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Begin Sarah Palin speech

…one reason I like Texans. They don’t mess around with our Second Amendment rights. All this stuff coming lately from the White House to take away the good guys’ freedom, and, the right to protect ourselves with the most naive notion that the bad guys, who ignore the laws, that all of a sudden they’re going to follow some new laws. It’s not about the bad guys. No , it’s all about the lead, like solely – that chunk of metal didn’t commit the crime. That’s like saying solely, that fork made me fat.

And background checks, yeah, I guess to learn more about the person’s thinking and associations and intentions. More background checks? Dandy idea Mr. President – should have started with yours. [audience going wild]

Well, it’s great to be back at CPAC. I’m so happy to be here and it feels like it’s coming home even though it is only my second time here, but I kinda feel like I’m getting the hang of it already, I can spot those Liberal media folk here to write their annual Conservatives in Crisis story. How many of you guys are here? Raise your hands…come on, raise your hands. Be proud. You’re loud. We’re used to it. Certainly you’re not ashamed to…raise it high. Don’t worry. We wouldn’t dream of making you wait outside on the party bus.

It is an honor to be here. We can come together folks for an adult conversation about the future of our country and heaven knows, we need this. So much of what passes for our national conversation is anything but.

Remember ‘No Drama Obama?’ If only. Now it All Drama Obama. We don’t have leadership coming out of Washington. We have reality television. It’s really bad reality TV and the American people tuned-out a long time ago. Entertainment TV is a good description of what is going on in DC because more than ever it feels like a put-on. Every event feels calculated to fool us somehow. Every speech feels like a con. Washington politicians, too many in both parties, have a bad habit of focusing on the process of politics instead of the purpose of politics, which is to lead and to serve. Even our guys in the GOP too often have a habit of reading their stage directions, especially these days. They are being too scripted, too calculated. They talk about rebuilding the party. How about rebuilding the Middle Class? They talk about rebranding the GOP instead of restoring the trust of the American people.

Now we can’t just ignore though, that…we just lost a big election. We came in second out of two. Second position on the dogsled team is where the view never changes and the view ain’t pretty.

We need to figure out then, our job. What will we do next? As we go about that, as we talk to one another, and listen to what the speaker’s have to say, let’s be clear about one thing, we’re not here to rebrand a party, we’re here to rebuild a country.

We’re not here to dedicate ourselves to new talking points coming from Washington, D.C. We’re not here to put a fresh coat of rhetorical paint on our party. We are not here to abandon our principles in a contest of government give-aways. That’s a game we will never, ever win. We are here to restore American and the rest is just theatrics, the rest is just sound and fury. It’s just making noise, and that sums up the job President Obama does today.

Now, he’s considered a good politician, which is like saying Bernie Madoff was a good salesman, the difference being the President is using our money.

You know I spend most of my time in heartland country, the heart of the heart of America and I have news for the permanent political class in Washington. While they’re busy worrying about their own political future, things are bad out here. Nearly 8% unemployment rate. It doesn’t begin to capture how bad things are. Even in the dismal rates announced of .1% economic growth, that doesn’t tell the story of the pain that Americans feel.

Our president fancies himself as the champion of the Middle Class, yet since he came on scene, even those lucky enough to have a job, they’re working more for less. The median income for families has dropped over $5,000.00 since ’07, even as we work longer and longer hours. And job creators are being punished. Tell me how does punishing the job creators, create more jobs?

It cost nearly 100 bucks now to fuel up your truck. It costs tens of thousands of dollars to send your child to college. Man, the cost of a case of diapers today…these prices…the cost, the impacts on the American family budget, and the Middle Class Americans, while we’re breaking their budget, the Democrat-controlled Senate refuses to pass a budget. That was how many years ago that they did? How many Trillions-in-debt-ago? All in violation of Article I Section 9, Clause 7 of our U.S. Constitution. No budget for 4 years. No budget for 4 years is not just bureaucratic bungling. Refusing to pass a budget is refusing to declare what it intends to do with the people’s money.

Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration ever. Barack Obama, you lied.

There is a direct correlation between the Senate stubbornly refusing to pass a budget, and the Senate selfishlessly agreeing to go ahead and spend our children and our children’s money. No budget is no leadership. It is time for America to get more outraged about this. Never before have our challenges been so big and our leaders so small.

Now when we were here last year, the words on everyone’s lips and the wish in your heart was for Barack to pack-her up and bubble wrap the Nobel and the clubs and the high-tops and head on back to Chicago.

Well, the election came and went but the campaign never stopped, at a time when our country is desperate for leadership, we get instead a permanent campaign, but here’s the thing, leaders take risks for the good of our country. Campaigners make promises they can’t keep. Leaders reach across political differences. Campaigners double-down on those differences. Leaders seek to bring Americans together to confront our challenges and campaigners seek to divide and to conquer and to create crisis after crisis after crisis, to exploit.

Mr President we admit it, you won. Accept it. Now step away from the teleprompter and do your job.

The permanent political class is in permanent political mode so where do we go from here? One of my idols, Lady Margaret Thatcher, she offered this advice after her party lost at the poll. She told fellow conservatives not to get lost in abstract debates and green-eye-shade accounting. Mrs. Thatcher advised conservatives to focus their concerns first and foremost on the people. She said, look at every problem from the grassroots, not from the top down. She also cautioned Conservatives not to go wobbly on their beliefs, to which I offer a hearty Amen Sistah! We can use a leader like Maggie Thatcher today.

But just think about it at a time when Washington is so powerful that seven of the ten highest income counties in the country ring the city, allow yourself to imagine leadership that deems to understand us little people, us clinging to our God, our Guns our Constitution and our grassroots – imagine leadership that actually takes seriously the idea of government of the people, by the people, for the people, and then imagine leadership that knows how to prioritize to ensure national security and to stop goverrnment waste. That’s leadership that would have as it’s guiding light, it’s great North Star, our U.S. Constitution.

Friends, it’s no accident that it’s opening words are We the People, and while you are dreaming, imagine leadership that respects the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The majority of Americans want this.

Is there any wonder there was such a run on guns and ammo for Christmas presents, considering the attack on the Second Amendment? A couple of months ago – oh you should have seen what Todd got me for Christmas. Well, it wasn’t that exciting. It’s a metal rack, a case for hunting rifles to put on the back of a Four-Wheeler, then though, I had to get something for him to put in the gun case, right? So this go-round, he got the rifle, I got the rack. (big applause and she pulls out her Big Gulp and takes a sip till the crowd calms down.)