What ever happened to kindness?

I am not the world’s most enthusiastic Obama supporter, but enough of my positions are close to his that I feel comfortable voting for him. I don’t feel like the Republican party addresses my concerns, but I’v never actively hated them, or regarded them with the ridicule that I see in a lot of my Democrat peers. I understand that 2008 is an election year, and people will do what they feel necessary to try to get elected. STILL I was disgusted by both Rudy Guiliani and Sarah Palin’s speeches. Guiliani has no hope of getting elected to a higher office than the one he’s already held, so it didn’t hurt him to give a nasty, unsubtle, totally negative speech about the Democratic candidates. He has nothing to lose and it bought him a little goodwill from people who six months ago wouldn’t have spit on him if he was on fire.

But I was totally unprepared for how nasty Palin’s speech was. She’s been raked over the coals by a lot of people in the last week, but the Democratic ticket did not participate in the very public rehashing of all of her family’s business. They didn’t condemn either her or her daughter, and didn’t question Palin’s decision to stay in the presidential race. So why would Palin give such a dirty speech, and take cheap shot after cheap shot at Obama? The qualifications and half-truths were bad enough, but outright lies about death taxes and clean coal really make me wonder why the Republican powers that be would think it necessary to craft and deliver this speech. It definitely played to the rabid base in the convention hall, but I can’t imagine it going over well with moderates. And for somebody who considers herself a strong and committed Christian, I really wonder how such a dirty attack could be considered in any way Christ-like. In terms of delivery, she totally nailed her speech. In terms of content, Ms. Palin did little to solidify her own party’s positions on issues and gave the kind of light-on-actual-information speech that Republicans often accuse Obama of giving.

• By snarc, September 3, 2008 @ 11:31 pm

  The entire Republican party demonstrated tonight that they care more about getting cheers and laughs for dissing the Democrats than they care about the country and what they can do for it. Guiliani’s speech was REPULSIVE, and Palin’s was no better. It’s like when movie critics will give a review to a film based only on what kind of pun they can make from the movie’s title. The GOP just wants to get everyone riled up against the Democrats, and the Republicans are too stupid to realize that that’s exactly what Palin did tonight.

• By dennymajor, September 3, 2008 @ 11:53 pm

  The only thing I disagree with is that she delivered it well. I thought it was poorly presented and she looked extremely nervous. I think the applause made it look like she was doing better than I believe she was . . . but that’s just me. 😉

  Otherwise, I agree completely. How blatantly insulting her speech was was surprising. Giuliani’s I expected to be negative, but WOW. I think they played to the CROWD more than to the people watching – which isn’t a good thing. She came off as quite arrogant and demeaning, imo.

Other Links to this Post