I have ever heard, was Sarah Palin, tonight. (Always excepting Thatcher.) It took Hillary 16 years in the public eye, and she never quite got there. The speech was brilliantly written. It gave Palin room to introduce herself, to be funny (the difference between hockey moms and pit bulls — lipstick!), to be strong, to be charming, to be tough, and to display amazing political talent. She backed down on nothing. Her pokes at Obama were masterful. She wielded the knife with a smile on her face. Who knew that the response to his gibes at small town Americans being bitter was to put a small town mayor out there to defend the honor of normal Americans?

God and guns never looked better.

And, while we’re at it…the new hair style and more subtle color, and the perfectly classy, upmarket suit, take a natural beauty and make her look the part. Actually, she looked and sounded better than any Hollywood evocation of a female President or Veep. Bourgeois mainstream women will ultimately, if not immediately, give her another look.

By the way, having Rudy, America’s biggest town mayor, set her up was a great stroke too. I was concerned that it would upstage her, talent-wise. But I had no reason to fear.

And it was nice seeing Cindy McCain beam and laugh at Sarah Palin’s speech, in a way that differed radically from Michelle Obama’s skepticism during Hillary’s speech.