Two delegates and an alternate comment on Sarah Palin speech

September 3rd, 2008 at 11:12pm Chuck Sweeny

After Sarah Palin’s speech I talked by phone to Rockford delegates John Borling and Dave Syverson, and to Boone County delegate Dick Diller. And here’s what they said:

“In the Olympics sometimes, it gets down to the final routine, and they say it’s got to score high to win. Sarah Palin’s speech was more than a 10.0. She exceeded everybody’s expectations by far. It was unbelievable! She was tough, confident, compassionate and people here are just in awe of the speech. I think she answered a lot of critics tonight. The line about how Obama uses changes to promote his career, and McCain uses his career to promote change, was pretty significant. I loved her joke about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull – lipstick. That was just great.
“I also liked her way of talking to the middle class Americans, saying there’s nothing wrong with living in the small towns of America, they are the backbone of our country. It was just incredible, people were crammed in there to listen to every word.”
— state Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford and delegate.

“She knocked it out of the park. Sarah Palin is as tough as they said she was. She has all the attributes needed to be a great vice president and she’s a great complement to John McCain. What stood out was her competence and strong individuality. She knows about energy, and Alaska is a big energy state. Energy independence is a big, big issue in this campaign. She’s governor of a state bordered by Canada and Russia, and she deals with matters of international significance as it relates to energy. She’s of strong American stock, good stuff. The media would never ask a man the kinds of questions she has had to endure, and yet she has taken the high ground. A lot of the media should be ashamed, and the women of America ought to be outraged a the kind of bull they put her through. She’s first rate. I’m going to meet her in 10 minutes.”
— John Borling, major general, USAF retired; McCain delegate from Rockford

“Terrific speech. She made a great contrast between the McCain/Palin ticket and the opponents. She was a mayor and governor, and did a good job introducing herself to the American people, who don’t know her yet. This was a good, introductory speech. There’s a whole lot of things that stood out, the fact the other side doesn’t have executive experience, and she does, and that’s the thing the media’s been going on about, that she’s inexperienced, but she pointed out that she does have executive experience of running a city and a state, and she pointed out what she did in Alaska, cutting waste in government and cutting taxes. She put the state-owned airplane on eBay. It was something that fired up the convention, and I think she’s an excellent choice.” – Dick Diller, alternate delegate from Boone County

Entry Filed under: Delegates speak