The Sarah Palin No Comment Watch

As you can see, I've added a feature on the left sidebar that tracks the amount of time since Sarah Palin was added to John McCain's ticket, and I'm going to keep the clock running until she sits down for her first serious issue interview broadcast on television.

I've gotten a ton of requests by e-mail to widgetize the no comment watch (which would allow people to cut-n-paste the code, proliferating it across the web) and I'm working on doing just that.

In the meantime, allow me to point out to you this article about the Bush speechwriter Matthew Scully who wrote Sarah Palin's speech.

Scully started working on the vice-presidential speech a week ago, before he or anyone else knew who the nominee would be, and it's not hard to pick out the parts that would have been the same regardless of who delivered it.

...Scully was a good choice to help moderate Palin's right-wing image. A veteran of the early Bush White House, his specialty was crafting Bush's pro-life message in a way that would not offend soccer moms or mainstream Catholics who get nervous around some of the more extreme Evangelical rhetoric.

...If Palin was viewed as the most likely right winger to sell in the swing states, Scully is the right pick to help repackage her from a base pleaser into a bridge builder.

As you can see, the only thing that speech told us about Sarah Palin is that she can read.