Teleprompter trickery.

Taking shots at the Republican pity party in Minneapolis/St Paul is pointless -- of course I'll find their definition of 'America' outdated, frightening, dangerous, moronic and so on. But I couldn't pass this up:

There was a flutter of attention when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis told a group of Washington Post reporters and editors yesterday that his team was having to rework the vice presidential acceptance speech because the original draft, prepared before Gov. Sarah Palin was chosen, was too 'masculine'. While we all wondered to ourselves what might make a speech masculine or feminine, no one batted an eye at the underlying revelation: that the campaign was writing the nominee's speech before knowing who the nominee would be.

Never mind the prehistoric days when a politician might be expected to write his or her own words; speechwriters have been around since long before television. But traditionally their job was to channel their bosses' thoughts and ideas into poetry, or at least comprehensible English. Nowadays, apparently it's naive to expect a speech even to reveal something of the essential views or character of the speaker.