Anchorage Daily News

Sarah Palin’s vice-presidential acceptance speech Wednesday night was a proud and exciting moment for Alaskans, regardless of political persuasion. In a well-written speech, comfortably delivered in front of an adoring and rousing crowd, she lauded her candidate John McCain, told the nation a bit about herself, and repeatedly attacked the opposing party’s ticket.

POLITICS-AS-USUAL SPEECH

Though the American public doesn’t know her well, she didn’t spend a lot of time introducing herself to the nation. Instead, the vice-presidential candidate who promises to reform politics as usual gave a-politics-as-usual speech.

By tradition, the vice-presidential candidate is the campaign’s attack dog, going after the opposition party, and Palin relished the role. The former mayor of Wasilla threw jab after jab after jab at Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Unleashing Gov. Palin in that typical political role could be a gamble. While the Republican audience ate up her strong rhetoric, it’s unclear how well it will play with voters who were seeing her for the first time. They may discount the self-professed reformer’s promises to bring a different kind of leadership to the country.

PALIN IN PERSON

In the relatively short passage about herself, Palin came across as Alaskans know her — an ordinary mom, familiar with the daily struggles of family life. (Unlike John McCain, who has had trouble remembering how many houses he and his heiress wife own.)

Palin noted her eldest son’s imminent deployment to Iraq and played up her husband’s blue-collar roots. She introduced her daughters and infant son.

Apparently her speech writers decided to soft-pedal her pitch to the party’s conservative base, in hopes of appealing to feminist and blue-collar Hillary Clinton voters. Though brought on the ticket in part to excite religious conservatives, Palin made no mention of abortion or other hard-line social conservative causes like banning same-sex marriage. Instead, she hit her pro-life theme by calling attention to the special needs of baby Trig.

PALIN THE REFORMER

Palin touted her record as a political outsider and reformer — without a doubt, the strongest part of her resume. Her recap was familiar to Alaskans, who have rewarded her with approval ratings approaching 80 percent , but it was new to the national audience.

Only briefly did Palin discuss her executive experience, which her campaign claims is superior to Sen. Obama’s. His experience as a community organizer is no match for her experience as mayor of Wasilla, she suggested. (She could have made a much better case for herself. As governor, she has done a great job getting her top priority issues through the Alaska Legislature, though at the day-to-day management of state government, the reviews are not so good.)

By not calling more attention to her big legislative victories in Alaska, she avoided having to give credit to Democrats. She mentioned leading the charge for ethics reform, but didn’t note that Alaska’s new ethics laws drew heavily on work Democrats had done before she took office.

Palin avoided all talk about the dismal state of the economy. Instead of advancing a constructive agenda for bringing economic progress to all Americans, she assailed Sen. Obama for wanting to raise taxes. (She didn’t mention that he has pledged to cut taxes for everybody except the top 5 percent of taxpayers.)

PALIN ON ENERGY

On energy, she issued a call for more drilling in the U.S., noting that Alaska has lots of potential. Drilling alone won’t cure our dependence on foreign oil, she noted correctly, but she gave only a passing call for more alternative energy and made no mention of conservation. She didn’t name Alaska’s hottest oil prospect, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, because McCain opposes drilling there.

Naturally, Palin worked in a plug for Alaska’s natural gas pipeline. However, she made it sound like the $40 billion project was already under way thanks to her efforts, when it fact no company has made a commitment to construct anything. Her work to move that project forward with an independent pipeline company, on terms favorable to the state, is one of her signature accomplishments as governor, but she misled the crowd about actual progress on the project.

NOT MUCH ON FOREIGN POLICY

Palin made only a brief reference to foreign policy, invoking the specter of Russia’s mischief in the Caucasus, an oil embargo by Iran, and the continuing threat from al-Qaeda, despite seven years of a Republican-led war against it. Foreign policy is an obvious area of weakness for her, especially compared to her Democratic opposite, Sen. Joe Biden, who has chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She didn’t repeat the ridiculous claim of supporters that she has foreign policy credentials because Alaska is near Russia, nor did she mention that her only overseas trip came last year, when she visited the Alaska National Guard in Kuwait.

Overall, Palin came across as an attractive and competent political partner who complements McCain’s maverick conservative image. With her tough attacks on the opposition, she showed the nation she is more than just a pretty face who was brought aboard to dress up the ticket for female and religious voters. Palin couldn’t put to rest all doubts about her qualifications and competence with just one speech, but she held her own during her first big moment as a vice-presidential candidate.

BOTTOM LINE: The hockey mom/political reformer did a good job delivering a politics-as-usual speech heavy with attacks on the opposing party ticket.

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