Sarah Palin was irresistible as a speaker at the Republican National Convention. Her lustrous eyes, glamorous smile and beautiful cadences had unmistakable star quality. Her delivery projected spontaneity and sincerity.
But that event, contrary to appearances, was a study in high-end political theater. Palin's speech rang like the heartfelt manifesto of a modern American frontierswoman, but it was actually written by Bush speechwriter Michael Scully, much of it before Scully knew who McCain's pick for vice-president would be.
And though Bush and Cheney were conspicuously absent from the convention, a crew of Bush aides has been hard at work grooming Palin, according to a Newsweek blog. Tucker Eskew, a former White House communications aide, is senior counselor to the would-be VP. Mark Wallace, a lawyer for Bush's 2000 campaign who later held several administration posts, is also coaching Palin, and his wife Nicolle, a former White House communications director, is Palin's communications director. Steve Biegun, once a National Security Council official under Condoleezza Rice, has been made Palin's chief foreign policy adviser.
Palin's posture as reformer and poster girl for Alaska was so well done that night that it's taken some deconstructing to make clear how ingeniously it all was staged. It's known by now that she was an enthusiastic supporter of the infamous Bridge to Nowhere until it was clear that Congress wasn't going to pay for it. And as an Alaska booster, she seems to view her state less as an ecology than a commodity, i.e. an oilfield. She sued the Bush administration after it reluctantly declared the polar bear an endangered species, and has been vocal in her support for oil drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge.
Palin has also objected to a proposal by Barack Obama for a windfall tax on oil companies; she claims it would hamper their investment in domestic production. Last December she said she didn't buy Al Gore's "doom and gloom" statements that human activity contributed to global warming, and she held that position until late August—just before she was tapped for the VP spot."
