Global: Palin Brings Down the House

Love her or hate her, international bloggers say Alaska Governor Sarah Palin brought the house down when she addressed the Republican National Convention, in Saint Paul, Minneapolis. Some even see her as a president one day. Following is a mixed bag of reactions from all four corners of the globe.

From New Zealand, David Farrar writes on the Kiwiblog:

Her candidacy is still a risky one. At some stage she will be quizzed on national and international issues and will need to be conversant with the issues. But the pundits all agree it was a great speech.

Egyptian Chronicles notes her remarks on Palin's address as follows:

* Again this woman has got more charisma than McCain , she is speaking as if she was chosen for President not for Vice President.
* She is a good speaker in her way.
* The Cameras in the RNC were concentrating mainly on ladies.
* Sarah’s description to her family as a typical one with Ups and Downs with an excellent way to handle all that buzz about her family.
* She is targeting a new segment in this election , the special needs kids families ,it is a niche segment with no power but it can bring more votes outside the Republican Base.
* She is targeting the small towns and cities again and again, using the attack on her experience.
* She is attacking Obama in a very bold way since the beginning.
* She is so proud of her 19 years old son going to Iraq and so happy that he is going to fight for nothing ,I do not know what her feelings will be if her 19 years old son returns back home in his coffin and when after several years she sits down and rethinks whether it is worth or not !?
* The same old ill talk of terrorist countries “Dear Syria” and bad nuke Iran !!
* She spoke about the Victory in Iraq that is coming so near , what victory in Iraq this woman is speaking about !!??
* Energy Independence is a good slogan but does this mean that the American army will empty its army bases in the Persian Gulf for good and leave the Middle East for , because she is speaking as if the rich Arab oil gulf states were controlling America !!??
* She demonstrated that she understands in foreign policies ,of course according to the Republican standards.

Zeinobia continues:

Look for sure her speech was a strong one and she revived somehow this old spirit of the Republicans with her energy , an energy she is wasting I am afraid. I am not surprised that the Republicans are so happy with that speech, she was their Obama ,she should take McCain’s place or may be they know that she will !!??Look I do not have anything against her except that I do not like her policies towards our region, the middle East.

Super Frenchie, from France, is in a state of shock. He says:

Turns out, Republicans can always find a way to beat the odds: Sarah Palin may well be a future U.S. president, and she is someone who believes in creationism and who thinks that global warming is a hoax!

In the most scientifically advanced nation in the world, this is beyond shocking.

Meanwhile, Canadian Stephen Taylor, who was at the Republican's convention, shares his thoughts saying:

Last night I saw Sarah Palin accept her party’s nomination for Vice President of the United States. I was sitting a couple of rows behind the VIP stand and watched as Palin’s family, the subject of intense media scrutiny (both fair and unfair), were seated and as they watched their mother, wife and daughter make history as the first woman on the GOP Presidential ticket.

Sharing similar sentiments, fellow Canadian The Strong Conservative says Palin brought the house down.

Who said Palin isn't ready? Governor Sarah Palin brought the house down in Minnesota. I think it's safe to say that a new political star was born tonight.
Her best line was definitely, “And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves. I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities.”
Oh, how the mainstream media and left wing will hate her now. But Palin is her own woman, she'll handle it like she's handled challenges in the past: head on.
Sarah Palin may one day be the first female President of the United States, and what a great day that will be.
Palin also did an incredible job of describing the character of John McCain and the strength of conviction he would bring to the White House. I've been a fierce critic of McCain myself, but he's made a marvelous choice for his running mate and would be a man of integrity in the Oval Office.

From Bangladesh, Mash is adamant that Palin, the McCain campaign and those who wrote her speech, have made two deadly mistakes, which will cost the Republications the election come November 4. First, she did not redeem herself in the eyes of the American public:

This was her first big opportunity to introduce and define herself to the American public. After 5 days of negative press and the series of revelations about her that has marred her rollout, this was her chance to tell her story. She needed to introduce herself not as the hockey mom that she and McCain like to push, but as a person who is qualified to be the president of the United States in the event the president were to become incapacitated. She failed. To be sure, she spent a long time introducing her family in her speech, but she did not fill in her political biography. What we were left with was the same impression we had going into the speech – that she was a mayor of a small town and is now serving her first term as Governor of Alaska. That was not enough before the speech, and that will not be enough going forward – especially since she is running on the ticket with a 72-year-old man with a history of cancer.

Her second fault, according to Mash, was:

Her failure to add meat to her political biography in the first part of the speech secured the failure of the second part of the speech. She spent much of her speech attacking Barack Obama – sometimes personally – for lacking the gravitas to be president of the United States. Such attacks coming from a candidate with a pitifully thin political biography were eaten up by the Republican base, but probably seemed a little hollow, a little too sarcastic, and way too negative to the American public at large. If her task was to go after Hillary voters, this was not the speech to get that job done. Instead, this speech will bring out the base against the “angry left”. The base, if they can keep the enthusiasm up for the next few months, will flock to the polls to make the red states redder. You will hear the term “culture war” a lot for the rest of the campaign. The Republicans apparently have decided to one more time go to the well – the Republican base – to squeak past to victory.

Mash continues:

The McCain campaign has made a strategic error. This election is not going to be a base election. Although, given the state of the race, McCain may have had no choice. The man who is known to enjoy gambling made the only gamble available to him. He launched a culture war. It will get very ugly, but it will not work

Back in Canada, Darryl Wolk, runs the headline: Sarah Palin was awesome! He adds:

After all the unfair media attacks, witch hunts in Alaska and criticism about her experience, Sarah Palin came out strong and confident yesterday, delivering the best speech at the Republican convention last night. I have to say she is impressive. Solid speaker (perhaps the female Obama on the teleprompter), ultra-Conservative and clearly a mom who puts family first. I think she has become a star and is a role model for females looking to enter politics. As a Conservative in Canada, I would love to see her hit the campaign trail with Harper for a couple days! Convention organizers for November should be trying to recruit her as the keynote speaker. I am still supporting Obama, but for the first time in this campaign, I think there is reason to get excited about the Republican ticket. Congratulations to Palin for delivering such a powerful and well executed speech under the circumstances she faced going into it. Awesome is all I have to say.

Cuban diaspora blogger Babalu adds she was moved by the speech:

Those of us that caught it live witnessed history. I've no qualms about stating this, though: Sarah Palin will most assuredly be the first woman President of the United States someday.

On the other hand, Barbadian diaspora blogger Jdid admits he wasn't “particularly impressed” with the speech:

Felt like she pandered a bit in the beginning with her whole this is my life segment. Here's my eldest son he's going off to Iraq to be shot at. Here's my baby with a disability which now makes me more in touch with all you folk with kids with disabilities.
Seems like Obama was right and the Republicans are trying to make this more about personalities than about issues. She tried to attack Obama on some trivial stuff that he's been attacked on before, she didnt break new ground and with her Tina Fey look and those weak punchlines was it just me or was anyone else expecting her to break into “Live fom New York its Saturday night”?
Got to say though that this Palin pick is pretty crazy. I mean on the surface I thought they just wanted a female pick to offset Obama but Palin really? That was your best choice?

13 comments

  • Terri

    I’m amazed at these comments here. Voices without votes means you cannot vote no matter what, so I really thought I would some objective and insightful comments. But all I got was the same rubbish the americans are spewing about thier own candidates. The people spewing rubbish and obviously supporting Palin or extremely against Obama must be americans, because these stupid remarks are not the remarks made by none-american intelligent people. Please do us a favour and don’t post your comments on this site, we are more interested in insightful dialogue.

  • Ron

    Do you “God didn’t create the universe” folks have a better explanation than everything just “popped into being” with all of the obvious order and complexity?

    Are you also challenged by “when life begins” like Obama? Do you think the stork brings babies?

    You don’t need to go to church to know you kill a baby when you have an abortion, even a simple minded atheist should know that.

  • Rachel

    I found all these post quite silly. Im so sick of ppl sayin oh Sarah re-energized a party that is her own with the same lies she been telling since she was picked. First of all it was really pathetic how she came out attacking Obama using the same old dried lies McCain told. She said NOTHING of her experience, of her policies, or on what she can do for America. All these ppl in favor of Palin keep saying, “oh i like palin, she’s a mother, she’s charasmatic, etc” No one ever says oh i like her cuz of her policy on this or that. For one Palin hasn’t even sat down and told exactly what her views are. Have you ppl heard her lately on interviews????? yet U criticize Obama. more experience or not sweethearts, obama knows the issues and his position on them and atleast he’s able to articulate them in a graceful intelligent manner something palin has yet to do. SO FYI “she has a good personailty or she’s a mother” DOES NOT QUALIFY HER TO BE VICE PREZ OR PREZ.

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