I've spent the past few days saying Sarah Palin is probably a smart, tough, articulate person and could very well give an excellent speech.  As unqualified as she is to be Vice-President, as nauseous as her politics are, and questionable her honesty, I thought she might look convincing on television.  Then she walked on stage in St. Paul last night.

Palin isn't ready for prime time.  She left me wondering why McCain didn't choose the founder of eBay, the ex-CEO of Hewlitt-Packard or even the governor of Hawaii.  They gave credible speeches and each delivered her message with authority.

Or why didn't McCain choose Giuliani?  He lied, he sneered, he was about as mean as anybody I've heard-- but he gave a pretty good speech.  He had the crowd in the palm of his hand.  Palin was smaller than the moment, and the adoring crowd swept her along rather than the other way around.  She was mean enough in her zingers-- but it was merely a bratty, annoying sort of meannness, not the direct hits that Giuliani delivered.  Clearly, the city-slicker celebrity ex-mayor of cosmopolitan, fashionable New York City does not have a "soulmate" in the ex-mayor of Wasilla (Pop: 9,000, less or lesser).

Fifteen minutes into Palin's speech, I wondered if she had anything to say other than introducing us to her family-- whose business we ought to stay out of completely.  I thought it was all wrong.  We knew Palin was a "hockey mom" with conservative values-- America needs to know if she's ready to tackle the problems of a struggling economy and neverending war.  Decidedly unstateswomanlike.

Still, I tried my best to avoid jumping to conclusions about right-wingers finally getting their wish-- a Fox News anchorwoman in the White House.  "SportsCenter" from the VP's mansion.  She's a governor.  She has accomplishments.  But what Vice-Presidential nominee thinks it's appropriate to blow a little kiss to the P.O.W. in the front row?

That's when it hit me: the bizarre, black-is-white, day-is-night world of Bush-Cheney continues, where reality is what you say it is.  The crowd loved her; she got "angry leftist" Tom Brokaw's stamp of approval.  And she has pissed off "the liberal blogosphere."  We're right back in Karl Rove's comfort zone.  An election about insults, realities and counter-realities.  Your millions in marketing versus mine.  Kay Bailey Hutchison-- that's a choice that would have made sense.  But this election isn't supposed to make sense.

Nevertheless, I'll still say it, even if it won't matter one bit: last night Sarah Palin, whatever qualities she may have, gave a dreadful performance.