Smile Politely. Speak Directly. A Champaign-Urbana Culture Blog

Her timing was good. She was funny. She spoke directly.

It was a good speech. If you missed it, here's the transcript.

So rather than deconstructing her delivery, we can focus on the content. I'll be brief.

She did well in reshaping the "bridge to nowhere" talking point. Even if she did change her mind about it, she framed her change of direction as getting the money where it should go (to the people of Alaska). She said if it's going to be built, we (the people of Alaska) will do it ourselves.

Citing Harry Truman recalled to us a maverick who chose to do right, however unpopular. It recalled a man who served an old and dying president. It recalled a man who found himself thrust into the presidency in wartime, and who soon after deployed two atomic weapons. That's interesting.

In a reference to "guns and religion," she chided Barack Obama for remarks he made about working-class Hillary voters. Palin will get the Guns and Religion vote, I have no doubt. And although I'll continue to point out that guns are our constitutional right, I'll add that "guns and religion" go together like David Koresh and Waco, or Hamas and Hezbollah.

Or, for native Idahoans like Sarah Palin — like Ruby Ridge.

She chided Obama, again, about security: "Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America...he's worried that someone won't read them their rights?"

A flippant disdain for "reading their rights" should send a chill down your spine. Police states are great when you are in charge — when you can fire the police chief who won't accede to your wishes.

It reminds me of Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who says she'll sacrifice liberty for security, which reminds me of Patrick Henry: "Give me liberty or give me death."

After another 200 years, I expect and hope that Henry's will remain our defining theme and attitude. If it's the other, we won't last another 200 years.

For today's purposes, it's not surprising that white women of means, with small children, in positions of power, find security-over-liberty so easy to choose. They are generally not the ones who get hassled by The Man. On the other hand, I have a friend — senior citizen, retired professor, albino, legally blind — who tells me she gets searched every single time she goes through airport security. One time it took her an extra hour to get all her jewelry back. And that's what we have to worry about — not the honest cop, but the cop with sticky fingers, and the cop who enjoys bullying people.

People who trade liberty for security — and by that, I mean relinquish their fourth amendment rights — are not likely to join the kind of militia that Randy Weaver advocated at Ruby Ridge. Perhaps Sarah Palin was truly never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party.

Palin did a great job in rallying like-minded people. Her execution, and elocution were top notch.

It's the stuff she says that I don't like.