"Failure at some point in everyone's life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. …When I got knocked down by guys bigger than me, [my mother] sent me back out and demanded that I bloody their nose so I could walk down that street the next day."
     Joseph Biden, in his speech accepting the nomination to be the Democrats' vice presidential nominee.

I began this edition of TN&V with a quote from pro-abortion Sen. Joseph Biden, pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama's running mate. It was part of his narrative to establish Biden's "working class" credentials. (I don't have a specific recollection of my mother ever telling me not to back down from a fight, and I strongly suspect few men actually do. But since cowardice was, shall we say, frowned upon in my family, I'm sure I got a similar message in no uncertain terms.)

If, as he defined it, courage is grace under pressure, last night's speech would have done Hemingway proud. The major media have used Palin, her children, her husband, her faith, and her small town roots as their own persona piñata. They clobbered her and everyone connected with her unmercifully, unfairly, and utterly without honor.

They did everything they could to sink her candidacy before it was even launched. So, how would she respond?

With almost the sole exception of MSNBC's comically biased Keith Olbermann, even the most confirmed Sarah Palin haters grudgingly conceded that the pro-life governor of Alaska delivered a great speech last night. Let us count the ways, acknowledging that we can only touch on a few. (You can read the speech in its entirety in Part Two.)

* I told my wife last night, as the crowd was chatting, "USA, USA, USA," that I half-expected a follow up: "PTA, PTA, PTA." Palin laid down the markers for how she will tell her story to the American people and in so doing illustrated why she will be lovingly received from one end of this country to the other.

She is proud of her small town origins, not apologetic as her "betters" in the media and the Obama campaign insist she should be. Palin described her entry into public service as "just your average hockey mom" who "signed up for the PTA because I wanted to make my kids' public education better." And the rest is history in the making.

*A picture is sometimes worth a gabillion words. There were many such pictures last night. Some were so touching that they (momentarily) melted even the cold, cold hearts of people such as MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell.

For example, we saw seven-year-old Piper Palin, licking the palm of her hand, and then grooming the hair of her baby brother, Trig. (www.ustream.tv/recorded/685724) As you all know, when Mrs. Palin was carrying Trig, she learned that he would have Down syndrome.

Rather than take the course that 90% of women trod, Palin and her husband, Todd, welcomed Trig the same way they greeted their other four children: as a gift from God, perfect in the only way that mattered.

"To the families of special-needs children all across this country, I have a message," Palin said in her speech. "For years, you sought to make America a more welcoming place for your sons and daughters. I pledge to you that if we are elected, you will have a friend and advocate in the White House."

Out there were women who may have just learned that their unborn child would carry a disability. I am as sure as I am of anything that Gov. Palin's loving description of Trig, and her promise, if elected, to be their advocate in the White House, will cause some women to rethink their decision. Thank you, Sarah Palin.

* Another of those photos was of the entire family. It included the young man who is the father of the Palin's 17-year-old daughter's baby. They are engaged. Mrs. Palin put the situation perfectly. "Our family has the same ups and downs as any other -- the same challenges and the same joys. Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge."

* One other overall comment, as we look ahead to the next two months. In her straight-to-the-point critique of pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama, Gov. Palin was criticized by many of the army of Obama media foot soldiers. From my point of view, rather than being "harsh" or "sarcastic" or any of the other characterizations, what Palin did was chose not to patronize Obama. What do I mean?

For well over a year, the presidential discussion has studiously avoided the elephant in the room. No, I am not referring to Republicans, but to the fact that the media refuses to point out that Sen. Obama is a freshman senator who has made no legislative impact either in the Illinois state senate or the United States Senate. He is a product of the Chicago machine, a man who is all speed and no altitude. That is not being "sarcastic" or "disrespectful." It is merely to state the incontrovertible.

Likewise, we are told, that it bad form to say (as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani did last night) that Obama "is the least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least the last 100 years. Not a personal attack, a statement of fact. Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing! Nada."

Understand this is not arguing that Obama is wrong for adopting position "A" or that position "B" is misguided. It is merely to say that Obama is aspiring to occupy the most important elected office in the world as a very young man, with a very, very thin resume.

He is like a Potemkin village--all facade--rather like the Styrofoam Greek columns Obama used as a backdrop for his speech last week. To borrow from Gertrude Stein, "there is no there there."

But why is stating the self-evident to "attack" Obama? Obviously because hiding his abundant weaknesses is the only way he can win.

One more illustration and I'll be done. Gov. Palin is relentlessly hammered for having insufficient experience in foreign affairs, as if any governor would.

But we are not allowed to compare her experience to Obama's experience, only to Sen. Biden, who has been in the Senate since Watergate.

But if you are going to be supposedly unnerved by the lack of breadth of Palin's experience as the Republicans number two, why would you not be even more unnerved by an even greater lack of experience on the part of the Democrats' number 1?

Gov. Palin was brilliant, engaging, funny, and approachable last night. Frankly, it was one of the greatest speeches I have ever heard.

Conclusion? The media will be even more vicious, more determined than ever to get her.

And in that vein, I will pass along the counsel of countless people who have texted me, emailed me, even IMed me in the last 12 hours: Pray for her.

She's tough, but she will need our prayers.

Part Two: Gov. Palin's full speech.