Today's Quiz

Today, we call upon you to identify the "she" in the following passage, which appears in today's New York Times:

. . . she delivered a devastating indictment of the entire U.S. political establishment — left, right and center — and pointed toward a way of transcending the presently unbridgeable political divide.

Read the whole thing.

Well Done

One Wink is Worth a Thousand Words

We Want One

No Moose in the Headlights

Biden looked old, delivered no laughers, and lied with alacrity. But, of course, the last is the product of decades of service in the World's Most Mendacious Body.

Gwen Ifill appeared to be wearing Scarlett O'Hara's green curtains from Tara.

And Sarah? We'll defer to Peggy Noonan:

G&S Likes Craig Ferguson

Not The New York Times

Today's lead editorial in the Washington Post: "Ms. Palin's Pipeline."

An Idea . . . .

. . . . whose time has come. We wish we had thought of setting up the Sarah Palin Sexism Watch. It's entirely serious, and it's a little shocking (and we are not easily shocked at the lengths to which the Left is willing to go to keep women in line) how many links have already been posted.

Next time someone tells you they're in favor of "choice" remember this.

Fight! Fight!

There's nothing we like better than a good girl fight. Amy Holmes observes:

The New York Times reports that “Mrs. Clinton’s campaign event in Florida, her first for Mr. Obama since the Democratic convention, will serve as a counterpoint to the searing attacks and fresh burst of energy that Ms. Palin injected into the race with her convention speech on Wednesday, Obama aides said.”

So, let’s get this straight. They didn’t choose her and her 18 million voters to put on the ticket. They gave the VP spot to Joe Biden. But now that Sarah Palin has arrived on the political scene, they’re promoting Hillary as the female answer to the Republican VP nominee. Awkward, to say the least.

p.s. Why does the flagship of the legacy press refer to "Mrs." Clinton, but "Ms." Palin?

Credit Where Credit is Due

You should read Bill Kristol's editorial in the new Weekly Standard:

The editors of THE WEEKLY STANDARD believe in giving credit where credit is due. The presidential race looks a whole lot better today than it did two weeks ago. For this, thanks are owed to two men--Barack Obama and John McCain--and to that herd of independent minds, the liberal media.

[snip]

A special thank you to our friends in the liberal media establishment. Who knew they would come through so spectacularly? The ludicrous media feeding frenzy about the Palin family hyped interest in her speech, enabling her to win a huge audience for her smashing success Wednesday night at the convention. Indeed, it even renewed interest in McCain, who seems to have gotten still more viewers for his less smashing--but well-received--presentation the following evening.

The astounding (even to me, after all these years!) smugness and mean-spiritedness of so many in the media engendered not just interest in but sympathy for Palin. It allowed Palin to speak not just to conservatives but to the many Americans who are repulsed by the media's prurient interest in and adolescent snickering about her family. It allowed the McCain-Palin ticket to become the populist standard-bearer against an Obama-Media ticket that has disdain for Middle America.

By the end of the week, after Palin's tour de force in St. Paul, the liberal media were so befuddled that they were reduced to complaining that conservatives aren't being narrow-minded enough. Thus, Hanna Rosin--who has covered religion and politics for the Washington Post, and has also written for the New Yorker, the New Republic, and the New York Times--lamented in a piece for Slate: "So cavalier are conservatives about Sarah Palin's wreck of a home life that they make the rest of us look stuffy and slow-witted by comparison." I suppose it was ungenerous of conservatives, in our broad-mindedness and tolerance of human frailty, to have let Ms. Rosin down, just when she was counting on us to bring out the tar and feathers. But she gives us too much credit when she suggests we make the liberal media look stuffy and slow-witted. They do that all by themselves.

For instance, what in the world can she be thinking when she refers to "Sarah Palin's wreck of a home life"? The only "domestic irregularities" (to use Ms. Rosin's loaded term) she cites are "two difficult pregnancies--Palin's with a Down syndrome baby and now her unmarried teenage daughter's." The second of these is a situation that the young woman and her family seem to be dealing with appropriately by their own lights. "Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family," the Palins said. But what is "irregular" about bringing to term a Down syndrome child? Is Rosin suggesting--without having the courage to say so--that Mrs. Palin should have aborted the baby? Is it upsetting to her to have a prominent woman choose not to do so?

And there is much more in next week's issue, which appears to be all Sarah, all the time.

All Sarah, All the Time

Some of our correspondents have asked when we will post on any subject other than Governor Palin. Recalling St. Augustine's prayer, we have asked for guidance. "Give us perspective, Lord, but not yet."

She's a 10

Your humble and obedient servant has a strict bed time: 10:00 p.m. That's eastern time. Last night, we made an exception, and watched Governor Palin live.

If we were selling, we'd urge our readers to vote for Senator McCain. We'd extol his virtues, and praise Governor Palin.

We're not selling.

Go find a recording of Governor Palin's speech. Don't read the text. Don't rely on the 175-year-old Bob Sheiffer to tell you what happened. Don't review Keith's countdown. Listen. Watch. Decide.

Miss Sarah is exactly who we hoped she was. Smart. Clever. Talented. Like Ronald Reagan, she cares what you think, but not too much. She's delivered five children. She knows she's adorable. Before her speech, to put her at ease, her husband promised that when they got back to their hotel, he'd do that thing she likes so much. You know, the thing that's illegal in Illinois.

I feel a little sorry for Joe Biden.

[UPDATE] Here's high praise from the other side:

The speech that Governor Palin gave was well delivered, but it was written by George Bush's speechwriter and sounds exactly like the same divisive, partisan attacks we've heard from George Bush for the last eight years. If Governor Palin and John McCain want to define 'change' as voting with George Bush 90% of the time, that's their choice, but we don't think the American people are ready to take a 10% chance on change," said Bill Burton, Obama Campaign Spokesman.

When the best you can do is hurumph that someone else wrote the speech that just left your candidate slack-jawed, you're in trouble. Possibly the Barry & Joe Show will now hire some of W's speechwriters. It's a thought.

Jonah Goldberg suggests: "She was put on this earth to do two things: kill caribou and kick butt. She's all out of caribou."

[UPDATE - II] Here's a "best of Sarah" clip:

"I'm the Freaking Governor of Alaska!"

This is hilarious. The difference between conservatives and the left is that we have a sense of humor. Some mildly NSFW language:

Via the divine Professor Althouse.

Once Upon a Time

Actually, we can be more specific. In 1988, when she was 24, the next Vice-President of the United States was a sportscaster at a local Alaska TV station. Unfortunately, the clown who uploaded the video couldn't control himself, and so added a couple of inane bubbles. Ignore them: