Sarah Barracuda, or The Passion of John McCain

That wasn't a speech. It was a declaration of war. A couple of quick thoughts on Palin's big night.

1) As many have noted, it was an electrifying speech, full of red meat. I thought the tone was interesting: pure contempt. How dare Barack Obama run for president! He's not even an American. It was especially interesting to see such barely contained hatred in a speech purporting to defend John McCain's record of bipartisanship. Where the Democrats last week offered a rhetorical olive branch--Obama talking about areas of shared concern for all Americans, both Obama and Biden talking about their deep personal respect for McCain the man, then Obama gallantly defending Palin against family scutiny--Palin gave us what I'll call "gunboat bipartisanship." If you do not obey us, we will destroy you. This is not your country, it is our country. We own it. Go to hell.

2) So in some ways, I read this as Nixon in stiletto heels, a more effective version on Pitchfork Pat's famed culture war speech from 1992. She oozed with disdain for urban America--"San Francisco," "community organizing," etc. If she said that small town America was not "bitter," her words suggested the exact opposite. This makes sense of her fellow traveling with her husband's Alaskan secessionism. She dreams of an America where there are no Democrats, no urbanites, no cities teaming with alien others and faggity liberals. America will only be redeemed when all America is Alaska and Alaska is all of America.

3) John McCain is the American Christ. He suffered and bled for your sins, descended into Hell, and rose again from the dead. You owe him! Bow down before his majesty, and repent your wickedness. I am the Angel of Death.