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.
The Founders did’t write about Alaska and oil drilling in the Constitution so Alaska doesn’t count when it comes to laws. /s
You want questions answered and so do we.
Who do you support for 2012?
What you think is relevant how?
She is currently leading in plenty of polls amongst Republicans for the 2012 primaries. If Republican primary voters think Sarah Palin is presidential material, then she is presidential material. That's the only thing that counts.
“But there's one thing that's always bugged me about her position on oil—how is making the oil companies send checks to Alaskans “conservative”? “
How is that not conservative?
Where does it say that big oil companies shouldn't send checks to the citizens of the state where they are extracting huge quantities of oil from, just because the Governor is conservative? It all comes down to the terms of the contract between the oil companies and the state.
In the UK, when Britain started lifting vast quantities of oil from the North Sea, the British government took a very big cut of the oil revenues from the oil companies, even though Margaret Thatcher, the conservative icon, was Prime Minister at the time.
That's the best, most honest answer I've gotten in the year-plus that I've been asking this question.
Thanks for giving me something to think about, unlike the other, frightened posters on this thread.
Your response may in fact lay this question to rest with me--see what happens, fanatics, when someone simply answers a simple question with facts? "Your" side turns out to have the "right" answer.
I don't understand the fear and anger of the other folks who couldn't give such a straightforward response. They should have the courage of their convictions. Which they would if they could get past the celebrity love and actually think about ISSUES, which is the only thing that matters in such questions.
Thanks again.
All that I can say is that there isn't a single person mentioned as a potential candidate in 2012 I'd support right now. That's sad, but I think it's a little early to start lowering one's standards just so I can have someone to support, though if forced to choose today I'd say Palin; the fact that I don't think she's presidential material in terms of intellect and experience says something very scary about our prospects.
I sick and tired of that old talking point, she never supported Graham..... stop using the donations to her PAC as proof because there is none......
You don’t open a bank account officially until you deposit money into it, even though you filled out the proper paperwork, SarahPAC was jump started by McCain with his donation and HE GOT HIS FRIEND GRAHAM TO DONATE into her PAC, SHE THEN IN TURN GAVE BACK THE MONEY INTO THEIR OWN PACS once she started to receive money from the people,
Liberals tell me abortion is protected by the Constitution, so I guess if "following the tenets of the...constitution" protects any position, being pro-abortion is now a conservative position?
So snippy, and after such a great answer.
I gave you my opinion. Your mileage may vary... ;-)
This wolfie character is just being difficult. You know what the rubber room is getting offly crowded.
Really? Does she explain TARP and Republicans like McCain and Bush? Or is just when Democrats get to use the TARP blank check that she objects to? Does she disown McCain in her book?
Go figure, Conservative FR trolls trying to take over the thread with tired old talking point about Sarah.....SHEESH!!
Wasn’t trying to sound snippy. I certainly don’t feel “snippy”.
To you and others who follow the crowd.
All that matters to me, for MY vote, is if *I* think she's presidential material. I couldn't give a damn what "Republican primary voters" say when it comes to MY estimation--plenty of "Republican primary voters" thought plenty of goofballs were "presidentail".
Good God, what happened to the CONSERVATIVE philosophy on this site?
Yes
This thread now returned to the Palin love.
I support PALIN/BROWN 2012~~~~~
PALIN/BOLTON
I am glad Sarah stuck to her guns about speaking at the TPC. It looks like it will be a big success, despite the furious efforts of the MSM to smear it.
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