Colleagues of mine have made some discerning comments about Governor Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. I have added a couple of my own.
1) The way she could needle her opponents without seeming nasty was most impressive. Joe Biden is in trouble; he’s a master of the patronizing attitude, but if he does it with her she’ll mop the floor with him, and do it in a way that makes everybody think that she’s doing it as a public service.
2) She comes across as a truly rooted woman, and someone for whom words are not flamboyant rhetorical tools, but express strong personal convictions. Obama sounds phony by comparison, as well as pompous, vague, arrogant, smug, smirking and weak.
3) She is a Christian who is steeped in her Tanakh, and thus rooted — both biblically as in her own town — unlike such rootless “cosmo-politans” as Obama, Kerry, Pelosi and Dean. She knows who she is, and where she is from, in every sense.
4) Palin’s strong character is evident in her face. She has a lovely and dignified countenance. She exudes modesty, yet self-confidence; firm convictions, yet an amiable sense of humor.
5) The Jewish people have always regarded their women as the source of their morality as well as the guardians of their national identity. Perhaps it is no accident that Governor Pailin’s first name is “Sarah.”
Paul Eidelberg
