Live blogging Sarah Palin

We'll be live blogging Sarah Palin's speech to the Republican National Convention, which is set around 8:20 Mountain tonight. Mitt Romney is on now, followed by Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee before Palin. Feel free to start posting comments anytime, while I put up a few links of interest about Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin was for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it.

As mayor of Wasilla, she apparently tried to ban a bunch of books.

Sarah Pallin, corruption fighter? Then what was she doing running Ted Stevens' PAC?

But these are the two most disturbing stories of all:

Remember when we thought the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was a loose cannon? Get a load of this Huffington Post story by Nico Pitney and Sam Stein, detailing how Palin's worldview was shaped at the Wasilla Assembly of God. Ed Kalnins, the minister there, told parishioners in 2004 they might be damned to hell if they voted for John Kerry, and this past June he said (with Palin as a co-speaker), "I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them."

Sarah and Todd Palin have longtime ties to and sympathy for the Alaska Independence Party. Todd, now "undeclared," was a member until 2002. In 1994, its founder's remains were found wrapped in a blue tarp and duct tape after a plastics-explosives sale went bad. As Kagro X wrote at Daily Kos today, "Nobody has more questions about this? About the Palins' having been fellow travelers with separatist party types who get killed in plastic explosives deals right in the militia movement/Waco/Ruby Ridge/Oklahoma City historical sweet spot? It's not like Republican militia-phile ciphers haven't made it as far as DC before, you know. Steve Stockman, anyone? Helen Chenoweth?"

Of course, Sarah Palin won't mention any of this tonight. She'll hit a home run with the GOP faithful in the convention hall, and she'll endear herself to the "security moms" who helped re-elect George W. Bush. We must let everyone know: The Sarah Palin we see tonight is not the full story. The Sarah Palin we see tonight does not represent mainstream America. Not even close. And John McCain didn't know it.

Update: Here's a speech postmortem from Bill Burton of the Obama campaign ... "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."

Also, here's an even more exhaustive list detailing McCain's Palin Problem.

Comments

[Julie in Boise]

Palin takes the stage, and the cheering is just going on and on and on ... for what, exactly?

[Kitt@work]

Sara Anderson makes a good point over at her place in the line veto slashing of funds for teenage mothers.

http://f-words.blogspot.com/2008/09/on-sarah-palin-for-vice-president.html

http://covenanthouseak.org/passagehouse.htm

The framing of her having her youngest child despite his being Down syndrome is pissing me off.

[Kitt@work]

Oh yeah, you'll have to live blog it. I refuse to watch it - plus I'm at work.

[W. Lane Startin]

I'm pretty much interested in hearing if it's particularly good or particularly bad. Canned and pedestrian doesn't do anything for me either way.

[Julie in Boise]

Well, just to be clear. I have no intention of doing play-by-play.

She did just mention that her son is deploying a week from now. Jon Soltz questioned at dKos today whether disclosing the deployment date is illegal. I'm sure Bubblehead will have something to say on this:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/3/171611/4782/777/585025

Palin is introducing her family, and I have to say: Bristol's beau looks shell- shocked.

[Julie in Boise]

"I was just your average hockey mom and signed up for the PTA ..." (wild cheers)

[Julie in Boise]

Talking about being mayor of Wasilla now. "I guess being a small-town mayor is like being a community organizer except you have actual responsibilities."

Slammed Obama for pretending to listen to working people "one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco."

Huge boos at mention of Washington insiders and media.

Ooops, I'm doing play by play.

[Julie in Boise]

I'm trying to listen for fundamentalist dog whistle phrases. "A servant's heart" could be one, though I honestly believe Barack Obama truly has that impulse, too.

[Julie in Boise]

Touting Alaska's new natural gas pipeline. Alas, she's not mentioning that it was God's will, just like the Iraq War.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/election/2008/09/02/palin-said-war-in-iraq-gas-pipeline-are-gods-will/

[Julie in Boise]

Flat-out lying, as Lieberman did last night, about Obama's record. She says he hasn't authored any major bill nor reform. Uh, Walter Reed oversight? Ethics reform? Financial disclosure? Securing loose nukes? And in Illinois, expansion of health care for children, early childhood education, and $100 million in tax cuts to working families?

Just mocked Obama, asking what he'll do after "turning back the waters and saving the planet."