It WAS brilliant.
Brilliantly written and crafted by the rhetorical genius Matthew Scully--author of Dominion, one of the most humane and persuasive books I've ever read; I wonder how he sleeps at night--and brilliantly delivered by Sarah Palin.
It truly was a dark kind of "Star is Born" moment, where this pert and pretty bitch proved to the doubters (like me) that there is still plenty of glittering slime left in the Rove-Atwater machine, proved that as long as there are Republican interests there will be political actors nasty and ruthless enough to lie through their teeth to the American public to defend them, and that Barack Obama is not just running against tired old McCain this election: he's also running against Georgina W. Bush.
What I particularly enjoyed about her skillful nastiness, and what I haven't seen pointed out, is that she was probably driven to hit the slime out of the park not just to score points against the Democrats but also as a kind of "Fuck You" to John McCain, who no doubt has been hollering in her ear nonstop for the past three days, bellowing about all the unanticipated scandals she's carried with her into the campaign. Did you see that icy, 'Fuck You' kind of hug she gave him when he came out to greet her after her speech? There is no love between those two.
Denigrating Obama's work as a community organizer a night after making "Service" the theme of their convention? Screaming and whining to the press about how they've treated her family, then whoring out her five month old and her pregnant 17 year old as a ridiculous sop to the insane pro-Lifers in the base (how many times did Trig pass hands last night?), and above all else stuffing her speech with rhetorical half-truths and outright lies? Yeesh. My skin crawled as it hasn't since Bush was campaigning in '04.
But I can't deny that Sarah Palin has a sort of bitch-goddess Cruella De Vil kind of power over me. Last night I dreamed of her, endlessly twisting a knife in my spine.
Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people!
Bobo I'm in love with you!
As a wise person once sang, "Bigmouth la la la la."