Something's Up

I tried to sit down and read Sarah Palin's resignation speech. Sometimes when you say something like "the politician clearly wrote the speech themselves" that's a compliment. Not in this case. As Ezra notes, this is just a bizarre thing to allow into a TelePrompTer.

I've read a lot of speech transcripts. They tend to have fewer words in all capital letters. And fewer things in quotation marks that aren't actually, you know, quotes. And I've never seen an official speech transcript, written by an actual speechwriter, that contains this:

*((Gotta put First Things First))*

And that's not even getting into the self-pitying shots at the press, the fact that she mocked those who take "the quitter's way out" in a speech dedicated to quitting, or this agonizing sports metaphor:

"A good point guard drives through a full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket… and she knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can WIN. And I’m doing that – keeping our eye on the ball that represents sound priorities – smaller government, energy independence, national security, freedom! And I know when it’s time to pass the ball – for victory."

This had the quality of a written-the-night-before book report. At the least, it was not the product of carefully crafted deliberation.

This is a reactive document based on some new information about to come to light.