The Democrats new problem

Rich Lowry:

Last night, the question about Sarah Palin wasn't if she's risen too fast, but where she's been for so long.

She may have given the best speech of either political convention. She delivered a brilliantly written text flawlessly. Politicians who've been on the national stage for decades could do no better, and usually do worse.

It is widely remarked that Joe Biden is an ideal No. 2 on a national ticket because he's a "happy warrior." Maybe. But Sarah Palin is a pretty, charismatic, winsome warrior, with a to-die-for smile, radiant upswept hair - and a steely toughness.

Sarah Barracuda, indeed.

Newsrooms across America must be in abject despair. The unlikely VP nominee the media hoped to crush out of the gate is unaffected by their condescension and scorn - and is bent on giving better than she takes.

Miss Congeniality isn't afraid to administer an old-fashioned beat-down. Annie Oakley brought a gun to a knife fight and made like the Obama-Biden ticket was a moose lazily meandering into her gun sights.

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Palin quickly established her credibility as a genuine representative of small-town America in a way few politicians can - and then used it to wheel on Barack Obama as a gasbag and a fraud in a witheringly sarcastic assault.

In her introduction, she said the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom is "lipstick." It wasn't just a cute line. She immediately began to prove it, starting with her killer line that being mayor of a small town is just like being a community organizer - except you have actual responsibilities.

She was merciless on Obama's elitism, scoring him for saying one thing about working-class voters in Scranton and another in San Francisco. By the end, you began to feel sorry for him for having been so thoroughly eviscerated by a woman and to wonder - how are Obama and Biden possibly going to handle her?

Palin was obviously comfortable laying body checks on Obama. In fact, she seemed to enjoy it.

Throughout, she never lost that ineffable quality that is literally priceless - her likability.

There's no substitute in politics for being liked, and it's not something that can be faked or synthesized. Together with her poise, it could - assuming no terrible gaffes or revelations in the days ahead - make her a national force for years to come.

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I liked her before the speech and she did not disappoint. Nor were the Republicans who watched her from up close. It was as if they had a hunger for someone who would finally stand up for their party and their principals against the double team of Democrats and their medias allies.

It is probably no accident that almost every story about the speech by the main stream media put her comments on the media down as an attack. They seem wounded by someone actually fighting back against their ignorance and attacks.

Democrats too will now have to deal with a candidate who is not going to just absorb the blows from their perfidious attacks. They will be put on the defensive where they belong. Their ridiculous energy policies are dragging down the economy and making us more vulnerable and she nailed them on it.