WTWP

Our wall-to-wall-Palin coverage continues. Willie Brown, former San Francisco Mayor/California Assembly Speaker and entertaining TV analyst, writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Sarah Palin is the real deal.

The Democrats are in trouble. Sarah Palin has totally changed the dynamics of this campaign. Period.

Palin's speech to the GOP National Convention on Wednesday has set it up so that the Republicans are now on offense and Democrats are on defense. And we don't do well on defense...

I actually went back and watched Palin's speech a second time. I didn't go to sleep until 1:30 a.m. I had to make sure I got the lines right. Her timing was exquisite. She didn't linger with applause, but instead launched into line after line of attack, slipping the knives in with every smile and joke. And she delivered it like she was just BS-ing on the street with the meter maid. She didn't have to prove she was "of the people." She really is the people.

As for Palin herself, she is going to be very, very effective on the campaign trail, especially if McCain's people can figure out how to gently keep her from getting into confrontations with the press. If she can answer questions like she handled herself at the convention, Palin will turn out to be the most interesting person in all of politics, and the press will treat her like they treated Obama when he was first discovered. And remember, the Palin bandwagon needs to roll for only two months.

Willie Brown, like Pat Buchanan, is one of those rare analysts that appear on TV who like to analyze politics unmoved by an agenda, which is what makes them interesting. I wonder why TV news doesn't find more of these types instead of putting on the same old partisan-operatives disguised as "analysts"?

There is a YouTube video of Palin giving a pep talk to some ministry students at her old church in Wasilla. Larry Auster claims to see a completely different side of her in this video, but I see the same dynamic presence we saw in St. Paul. Consider the poor quality of this video, the down-scale setting - consider all the people you've seen on local public-access or community TV - and note the complete mastery of the moment she displays. Do you find it painfully boring, or do you find it easy to sit thru her entire talk? Consider any other such video you might have seen - could you even imagine lasting 10 seconds?

The content of this video is quite controversial. Initial reports have spun it as her claiming that we are on a mission from God in Iraq, but of course she says no such thing. For example, the AP claimed that "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God. In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will." That is a rather crude misstatement of what she actually says, as can be determined by simply watching the video. Still, scrutiny of her religious beliefs and their interaction with her governing style are a legitimate concern, given that we currently have a president who, judging him from his own words, appears to have relied more on feedback from prayers than input from knowledgeable and varying points of view. (Here's a fairly reasonable take on it from HuffPo.)

Meanwhile, blogger HalfSigma has questioned Palin's intelligence, guessing she's in the 110 range. It's an interesting post with lots of comments including from yours truly. He bases it on her taking six years to get through college and the generally working-class life choices made by her and her family. I'd guess she's a little smarter than that, but she seems to have such a natural affinity for leadership I find it unlikely she would not have landed herself in a far more lucrative position if she were especially smart. So this is an interesting question, as it may ultimately restrict her ability to rise too far.

James Fulford, in the VDARE blog, found an interview with her where she expresses admiration for Ron Paul, so she at least has promise to be something other than the package the McCain campaign will box her into. Again she speaks effortlessly without notes about some mildly technical issues, so I'm guessing she's a bit more intelligent than Half Sigma claims.

And finally, both Zogby and Rasmussen report a substantial Palin-bounce, as Obama's lead has been wiped out in her wake.

FYI: The original WTWP is here: the PDQ Bach spoof of classical-music radio. The call letters stood for "Wall-to-Wall Pachelbel." Related: the lastest Stuff White People Like entry: Appearing to enjoy Classical music.