MORNING READ

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R) veep nomination acceptance speech is getting rave reviews from bloggers on both the right and the left. She effectively hit back against Democrats and the media, writes conservative bloggers. She also showed herself to be a Republican who can connect with an audience and whom Democrats should fear, according to liberal bloggers. The offensive by John McCain’s campaign against the media for what it sees as unfair treatment of Palin earns a backlash from one big name pundit, while another sees merits in the argument.

Palin “wielded the knife with a smile on her face,” proving herself to be the best American woman speaker with her strong and funny speech, writes The Corner’s Lisa Schiffren. Palin was “extremely likable” because she showed that she was “nobody’s victim” while “drawing blood” from her critics, writes Townhall’s Carol Platt Liebau. Palin accomplished her mission by highlighting Barack Obama’s community organizer past after he had denigrated her small-town service and by portraying McCain as a reform agent, writes RedState’s Jeff Emanuel.

Democrats will be battling Palin for the next decade now that she has captured the “GOP’s heart and flag” with a speech that connected with the audience, writes MyDD’s Jerome Armstrong. Palin was a more compelling presence than McCain, and her effective attacks on Democrats have made the election a competitive race, writes The Huffington Post’s James Love. But just as liberal pundits were too worried that 1992 Democratic nominee Bill Clinton would sink after that year’s negative GOP convention, pundits this year may be overstating the effectiveness of the GOP’s partisan tone on undecided voters, writes The Plank’s Jonathan Chait.

McCain and his surrogates are being “stupidly aggressive” and “unprofessional” in trying to bully reporters away from the necessary task of vetting Palin, according to Swampland’s Joe Klein, who urges the reporters to stand strong and continue to pursue facts. But notable publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, have run more than one story mentioning Palin