I missed Gov. Palin’s speech tonight as I chose to attend our church prayer meeting, but thankfully we have Tivo. My husband and I just finished watching parts of the Republican convention, and all of Palin’s speech.

I’ve never yet blogged about anything policical, but am going to stretch out a bit and share my impressions, based on comments posted on other blogs that I’ve just finished reading.

There’s a lot of chatter about Gov. Palin’s “cheap shots” that she made against Obama. There’s also been talk that the speech was written for her and she did a poor job delivering it.

Here’s my take: There’s been a tremendous amount of negative talk on the media the past few days about Gov. Palin and her level of experience, as well a her ability to be a mother and do the job as VP, should she be elected. I felt that much of what she said tonight was in direct response to some of the attacks made against her. It’s my understanding that the majority of all political speeches are written by prof. speech writers, not the speaker, so I have no problem with Gov. Palin using a prepared speech. She shared things from her personal life, gave us insight into what she’s accomplished since taking office as mayor, then governor, and some of the changes she’d like to see in the future. Her delivery was passionate and heart felt, not robotic or canned.

I think we got a small taste of what to expect from a woman who shoots from the hip and isn’t afraid to say what she believes. Did she choose to point out the differences in the Obama and the McCain campaigns and where she feels Obama is lacking? Sure. That’s often been the job of the VP candidate. Hold up and support your running mate, tout why he would be the best choice, and expose areas of weakness in your opponent. Did she say things that were blatantly untrue? Not any that I was able to spot (having only watched it one time), but then I don’t follow Obama’s rhetoric closely.

My overall impression was of a woman who knows what she believes, and isn’t afraid to stand up for it. I liked her no-nonsense approach to big government…cut spending, get rid of extravagant items like corporate jets and limo’s. Chop taxes, encourage the growth of small business, and bring industry to America. I plan on voting McCain/Palin and it wouldn’t scare me one bit if Palin ended up in a position to have to take the reins in the future. She came across as having common sense, executive skills and strength of character.