Where's the Policy?

The Palin Speech tonight was an impressive collection of logical non sequiturs, and close to a desert with regard to policy. Still, she was photogenic, and had good delivery.

John McCain "has already faced tougher challenges" than being president. I respect the guys military service, but can that statement really be true?

Palin tells us more about her family than I would expect to learn having dinner with them- and as an aside, what is up with all the lingering shots of people holding their unconscious children? Surely it isn't good parenting to drag your one-year old to all-night political conventions?

How can Palin claim in one breath to be an average pit-bullish hockey mom, then turn in the next to the part where she just happens to govern a state? And her claims to economic policy success in the course of that job have to be taken with the caveat that Alaska is a financial mutant- its residents do not pay taxes! Alaska pays you a couple grand a year to live there, siphoned from oil profits. Regretably, the federal government employs a different system, to which Palin would presumably have to adapt.

The policy thinking tonight has been limited to suggesting that we should drill for oil, and to continue to fight for small government (of the sort that supports the largest public works project in US history, presumably). Thin barely describes this. The goods are being saved for tomorrow night?

Jaw dropping moments:

• she. mocked. "healing. the. planet."
• stadium applause for the US not "reading (terrorists) their rights," with all that implies.
• another obvious lie about her documented support for the bridge to nowhere
• most popular crowd chant according to PBS: "drill, baby, drill"
• this is more just interesting, but apparently the post-speech was the first time a pres. and veep candidate have ever hugged, at least in public (PBS- man alive is that obscure)
  

It's hard to believe that the independent voters McCain now desperately needs to win over will be very impressed by all of this, but life is full of surprises. No doubt, we are already hearing how good a job she did exceeding expectations. Seems to me that Palin's speech left me to infer more than it actually stated. She certainly hasn't buried the tempest of scandals which contine to dog her. If all McCain has left is this sort of identity politics, he's in worse trouble than I thought.