You got to love this stuff:
She seemed wholly different from, and in fact seemed a refutation to, all the men of Washington at their great desks who make rules others have to live by but they don’t have to live by themselves, who mandate work rules from which they exempt Congress, for instance. They don’t live by the rules they espouse. She has lived her expressed values. She said yes to a Down Syndrome child. This too is powerful.
and this
Which gets me to the most important element of the speech, and that is the startlingness of the content. It was not modern conservatism, or split the difference Conservative-ish-ism. It was not a conservatism that assumes the America of 2008 is very different from the America of 1980.
It was the old-time conservatism. Government is too big, Obama will “grow it”, Congress spends too much and he’ll spend “more.” It was for low taxes, for small business, for the private sector, for less regulation, for governing with “a servant’s heart”; it was pro-small town values, and implicitly but strongly pro-life.
This was so old it seemed new, and startling. The speech was, in its way, a call so tender it made grown-ups weep on the floor. The things she spoke of were the beating heart of the old America. But as I watched I thought, I know where the people in that room are, I know their heart, for it is my heart. But this election is a wild card, because America is a wild card. It is not as it was in ‘80. I know where the Republican base is, but we do not know where this country that never stops changing is.
The party was looking for a true conservative and Palin fit the bill.
(No way Jindal could have inspired the party in the manner. No way his record would have stood up. He is too quick to appease critics with our money. His goals are political and not ideological. Perhaps he and Timmy will see that his action in response to the hurricane is worth a million small town meetings. Maybe if he commits to small, fiscally conservative government in his second legislative session he will see that he has enough support from his base that he will not have to spend the summer on tour convincing people he is cool. He didn’t gain a vote this last session and spent more money than any other governor when you combine the special and regular sessions.)
