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Palin’s plain talk about Obama electrifies
party
ST. PAUL, Sept 4: Sarah Palin touted her small-town roots and lashed
out at Democrat Barack Obama during a fiery speech to the Republican
convention on Wednesday, ridiculing her critics as out-of-touch
elitists who do not understand everyday life in America.
In her public debut in the spotlight, John McCain’s choice for vice
president electrified supporters with a brutal assault on Obama and
members of the news media who have questioned her qualifications.
“If you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite,
then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that
reason alone,” the Alaska governor told the crowd, which chanted
“Sarah, Sarah” and held signs reading “Palin Power” and “Hockey Moms
4 Palin.”
Since McCain named the virtually unknown Palin, 44, his running mate
five days ago, she has been the centre of a media storm fuelled by
disclosures about her unmarried teenage daughter’s pregnancy, a
probe into her role in an Alaskan official’s firing and questions
about her political record.McCain joined Palin and her family on
stage at the end of her 36-minute speech as Republican delegates to
the convention roared in excitement. “Don’t you think we’ve made the
right choice for the next vice president of the United States?” he
asked.Afterward, Republicans formally nominated McCain, 72, and
Palin as their candidates in the Nov 4 election against Obama and
his No. 2, Joe Biden, igniting a lengthy celebration on the
convention floor.
Republican McCain shocked the US political world by making the
first-term governor his running mate. Palin’s anti-abortion and
pro-gun history has fired up conservatives, but her convention
speech was the first chance for most Americans to judge her for
themselves.
Palin levelled a series of sharp jabs at Obama, reminding the
Republican crowd of his comments at a San Francisco fundraiser in
April about bitter small-town residents.
“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,” Palin said.
“We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in
Scranton and another way in San Francisco,” she said.
The Obama campaign said Palin’s speech was well delivered but
familiar after eight years of President George W. Bush.
“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,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.
Palin told the convention her service as mayor and town council
member in Wasilla, Alaska, had given her a realistic perspective.
“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,”
she said. She contrasted that with Obama’s background as a community
organizer in Chicago and first-term senator from Illinois.
“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,” she said.
“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’
except that you have actual responsibilities.”
Palin said her small-town roots made her familiar with the dignity
of work and the economic struggles of families, and said she had
spent her first two years as governor fighting for working people
and reducing the size of government.
She questioned Obama’s sincerity and mocked his penchant for big
speeches and a “cloud of rhetoric,” making fun of his claim to have
“fought for you.”
“There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought
for you,” she said of McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
“In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote
their careers,” she said. “And then there are those, like John
McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”
—Reuters
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