It is a rare thing, even for a life-long political junkie like yours truly, to experience a case where a candidate one supports comes out and delivers exactly the kind of speech, in exactly the kind of way that one would have wished. Certainly I wouldn’t be able to remember such occasions with Dubya (leastways in a political speech) as much as I respect the man. At this moment, I honestly cannot remember a preferred candidate of mine stepping up to the plate and delivering anything like the pure political gold that Governor Sarah Palin delivered last night at the G.O.P. convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

And thanks to the anticipation and the trumped up so-called controversy about Palin, the audience across America who saw this performance was even larger than it would have been, and they got to hear all of her murderously funny and dead-on put-downs of Senator Barack Obama (which in many cases were simply her throwing back criticisms that had been made about her own experience). Her timing in delivering each crack was beyond exquisite. She may have done more to define Barack Obama to America with her speech last night than all the political ads of this season put together.

Some Palin-tology:

A writer observed: “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity, and dignity.” I know just the kind of people that writer had in mind when he praised Harry Truman.

I grew up with those people.

They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America … who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars.

They love their country, in good times and bad, and they’re always proud of America. I had the privilege of living most of my life in a small town.

I was just your average hockey mom, and signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids’ public education better.

When I ran for city council, I didn’t need focus groups and voter profiles because I knew those voters, and knew their families, too.

Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

…

I’ve noticed a pattern with our opponent.

Maybe you have, too.

We’ve all heard his dramatic speeches before devoted followers.

And there is much to like and admire about our opponent.

But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.

This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word “victory” except when he’s talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed … when the roar of the crowd fades away … when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger … take more of your money … give you more orders from Washington … and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy … our opponent is against producing it.

She appropriately did not address in this speech the truly despicable things that have been said about her children (which started on left-wing blogs as soon as she was announced as McCain’s running mate on Friday). Instead, she just praised her kids.

If anyone didn’t see her entire performance, it is on YouTube below:

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