Sarah Palin introduced herself to America and the world last night with the nastiest primetime convention speech since Zell Miller.

"They say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick."

If Sarah Palin wants to call herself a pitbull with lipstick, so be it. 

John McCain's campaign manager Rick Davis declared "This election is not about issues." Nope - for McCain-Palin and their Republican Party, it's exclusively about arrogant, sneering, vicious contempt.

Why? Because after 8 years of destroying America and the planet, contempt is all they've got. the last thing they want to talk about is issues, as Glenzilla explains:

The Republicans are well aware that they can't possibly win the election if it is even partially decided based on issues. They need and intend to win despite the fact that Americans hate their positions on the issues, and to do that, they want to ensure that a majority of Americans love and respect the strong, honorable, principled, culturally familiar all-American mavericks John McCain and Sarah Palin (even if they don't agree with them on everything) while strongly disliking that wishy-washy, snooty, foreign, exotic, self-absorbed Eastern elitist Barack Obama (even if he says the right things on issues).

Obviously the Republican campaign is not about reaching swing voters in the middle, which is where elections are won. Instead they're offering voters the simplest possible choice: you're either with them or you're against them. Too bad the overwhelming majority of Americans are against them.

Since that's the Republican campaign plan, all I can say is three words: Bring. It. On.

Update 1: Matt Stoller:

When I left [Minneapolis], this was a deadened and frustrated group.  But now I see on TV an air chopping Giuliani dripping with hatred in a symbiotic relationship with a lustful and excited crowd.  This hatred, this anger, this rage is what they love.  This is who they are.

This party is aroused by a raw primal screeching bitterness.  I don't know if independents see Rudy's prime time speech like I see it, but what I see is a vicious white mob who laugh and sneer at people losing their homes in the name of small town American values and who hate community organizers standing up for those people.

Update 2: Nate Silver says Palin's speech worked great - for Democrats:

In the past several hours, Dems I’ve spoken with and who’ve flooded my inbox are energized. A woman friend and Democrat who had not worked for Obama’s campaign: “I am volunteering tomorrow.” An Obama organizer who was operating on fumes five months ago: “They are not getting away with this. 10 hours of call time tomorrow.” A shorter read of the mood: “Let’s get it on.”

The mockery went too far. They played the “Obama doesn’t love America, just himself” card, over and over and over. For people already inclined to believe that (i.e., the hardcore Republican base), the speech was a smashing success. Maybe they will work a little harder, volunteer a few more hours, dig a little deeper into their pockets. But so will partisan Dems, who are far more plugged into watching the election coverage.

So my reaction: St. Paul loved this speech… and so did Chicago. Palin swung for the fences, mocking the very notion of community organizing. So did Giuliani. This was the day after “Service” was the theme, and Republicans fell all over themselves praising their party’s commitment to give back to the community. Jarring.

Fire up both bases equally, it’s not even close. Obama wins going away. In 2008, there are so many more Democrats, numerically.

Update 3: Attaturk says the GOP campaign is based on a surprising "ideal":

That Americans are stupid, base, resentful and bigoted. That if one can scream and bloviate loudly enough you can keep your Party in power even when it is about as popular as chlamydia. How Mavericky!...

Never mind what you will actually do once in power other than fire those not beholden to you and, oh yes, DRILL, DRILL, DRILL. Never mind policies, it is, after all, from your point of view, all about the personalities and not the issues. And to get there we must stop criticizing your children so you get a full on chance to exploit them? When does little Trig get passed to the loving arms of Tom DeLay anyhow? No wonder the consistent look on the face of John McCain's mother was one of badly repressed horror.

Update 4: Here's the reaction from the focus group of Clinton-supporting Nevada women - the very women Palin needs to win over from Obama for McCain to beat him:

In the "married" group, when one attendee kicked off the discussion by saying "she's a good speaker, and a crowd pleaser," the rest of the room articulated their agreement. "I didn't expect to be as impressed as I was," said another respondent. But then another woman added: "Once she started mudslinging, I thought, it's the same old crap as other politicians. McCain used her to get the women's vote. And she's using McCain."

"Thank you," another woman responded. "That really upset me; there was no need for that. It was snippy."

The unmarried group also voiced similar objections to the harsh, partisan edge of Palin's remarks. "I'm not impressed with her at all as a person," one said, citing her "finger pointing" and general sarcasm after the group had generally agreed that she was a talented public speaker.

Update 5: Of course Palin repeated all the lies about her own record that have been debunked in the past few days:

I suspended the state fuel tax, and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. Strike One.

I told the Congress “thanks, but no thanks,” for that Bridge to Nowhere. Strike Two.

If our state wanted a bridge, we’d build it ourselves. When oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged - directly to the people of Alaska. Strike Three.

Update 6: Republicans did such a great job "working the refs" by complaining the "vetting" of Palin was raw sexism that most pundits turned off their brains after Palin's speech and declared it a "home run." But there were a few exceptions including Jeffrey Toobin.

Update 7: Good one-liners from some of our favorite bloggers:

• Hunter: "Her as president. Just imagine it for a second. Her. As. President."
• Kagro X: "The church lady with the nukular button."
• TRex: Ann Coulter in a Reindeer Sweater 
• Unidentified Politico reader: "Mrs. Palin needs to be reminded that Jesus Christ was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor."

Update 8: Will Bunch calls it Palin's speech to nowhere for many excellent reasons, above all

the great bulk of it was devoted to one thing, and that is the one thing that millions of Americans are talking about in 2008 when we talk about "change" -- to the ugliest kind of "pit bull" politics, to use Palin's words, that tear down the other side with cheap ad hominem attacks, surrounded by a cloud of half-truths (uh, those "Greek columns"...did you actually even watch Obama's speech? Because there weren't any) and ridiculous innuendo about "parting the waters" which means nothing but fires up a big hockey rink full of Dittoheads.

These kind of vicious attacks -- without having the grace to acknowledge that, despite some real differences on issues with Obama, that he has already accomplished something impressive that says something positive about America and the progress we've made -- were utterly lacking in class. And this is what Tom Brokaw considers "winning" -- have we really sunk that low as a nation?. The people of America want and deserve a real debate, not trash talk from the basketball point guard who was once called "Sarah Barracuda."

I hope America wakes up tomorrow and realizes that Sarah Palin's words were rousing -- and completely empty, that they offered no road map (let alone bridge) for America other than more of the bogus partisan name-calling that has gotten us into the mess that we're in now.

Actually, let me rephrase that.

I hope America wakes up tomorrow.

Update 9: Roger Simon apologizes to Republicans on behalf of The Media:

We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.

We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?

We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?

Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.

It is not our job to ask questions. Or it shouldn’t be. To hear from the pols at the Republican National Convention this week, our job is to endorse and support the decisions of the pols.

Of course Stephen Colbert said it better, and said it right to the Media's (and Bush's) face:

let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The President makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know, fiction!

Update 10: Stirling Newberry urges us to "define" Palin as

a frenetic extremist who is a bundle of contradictions: a supposed free-marketeer whose state's residents get large checks from the government, a clean government campaigner who wins elections based on bringing home government pork, a Christianist extremist who is bent on reducing rights while claiming to be part of the Leave-us-alone coalition...

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