Last night I got home too late to have seen Sarah Palin's speech live. I did find the text of her speech on RealClearPolitics and my initial reaction was "Wow!" Flipping around the channels I noticed that one of the C-Span channels was replaying the night's RNC events. I knew I would have to wait a while to see the speech but I had to see it. I couldn't wait till the morning when the speech would be available on video. The anticipation was killing me.
I fell asleep but awoke during Rudy Giuliani's speech. Governor Palin would be next. I sat up in rapt attention and when she started in my reaction was, "Wow - simply wow!" Her speech generated strong emotions in me. Feelings that were eerily familiar. It took me most of the day to realize when I had felt those feelings before.
Before I explain - let me back up. Like many people I was disgusted at the way the media had been attacking Palin through her children. Her speech reminded me on a visceral level of a lioness protecting her cubs. Governor Palin knows her family is not perfect nor rich nor to the aristocracy born. But it's her family and they are a family. Whole and intact. Like the Weasley family from the Harry Potter books.
It hit me tonight that the last time something generated such feelings was at the end of the last Harry Potter book - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
At the end of the book Bellatrix Lestrange is trying to kill Mrs. Weasley's youngest daughter Ginny (along with Hermione Granger and Luna Lovegood). Mrs. Weasley's response? "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!"
Mrs. Weasley did not need anyone to protect her child. She did it herself. Much like Sarah Palin last night. If you substituted the liberal media elite for Bellatrix - then to me the cry of "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!" seems spot on.
To continue the analogy - again substitute the main stream media for Bellatrix and the reaction to Palin / Mrs. Weasley again seems spot on:
"Bellatrix's [the MSM's] gloating smile froze, her eyes seemed to bulge: For the tiniest space of time she knew what had happened, and then she toppled, and the watching crowd roared..." Deathly Hallows Page 736-737The gloating smiles over an inexperienced, white trash hick with no experience is gone. Evaporated by a speech like no other I can recall in my lifetime. The mainstream media has been exposed for their shabby treatment of a mother and her daughter. And last night the crowd cheered as the mother protected her family and prevailed over her would be tormentors.
The crowd is still cheering. Not my daughter you bitch indeed!