I watched Sarah speak. She is as good as anyone hoped she would be--clear eyed, clear-spoken, and a good crowd handler. She's a good entry-level politician.

However as she started to get catty, and I had already sat through fifteen minutes of Rudy Nineeleveniani, so I put it away.   She cleaves a good party line, mouths the platitudes correctly and well, and has good stage presence. She pushed all the hockey-mom buttons ahe could find. She did a fine job, and her adoring public ate it up.

But she was less than honest about her accomplishments, implying yet again that she had rejected the Bridge to Nowhere from the beginning in favor of State self-reliance and taking credit for a State surplus without mentioning how many millions of Federal funds were included in it.

NEvertheless, she is an impressive figure if not held down to details. It will be an interesting race, and I think McCain chose a good weapon to bring to bear against a formidable opponent.

The policy proposals that the party faithful were reciting sound more and more like Obama's platform every day, but I think that is business-as-usual in politics when a proposition seems to be a winner. It would be nice if they gave credit.

Giuliani himself was his usual dicky-boy self. And the rhetoric of the speeches he and Sarah gave were a little clanging and brassy, exalting McCain as the Furless Leader of Alle Tyme, which he is not, and sort of portraying him like one of those huge gilt statues they used to require people to erect in Russian towns back in the days of the Soviet machine.

We will see.


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