Palin’s speech: the verdict

I was sitting about 30 metres away from Sarah Palin when she walked on stage, and lost all remaining objectivity at that point. She looked bashful and nervous, as well you might if you had 20,000 boisterous Republicans roaring at you. I don’t normally feel sympathy for politicians but there was something about this tiny mother of five being plunged into the toughest bear pit in America that made it almost hard to watch. She stood at the podium for what seemed like an eternity, as the crowd roared. It was as if she was waiting for them to calm down, but they don’t. She had to just start talking, and they’d shut up. But she didn’t – she just stood there, not even quite smiling confidently. Unlike Giuliani – who had just worked the crowd to perfection – she would never have ever seen anything like that before. At that point, when she hadn’t said a word, I feared she might fluff it after all.