I agree with a lot of what you diagnosed about Palin's speech but I did think she read haltingly for a couple of minutes at the start of her remarks and clearly looked like she was reading from the prompter although she got better as she warmed up. I did hear a few mispronunciations along the way, as well, and a few nervous pauses. It's interesting to note that most of her speech was written by George Bush's speechwriter. If he had given the speech I doubt it would have had the same energetic connection with the audience. Which brings me to a point. I'm forever impressed by how one speaker's delivery will be so much more forceful using the same or similar words, which supports your continuing advice to speakers that they convey their personality when they speak because the words will never be enough to carry the "performance." And she may give Joe Biden a few moments of grief because she's a mom and a new face and all that but in the end she'll implode for lack of substance. Doesn't mean the Republicans won't win -- that's up to McCain -- especially since race in the conventional sense will probably be the determining factor at the polls and the Republicans in recent years have benefitted big time from white racism in the voting booth.