I'd like you to share your thoughts on Sarah Palin's speech last night.

Alright, I’m biased, I think of myself as an independent, but I lean pretty far to the left. And I KNOW everyone on that convention floor last night was biased to the far right. If one thing is perfectly clear it’s that Palin is a HUGE hit with the far religious right wing of the Republican party. Delegates are all over the radio this morning talking about how her speech has won them the election. I saw a much different speech than they did, but that is to be expected. But I’m really interested in how this plays to someone who is not all that partisan either direction.

My concern is that while I thought the Dems were hard hitting against the Republicans, they were not mean spirited, but Palin’s speech, as well as the other speeches last night struck me as EXTREMELY mean spirited. So, I’m curious if an impartial observer just thought they were telling their version of the truth, or if they thought the speeches were over the top mean and nasty like I did? I keep seeing what I think are HUGE inconsistencies and terrible hypocrisy on the part of the Republicans, but I’m wondering if I’d think that no matter what and am being more hypocritical than I should be?

One thing in particular, which both Guiliani and Palin did that just seemed to exemplify why I hate Republicans with a passion is that they seemed to openly MOCK community service. This is the party which says they honor service to country, yet both of them sneered and snickered at Obama’s experience as a community service leader. And were they chanting “beat ‘em up”, or what were they saying? I know they were chanting “zero” to indicate the Dem ticket’s perceived lack of experience, which is a whole other irony considering their VP candidate.

I just know that what Palin herself and her speech will do is energize and excite the right, which is fine, they got the candidate they want, and it will polarize the left who now feel personally attacked and are all the more ready to open their wallets to Obama. But I’m curious how that kind of vitriol sits with the person on the fence. I’m curious if your undecided voter would look at that and say “Oh, it didn’t seem mean spirited to me, just seemed like they were speaking their beliefs,” or if they’ll by and large think, “Man, for a group that has been in power for 8 years, they sure are bitter.”

I’ll take your thoughts no matter where you are on the spectrum, but if your answer doesn’t make it clear what your bias is (if any), please disclose this, just so I’m not hearing a Republican say “it was great”, but assuming it’s really an independent speaking.