Palin Speech Reaction - Election Not about Issues

First, there were basically no issues discussed in that speech.  It was all lying-bio on herself and scurrilous-attack on Obama.  All saccharine and sarcasm.  And after Rudy's hyper-divisive barn-burner?  I wonder about how this tone will play at home.

She lied multiple times in discussing her bio.  The Bridge to Nowhere?  That's been destroyed by the press.  She supported it fervently, and only "opposed" it after Congress cancelled it and it became a national laughingstock.  Why would she feature a lie so prominently?

The convention hall still doesn't look full in the top tiers.  Embarrassing.

And most importantly, WTF is with that gigantic video screen behind her?  I mean, it's beautiful and all, but why show only the red and white parts of the American Flag?  Why exclude the Blue?  I know this will seem like I am reaching, but literally no symbolism is left to chance at these things.  Where Barack Obama speaks of the United States of America, the Republicans are only interested in the Red and White America.  It's time for a change, America.  You can't campaign this way and then govern as a uniter.

With the Palin pick directed at the base it is clear that this campaign is now all about running the Bush-2004 campaign of rallying the base.  That's insane in this political atmosphere, but they know that their tribalism is so deeply ingrained that there would be an explosion if he had gone the maverick direction and picked someone like Ridge or Leiberman.

Her speech was almost entirely culture war stuff: that liberals hate conservatives, and want to destroy their way of life.  They're victims of those dastardly and all-powerful liberals.  Has she not noticed who has been in charge these last eight years?  And even if the Democrats were in power, do they really think we sit around thinking about how much we look down on the red states?  If that was true, Obama wouldn't be the sensation that he is.

The McCain campaign manager just said recently that issues wont decide the election.  That strategy is what this speech is all about.  This campaign is about personality, it's not about substance:

Rick Davis, campaign manager for John McCain's presidential bid, insisted that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues during an interview with Post editors this morning.

"This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."

That's how the GOP runs their elections.  They're all about our personal views of the candidates, because if people voted for their actual values as embodied in policy, the Republicans would never win another election.

final update: A guy from Alaska just said that she gave the best speech she's ever given tonight... that's right.  That's because it was written by presidential speech writers, before Palin was even picked.