Random Thoughts: The Speech

WOW! Could you believe the energy and excitement! The sheer wonderfulness of the whole thing?! It was an hour of absolutely riveting television! Not to be forgotten! A breath of fresh air!

I am referring, of course, to last night's episode of Project Runway.

But first, the convention... for some reason, I was one of the few who enjoyed Huckabee's and Guiliani's speeches almost more than Palin's. It's clear that both men have lots of experience playing to crowds and making their points in a pithy and often funny manner. (I'm still chuckling over Huck's line about getting to college before he realized a shower wasn't supposed to hurt.) But they should be, right? Both men were serious presidential contenders, both have lots of experience giving speeches. Guiliani was a prosecutor, so he's used to making his point forcefully. Huckabee, if I'm not mistaken, is an ordained minister in addition to a politician. As I listened to both of them, I thought, you know, they're both doing a great job of selling McCain/Palin - a much better job than either of them did selling himself. Why is that?

Romney, on the other hand, was a flop for me. Maybe it was because I was driving while he was speaking, so I heard him on the radio and couldn't be dazzled by the magnificence of his hair. But although his speech was workmanlike and made some good points, particularly about the economy, I don't think it did what it was supposed to do - fire up the crowd.

I'm sorry I missed Michael Steele - I would have been interested to hear him.

Why did they stick the governor of Hawaii between Huckabee and Guiliani? I'm sure she's a capable person and all, but that's exactly what she came across as - capable. Competent. BORING. She sucked all the enthusiasm out of the crowd, which I'm sure was not the point. And it was hilarious to see her... husband? the guy sitting next to her, not sure who he was... shaking hands with Palin's dad. They looked vaguely similar (maybe just because they're both silver and balding), but he was so tan and Palin's dad was so pale, they could have been photo negatives of each other.

Anyway, Palin: the woman can give a speech, that's for sure. She's blessed with the rare female voice that doesn't sound shrill when trying to project. She ends her sentences by pitching her tone down, not up, which is also a skill a lot of women don't have. Now if she can just learn not to press her lips together like that all the time...

It was a basic speech. I think she just needed to get through it and have it be solid, calm, and informed. She will need to take on the traditional VP role of attack dog and go after the other side with passion and conviction. She seems to have done all those things, and well. She's still at the introduction stage, which is too bad - Obama, Biden, and McCain all have a jump on her there. She's been portrayed so much as a backwoods rube, it was strange to hear her speaking so knowledgeably on foreign policy. She came across as smart, tough, and ready for a fight - good thing, too, because Biden will be spoiling for one once the debates roll around. Now THAT should be interesting.

Random thoughts on Project Runway forthcoming...