, how is it that the Iranians are using Democrat talking points about Gov. Palin. Once a meme is thrown into the malestrom of media reports, it takes hold.

Others are noting how Gov. Palin is being smeared by feminists despite the fact that she's achieved everything that feminists had striven to accomplish.

UPDATE:
RedState is reporting that the teleprompter malfunctioned during Rudy Giuliani's speech and that problem resurfaced about halfway through Gov. Palin's speech. That she was able to comport herself well without the comfort of the telepromter shows that she was well prepared.

UPDATE:
RedState's reports are wrong, according to Politico. While the speech continued scrolling while applause came fast and furious, there were no breakdowns in the teleprompter.

That is what Erick Erickson, citing sources close to McCain, has written on his blog, RedState.

Erickson writes that "the teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Governor Palin was in the speech."

This claim has been picked up on Drudge and could quickly enter into the insta-mythmaking about a speech that need not be embroidered.

Perhaps there were moments where it scrolled slightly past her exact point in the speech. But I was sitting in the press section next to the stage, within easy eyeshot of the teleprompter. I frequently looked up at the machine, and there was no serious malfunction. A top convention-planner confirms this morning that there were no major problems.

UPDATE:
So, the Mirror (UK) thinks that Palin is the worst running mate ever.

You mean, worse than Tom Eagleton? Worse than Admiral James Stockdale, whose military record was beyond reproach but is most famously known for asking plaintively at the debate what he was doing there?

And the Mirror can't be bothered to do basic fact checking either:

Despite becoming a surprise grandmother herself, Palin agreed to reduce funding for Covenant House Alaska by more than 20 per cent, from $5million to $3.9m.

Covenant House is a mix of programmes and shelters for troubled youths, including Passage House, which is a halfway home for teenage mothers.

That was a $5 million funding request over and above what Covenant House was already receiving, which meant at the end of the budget process Covenant House was $3.9 million richer courtesy of Alaska taxpayers. You can't slash funding for pregnant teens by expanding services for it, which is what that $3.9 million was for.