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.
Palin gets these additional states (on top of the ones from 2008), and she’s in...
27 - FL
15 - NC
5 - NM
5 - NV
7 - IA
20 - OH
11 - IN
10 - WI
No nrve = No nerve
That's your answer to my very simple question about whether or not this is a conservative position?
PALIN/BROWN 2012..you betcha~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have yet to receive a straight answer on this subject, which has always stuck with me--if she's merely doing what the Constitution of her state says, how is this a bragging point, which I've heard from her supporters repeatedly? And how is this some "conservative" position?
I can see I'm never going to get an answer, which should trouble some of her supporters, but doesn't.
What “depth” do you have?
I am yet to see you make even one post on this site that has any depth in it.
“Kiss up to McLoser and kiss me goodbye.”
You have never backed her anyway, so there can't be any “kiss goodbye” can there?
Plus who the heck cares whether you back her or not?
You are freewheeling what you call conservative.
Back it up with your conservative for 2012.
The Palin basher hide under the bed. they can’t defend their person for 2012 so drone on with bogus questions
So should the state be compensatd for energy exploration on it’s lands or not?
It’s a simple question. Maybe I touched a nerve??
Allow private investment. Period.
Then your question becomes moot. Anyone drilling on their own land doesn't need to compensate their neighbor.
Sarah's position follows the law. IF you are going to have PUBLIC resources, then any profit made off that land needs to be shared with the "owners". Ie; the Public.
Sarah has been blasting bailouts eversince she's been on her own and had you read her book you'd know she never approved of bailouts to begin with.
Understand this, the laws of Alaska are different Wolfie! It states I believe in their Constituion that the people and the resources are one and the same, and that they should benefit from it.....it’s the law of that State
Care to expand with specifics? If you chose to respond, please compare and contrast with some one you considered ‘presidential material’.
I ask this in the spirit of trying to understand your position in all of it's fullness and political gravitas.
This just about fits the usual trolls we usually see
I would say it is for inhabitants of Alaska...unless you think it's not conservative to follow the tenets of the state constitution.
Does that make it clearer for you?
Yes, it is a conservative position.
What a tired, empty-headed response.
It's now Palin-bashing to simply ask whether a government official made a choice in line with conservative political philosophy.
The Cult of Personality reigns.
No. But when I ask a question, I don't allow the other party to slip and slide and dodge. When they give a straight answer, it's then their turn to ask one.
Yes, indeed. She is the best stump speaker I have every heard, because she has a distinctive voice, a master of colloquial speech. ON Tv, though, she needs to learn to shorten her responses.
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