What a night for politics and what a night for conservatives.  After enduring the shameless, vitriolic media onslaught on Sarah Palin and her family, conservatives were treated to a display that exceeded all of our expectations.  In short, Sarah Palin made us proud, and for the first time in this campaign conservatives are rooting for John McCain to win, rather than simply wanting to beat Barack Obama.

Here is the whole speech, which has to be seen:

Here are some of my favorite highlights:

A writer observed: “We grow good people in our small towns, with honesty, sincerity, and dignity.” I know just the kind of people that writer had in mind when he praised Harry Truman. I grew up with those people.

They are the ones who do some of the hardest work in America ... who grow our food, run our factories, and fight our wars. They love their country, in good times and bad, and they’re always proud of America.

That’s a delicately placed mock of Michelle Obama’s infamous statement that she had never been proud of her country until her husband started doing well in the primaries.  That’s how she did it all night; with subtlety and often, with humor.  And when it was called for, she went right at the liberals.

And then:

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities. I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

That hurt, seriously.

More:

And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.

But here’s a little news flash for all those reporters and commentators: I’m not going to Washington to seek their good opinion - I’m going to Washington to serve the people of this country.

I was hoping she would call out the media directly, and instead of offering a futile defense against their slanders, she simply gives them the proverbial finger and says “I don’t care what you say, you don’t matter to me.”

A little humor:

While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor’s office that I didn’t believe our citizens should have to pay for.

That luxury jet was over the top. I put it on eBay.

The best thing about this is that she actually sold the thing on ebay.  Awesome.

Here’s what I thought was the best part of the speech:

But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform - not even in the state senate.

This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word “victory” except when he’s talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed ... when the roar of the crowd fades away ... when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot - what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make government bigger ... take more of your money ... give you more orders from Washington ... and to reduce the strength of America in a dangerous world. America needs more energy ... our opponent is against producing it.

Victory in Iraq is finally in sight ... he wants to forfeit.

Terrorist states are seeking new-clear weapons without delay ... he wants to meet them without preconditions.

Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America ... he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights? Government is too big ... he wants to grow it.

Congress spends too much ... he promises more.

Taxes are too high ... he wants to raise them. His tax increases are the fine print in his economic plan, and let me be specific.

The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes ... raise payroll taxes ... raise investment income taxes ... raise the death tax ... raise business taxes ... and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.

She absolutely rips apart Obama’s and the rest of the Democrats’ policies with simple but true one-liners.  This is something that resonates with millions of Americans watching because they know that she’s right.

On “change:”

Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election.

In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.

And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.

Change we can believe in, indeed.

On John McCain:

And though both Senator Obama and Senator Biden have been going on lately about how they are always, quote, “fighting for you,” let us face the matter squarely.

There is only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you ... in places where winning means survival and defeat means death ... and that man is John McCain.

And she finished thus:

For a season, a gifted speaker can inspire with his words. For a lifetime, John McCain has inspired with his deeds.

If character is the measure in this election ... and hope the theme ... and change the goal we share, then I ask you to join our cause. Join our cause and help America elect a great man as the next president of the United States.

Thank you all, and may God bless America.

Ladies and Gents, that was a performance like we haven’t seen in a long time.  The text is fantastic, but you need to see the video.  You need to see how this woman looks at her family, how she looks and blows a kiss to a veteran in the stands, and how her youngest daughter licks her little fingers and fixes her brother’s hair for the cameras.  This is the real thing.

Run, Sarah run!