Reagan faced unbelievable attacks, he remained calm, cool, inspiring and eloquent. The press had to throttle back their attacks repeatedly because the public liked, trusted and respected Reagan, resulting in the press having to provide him with a certain level of respect. Goerge Bush is the candidate you want Palin to emulate, did you see how the press went after him? If a Republican politician can't keep his or her popularity numbers up, the press will attemp to kill them with death by a thousand papercuts.
As far as obama goes, he can be a great public speaker as long as he has no one to counter his point of view and his speaking events are stage managed to prevent him from screwing up. His biggest problems have arisen from his poor use of teleprompters, his poor command of facts and his need to lie to get what he wants. Yes, you are right about the press, they cover for him as much as they can, after all, he's their guy.
I will take a conservative hick smelling of fish that loves this country and its traditions over a slickhaired well spoken “Republican” or other politican any time.
I don't want to "change" Sarah, I like her just fine as she is. Having her become a better public speaker is NOT a bad thing, it's a good thing.
President Bush's popularity was eventually destroyed because ONLY because he refused to get into the trenches and to either defend himself or go on offense on conservative issues. It was not his folksy speech patterns that did him in.
For the last six years of his presidency, President Bush provided zero leadership on any conservative issues...excluding the now-dismantled war on terror.