So, about that speech...

Say what you about Sarah Palin, her qualifications or lack thereof, her politics, her knocked up daughter, her wafer-thin resume, the fact that she barely knows John McCain, and the risk factor involved in putting this neophyte so close to the presidency: last night, Alaska's chief executive blew the entire country away.

For a newcomer to the national scene and a very freshly minted governor to boot, expectations should have been low. Palin provided a barn-burning address to the RNC, defiantly defending herself, her family, her values, and attacking more effectively than any politician in the last eighteen months Senator Barack Obama and his newfangled audacious liberalism.

Palin's speech was a masterpiece.

You could practically hear the gnashing of teeth and the screeching of the pundits from ABC to MSNBC. The good folks at Fox, needless to say, must have been beside themselves with well-earned joy.

Wow.

You go, girl. I mean...you really go.

Right now the thought of Tim Pawlenty or Mitt Romney running alongside John McCain is beyond ludicrous or laughable. McCain made an impulsive gut-check choice, yes. He took an enormous risk, yes. But did he make the right one? Oh, without a doubt.

Were his instincts really that good or did he get enormously lucky? We'll never know for sure, but Mrs. Palin showed us last night that no matter how she got there, she is a quick study to national politics and an absolute custom-made darling for middle America. If McCain liked what he saw in her from two quick meetings and thought she had the right stuff, it's awfully difficult to dismiss him as a semi-senile wannabe.

I really think Palin's speech is the watershed moment in this campaign. The election is going to be a squeaker, and at this moment, I will be very surprised if Obama pulls this off.

I say this without much enthusiasm either way--although I will say I'd feel slightly less embarrassed for my country if Obama were elected.