Now, I think I know where Donald Trump got his speech-making style — from Sarah Palin.

I finally got around to watching the speech Sarah Palin gave yesterday, endorsing Donald Trump. I first saw it in the form of a BuzzFeedNess piece titled "So, Uh, Here’s The Full Text Of Sarah Palin’s Bizarre Trump Speech," which made me think she was inarticulate, saying "uh" a lot and going off on weird tangents. But a simple search of the text — the text transcribed without pity — shows she only said "uh" once other than the time she deployed a string of "uh"s for comic effect, saying that the GOP establishment "is wailing, 'well, Trump and his, uh, uh, uh, Trumpeters, they’re not conservative enough.'" That one "uh" comes near the one "um":

What he’s been able to accomplish, with his um, it’s kind of this quiet generosity. Yeah, maybe his largess kind of, I don’t know, some would say gets in the way of that quiet generosity, and, uh, his compassion....

Maybe "compassion" is a hard word for righties to say. Just yesterday, right here on this blog, we voted on whether "compassion" (along with "social justice") was a left-wing brand. Or maybe "compassion" is just too Bush-y. Remember "compassionate conservativism"?

In June, 1986, [historian and presidential advisor Doug] Wead wrote an article for the Christian Herald, describing then-vice-president George H. W. Bush, to whom he served as an aide, as a “compassionate conservative.” According to journalist Jacob Weisberg, George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush's son, first picked up the term "compassionate conservative" from Wead, in 1987.

In 1992, when Doug Wead ran for U.S. Representative from Arizona, he wrote a campaign book entitled Time for a Change. The first chapter was called “The Compassionate Conservative” and outlined Wead’s philosophy that the masses didn’t care if Republican policies worked if the attitude and purpose behind the policies were uncaring....

Nicholas Lemann, writing in New Yorker magazine in 2015, wrote that George W. Bush's "description of himself, in the 2000 campaign, as a 'compassionate conservative" was brilliantly vague—liberals heard it as 'I'm not all that conservative,' and conservatives heard it as 'I'm deeply religious.' It was about him as a person, not a program."....

But back to the Palin speech. I listened to it, which makes a different impression from reading. What struck me was how similar it was to the way Trump speaks — short, punchy statements. It's rousing, rallying. It feels nervy and brave. Sarah is at her best in this milieu. Whether you'd trust her to be President is an entirely different matter, but speaking to a crowd, she is brilliant. So she is simply wonderful speaking on behalf of someone else, as she was in the early days of the 2008 campaign, before the McCain people reined her in.

Speaking for Trump, not as Trump's running mate, she's able to be herself, let her Palinosity flow, and it's great stuff. Its similarity to the way Trump speaks creates an uncanny dynamic. And Trump is not like McCain. He's not going to seem dull or stodgy by comparison to Palin. He doesn't need to worry about her star power. He's already established his star power.

Seeing her next to him, I can tell it's a shared style. It's not just something only one person can do. Two are doing it. That gives hope to others. But what are the elements of that style? How could somebody else learn to do it?

Now, I just want to quote 2 things Palin said that jumped out at me. Maybe these can be studied in an effort to discern the elements of the style. First:

The permanent political class has been doing the bidding of their campaign donor class, and that’s why you see that the borders are kept open. For them, for their cheap labor that they want to come in. That’s why they’ve been bloating budgets. It’s for crony capitalists to be able suck off of them. It’s why we see these lousy trade deals that gut our industry for special interests elsewhere. 

That's great form and substance. Look at the vivid words: "bloating," "suck off," "lousy," "gut." I know the "suck off" — "suck off of" — refers to breastfeeding, but on an emotional level where the concrete images swirl together, that crony capitalist she's talking about looks a louse-ridden man with bloated gut getting a blow job.

Second:

[H]e’s got the guts to wear the issues that need to be spoken about and debate on his sleeve, where the rest of some of these establishment candidates, they just wanted to duck and hide. They didn’t want to talk about these issue until he brought 'em up. In fact, they’ve been wearing a, this, political correctness kind of like a suicide vest.

Wearing political correctness like a suicide vest. You don't really have enough time to think through the analogy, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but jeez, take off that vest, it's a suicide vest! Trump "wear[s] the issues" — the right issues! What are you wearing? Better wear the right thing! But you don't have time to analyze that. You just feel it as she's off and running to more short sentences...

And enough is enough. These issues that Donald Trump talks about had to be debated. And he brought them to the forefront. And that’s why we are where we are today with good discussion. A good, heated, and very competitive primary is where we are. And now though, to be lectured that, “Well, you guys are all sounding kind of angry,” is what we’re hearing from the establishment. Doggone right we’re angry! Justifiably so! Yes! You know, they stomp on our neck, and then they tell us, “Just chill, okay just relax.” Well, look, we are mad, and we’ve been had. They need to get used to it.

We are mad, and we’ve been had. They need to get used to it.

Yeah, get used to it. Get used to political speech that's not tame and calculated but emotive and in-the-minute, with enough substance showing through along the way that you never lose the sense that it's about real issues. You think that's "bizarre," BuzzFeed? Get up to speed. This is what America sounds like.