Palin Rips Into
Obama at Republican Convention

As vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin said in her hotly anticipated speech Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention, the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull is lipstick. And the Log Cabin Republicans who gathered together at a downtown Minneapolis hotel to watch her dig her teeth into Barack Obama were all too pleased by the bloody spectacle.

Since she was announced as John McCain's running mate last Friday, Palin, the governor of Alaska, has had a rocky road, to say the least: the revelations that her unmarried daughter is pregnant and that her husband was once arrested for drunken driving, the criticism about her experience or lack thereof, the doubts about her ability to withstand the heat of the national spotlight. But on Wednesday night, at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, Palin proved that she has what it takes to help the Arizona senator win the White House.

"I thought the speech was excellent," said Log Cabin member David B. (who wouldn't give his last name because he works in Hollywood and said that being known as a Republican there would hurt his career). He was one of several dozen Log Cabin members and fellow gay Republicans who took in Palin's talk on several television screens in a sleek room at the boutique Graves Hotel, across from the Target Center, where Rage Against the Machine was playing a special RNC concert. (Cops in riot gear stood on the street, lest there be a repeat of the chaos that occurred after the band's show at the 2000 Democratic convention in Los Angeles.) The viewing party was sponsored by LCR and the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, along with Gill Action Fund and AT&T.

Whether you liked it or not, Palin's speech, carefully crafted over the previous 48 hours with a team of McCain advisers, was effective in its attack-dog approach, the customary role for a running mate. She homed in on Obama again and again, from every angle. His past as a community organizer in Chicago's south side? "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities," Palin said. She brought up Obama's "bitter" quote, saying that "in small towns, we don't quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they're listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren't listening. We tend to prefer candidates who don't talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco."

In typical Republican fashion, she tore into Obama's patriotism -- "This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word 'victory,' except when he's talking about his own campaign" -- his national-security strategy -- "Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay, and he wants to meet with them without preconditions" -- and she claimed that his economic plan would "increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars." And she managed to criticize Obama's legislative record and his celebrity appeal in a single powerful blow: "Listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform -- not even in the state senate."

She also served notice to the Washington establishment, particularly its mouthpiece, the media: "Here's a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion -- I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this country."

The crowd on the Xcel floor, which gave her an ovation that lasted minutes when she walked on to the podium, lapped up every zinger, cheering and raising signs saying PALIN POWER or HOCKEY MOMS 4 PALIN. Many delegates shouted "zero" at any mention of Obama's name -- or his purported lack of experience or tenure in the Illinois legislature. And, of course, there were plenty of "USA! USA!" chants.

The group at the Graves hotel, however, was decidedly more reserved, though most smiled throughout Palin's speech -- and a few lines, like "There's only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you," garnered enthusiastic applause.

"She's a mainstream Republican, not a Phyllis Schlafly who invokes God all the time," David B. said of Palin. "She seems open-minded, not an ideologue." Even though she's against gay rights? David preferred to talk about McCain in response, saying people vote for the top of the ticket and that the senator's "had many openly gay friends, including [former U.S. Rep.] Jim Kolbe. They're personal friends." He added that McCain opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment.

There was at least one gay Democrat in the room who also had praise for Palin's speech: Charles Carlson, an alternate Minnesota delegate to last week's Democratic National Convention in Denver. "It was scripted, but it was well done," the Minneapolis resident said. "She was very aggressive, but with a feminine image." Apparently, that's just what the McCain campaign wants.