… with teleprompters
Mark Hosty, who made sure to sit on the aisle at the convention so he could stretch out his legs, notes an insider’s view of Palin’s much-talked-about comparison of hockey moms to pit bulls with lipstick. The joke, according to Hosty, was ad lib when the teleprompter faltered.
“That woman is an excellent speaker,” Hosty says. “Three different times her teleprompter broke and she never missed a beat.”
… and text messages
Palin’s pitch about the big-stage potential of small-town politicians fired up Hosty to the point of an on-the-spot St. Paul-Forest Park connection.
“When she was speaking and I was blown away, I text messaged the mayor … and said, ‘Tony, I think you should start looking at the governor’s mansion because I think you’d make a great one.’
“It’s a great time to be a mayor. I think all government is local. You think Rod Blagojevich has any idea what the average person needs in this state? I tell you Tony Calderone does because he talks to them every day.”
Calderone says that he has no plans right now to seek higher office, but he did agree that serving as mayor does prepare a politician for higher office. He said that he doesn’t necessarily think that Palin is unqualified to be vice president or even president and that the publicity around her is putting the spotlight on small town mayors.
“This experience thing has gotten out of line,” Calderone told the Review. “Maybe there’s a future for us mayors of small towns. All politics is local. Mayors are in the thick and thin of it and we’re at the beck and call of everyone. I think it’s about executive ability, making decisions, running an organization. It certainly puts the spotlight on people like us.”
