She was funny, intelligent, thoughtful, sincere and persuasive.
The audience was beside itself, welcoming her with a 5-minute ovation and following with many more.
Expectations had been sky-high, and Sarah Palin had exceeded them. The speech was an instant classic, and you could tell just by looking at our faces that those of us in attendance were thinking to ourselves “I’m watching history.”
I spoke to many delegates afterwards. Almost every conversation was the same:
Me: “What did you think?”
Them: (visible catching of breath) “Oh my gosh, that was the greatest speech I’ve ever seen.”
Perhaps folks were just caught up in the moment, but it was really, really good. In five days, Sarah Palin had completed her rise from anonymous governor to rock star, and you knew the political universe would never be the same.