With yet more scandals around Palin, including her firing of a police chief who 'stepped' on her campaign contributors, the question tonight is whether independent voters will meet this young, attractive and charismatic woman and believe her story about being a small town mayor and reformer in Alaska who is being criticized solely because the media and political establishments hate outsiders. This photo is being passed around over email, with obvious class overtones, just as the irritation of Republican elites with the Palin choice was picked up accidentally over a microphone on MSNBC.
That is the bet Jay Rosen and Digby speaks of, it's a bet on backlash and anger towards the political elite. It's tough to make this work, even if this speech is powerful. More scandals around Palin are going to emerge, and it is too difficult to inoculate a Republican when there are open systems involved by portraying her opponents as elitists. But it is possible, and depends on how the Obama camp reacts.
Normally this is the partisan meat convention night, when only activists and political junkies are watching. People are incredibly hungry for information about Palin, so this is probably going to be a heavily viewed speech by all sorts of people, not just your standard activist crowd. So her speech, which is heavy on resentment and attacks, may not play particularly well to an audience of independents who just want to know who she is. She'll be introduced tonight as an angry, resentful, and defensive VP pick that the media doesn't like.
Maybe that'll work, I don't know. This country is really pissed off. On the other hand, there are real questions about her qualifications, and she might just come off looking like she doesn't want to answer them.
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