Palin attacks with humor

Associated Press

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HAVING A GOOD TIME: Alternate Ohio delegate Kathy Eshelman of Dublin, Ohio, reacts to the speeches with others during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn. She was appropriately attired in political regalia for the event Wednesday.

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Palin

Her best-received lines were barbs at the Democratic candidate for president.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claimed her historic spot on the Republican ticket Wednesday night, uncorking a smiling, slashing attack on Barack Obama and vowing to help John McCain bring real change to Washington.

“Victory in Iraq is finally in sight; he wants to forfeit,” she said of Obama.

“Al-Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America; he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.”

To the delight of the delegates, McCain strolled unexpectedly onto the convention stage after the speech and hugged his running mate.

“Don’t you think we made the right choice” for vice president? he said as his delegates roared their approval. It was an unspoken reference to the convention-week controvesy that has greeted her, including the disclosure that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant.

Before convention busines concluded early today, delegates voted to make Sen. McCain their candidate for president of the United States.

In her solo debut on the national stage, she traced her career from the local PTA to the governor’s office, casting herself as a maverick in the McCain mold, and seemed to delight in poking fun at her critics and her ticketmate’s political rivals.

Since taking office as governor, she said she had taken on the oil industry, brought the state budget into surplus and vetoed nearly one-half billion dollars in wasteful spending.

“I thought we could muddle through without the governor’s personal chef — although I’ve got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her.”

Not surprisingly, her best-received lines were barbs at Obama.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” she said, a reference to Obama’s stint as a community organizer.

“I might add that in small towns we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t,” she said.

That was a reference to Obama’s springtime observation about some frustrated working-class Americans.

By contrast, she said of McCain: “Take the maverick out of the Senate. Put him in the White House.

“He’s a man who’s there to serve his country, and not just his party.”

“In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers,” she said in another cutting reference to Obama’s campaign theme. “And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.”

If McCain and his campaign’s high command had any doubt about her ability at the convention podium, they needn’t have. With her youthful experience as a sportscaster and time spent in the governor’s office, her timing was flawless.