Posted on 02/05/2010 8:10:31 PM PST by Bigtigermike
SALINA — Before a crowd of 6,000 cheering fans, Sarah Palin received rock star treatment Friday night in Salina.
The former vice presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, drew a sell-out crowd to the Bicentennial Center for the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce annual meeting — an event that routinely draws big names to Salina. Past speakers have included Colin Powell, George H.W. Bush, Bob Costas, Margaret Thatcher and Cal Ripkin Jr.
"We've had great speakers in the past," said Todd Davidson, of the Chamber. "No one has generated this amount of interest — even President George H.W. Bush, who came here when he was a sitting president, did not drive this kind of a response."
Even Palin couldn't ignore the excitement her appearance generated. Back stage, she said, a chamber member told her, " 'Man, this is like a Van Halen concert.' I said, 'Man, I wish.' "
In her speech, Palin sounded off on national security, government bailouts and limited government ideals. And she offered lots of praise for the hometown crowd.
"In a time when folks so fear that much is going wrong, your town is an example of how to get it right and how to soar," said Palin, who was joined in Salina by her daughter, Piper. "Shoot, your state's motto even has it right: to the stars through difficulties."
Palin began by relating her experiences as a city councilwoman and mayor in Wasilla, Alaska. What worked there, she said, was cutting taxes, focusing on a few core services and spending responsibly. As governor, she said she learned to take tough stances.
"I'd have to butt heads with my own party officials and the other party, of course too, and the media," said Palin, who didn't meet with reporters on her trip to Salina. "Some things never change. It wasn't always the easy path, but it was the right path."
Telling the crowd she was going to "call is like I see it," she said Washington, D.C., politicians need to "back off." While Americans have lost jobs and learned to live with less, she charged that government has become more bloated.
"Over the past year, Washington has replaced private irresponsibility with public irresponsibility," she said.
The country, she said, needs health reform "not backroom deals." She suggested measures like allowing insurance purchases across state lines and tort reform.
Also, she said the country needs to pursue "all of the above approach to energy." She said increased drilling for oil must be pursued.
"Drill here and drill now and tap our own plentiful energy supplies," she said.
The Obama administration, she said, has lost its way on foreign policy. She said people wonder if the United States is still a "beacon of hope" for freedom.
"We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America's friends from her enemies and recognizes the true nature of these threats that we are facing," Palin said.
In the end, her speech brought the crowd to its feet.
Earlier in the night, Verlene and Joyce Jackson, of Chapman, said they hope to see Palin as president someday and like that she hasn't "always been in that ivory tower."
"She has a fresh outlook," Verlene Jackson said. "She speaks for us. She's a down home girl. I feel like personally, I think she would do a good job representing us."
DeVee Smalley drove in from Superior, Neb., to join her two daughters for Palin's speech.
"I think she is somebody who is trying to reach out to the heartland of America," Smalley said.
Palin will be back in Kansas May 2 to speak in Wichita at a fundraiser for a Christian school.
Legitimate point, but you people calling anyone who might disagree with or critique Palin a "troll" is simplistic and childish. And to be honest it's used sometimes because you've no cogent rebuttal to offer.
Disclaimer: jla neither seeks nor advocates having the world 'troll', or any other word, "removed from our lexicon"
That has a lot to do with it.
I honestly believe old accounts must be getting hacked by Kos trolls.
~ 1 Corinthians 1: 26-29
Palin 2012: BRING THEM ALL TO SHAME Governor!
She was the Veep nominee, the POTUS nominee calls the shots.
Anyone working for a corporation or business understands that although they might have a better idea, or way of accomplishing goals, if their supervisor says, 'do it this way' then you do just that.
On the other hand she is no longer under those restraints, so her continued support of one John McCain is confusing, and smacks of hypocrisy.
Go Sarah Palin.... ie, President Sarah Palin! Has a nice ring to it. Plus the loony left will have a massive hissy fit and political coronary!
In 1959, neither was Jack Kennedy. In 1943, neither was Harry S. Truman. In 1968, neither was Ronald Reagan.
And in 2009, Kerry and Obama still aren't, and neither is Slick from Arkansas.
It was a legitimate question. Here's a novel idea - why not reply to the question, and refute it?
Not as easy as labeling one a "troll" but it does tend to give you at least the appearance of being a capable advocate of your preferred (potential) candidate.
I don't get your point--because some people didn't think other people weren't presidential material, that somehow means I don't have the right to make my own decision about who's presidential material?
Kerry and Obama aren't presidential material--neither is Clinton. I don't see what any of that has to do with my specific concerns about Palin. Because THEY aren't, that means she IS? One has nothing to do with the other.
Jest I did. I’m a broken glass Palin Supporter. I made a bad joke!
Palin/Brown
...............
I don’t care what anyone says, that’s a winning ticket. Period, end of story. That’s Mass. possibly in the win column depending on Scott’s actions over the next 2 years.
I hope she is the GOP nominee in 2012. She might not win but I’d rather see her take a shot at it rather than another, old, gray-haired, white dude.
When and where is Sarah Palin coming to CA??
My point is that nobody can show "presidential timber" before he's president. Beforehand, he is just another pol. Take Fred, for instance -- McCain and Romney backers were quick to tell us all about his shortcomings, about how he once did some lobbying for a Death Culture NGO. Proving what? That Fred is mortal, that he lives in a mortal world. Not that he's unqualified.
Same thing with Palin. As with Reagan. You have to try to see the potential, in people who are right on the issues. Their mettle may not be good enough: recent examples are Dan Quayle and Duncan Hunter. Not enough charisma. Good on the issues, but not vote-getters, and in Quayle's case, easy meat for the Katie Couric types (Ellen Hume of the WSJ was his self-appointed inquisitrix-in-chief).
Palin has what it takes. She needs good staffing, good champions who are willing to ablate their own "DC respectability" in order to inflict damage on the enemy, and the financial support of the People necessary to replace what he plutocrats propose to blackmail her by withholding (as they blackmailed Ronnie, for instance, in 1980).
She needs to study and to delegate, and to keep her eye fixed firmly on The Ball: the best interests of the country and the People. But she has the basic character and integrity, without which not.
I heard she is supposed to speak at the logging conference in redding this spring.
Or were you referring to the same post he was, put up by stboz, saying that Palin had been "Quayled"?
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