Palin

I read the transcript of her speech. I don't see what the big deal is: yes, it was a good speech, if quite mean-spirited. But she worked extensively with a senior speech writer, and had plenty of time to come up with those petty zingers (e.g. small-town mayor is a community organizer with actual responsibilities). By contrast, Obama's speeches are full of profound observations that have to underlie good policy. Those that continue to wrangle over experience are missing the point; this election is not about experience. After the debacle of the Bush presidency (and the sunny days of the Clinton presidency), this election is about intellectual heft. Given McCain's obdurate support for an idiotic war costing us in the trillions and causing a massive deficit, despite of being a great, great man he doesn't deserve a shot. Barack may have not done much, but he wasn't really in position to as a legislator, and I would rather entrust the future of this country to his keen intellect. We clearly need a better education system so we produce more competitive workers here, and a better immigration policy so we incentivize the best and brightest Indians, Russians, Chinese, Brazilians etc. to come here and contribute to our, rather than their country's of origin, economy. In his speeches, Obama shows he understands this.

Also, Palin didn't say anything of substance when it comes to her own policy views (in fairness, she was only offered the VP job a week ago), and may have flat out lied when discussing Obama's tax policy. She was also misleading with respect to her position(s) on the Bridge to Nowhere, but she is after all a politician and one could not expect her to omit a reference to it altogether (which would have been the honest thing to do).