Posted on 01/30/2011 9:44:16 PM PST by SFmom
Gov. Palin rocked the place! Tickets were sold out months in advance. The ballroom seated 4,000. I decided to wait in line an hour and a half before the doors opened to get a good seat, and there were already 200 people in line when I got there. I felt I was there with "my peeps". I imagined that this felt what a Freeper convention would feel like! People were really happy, excited, thrilled to be going and I imagine if anyone had wanted to sell their tickets, they could have made a tidy sum. This audience, however, wasn't selling!
There were big screens set up around the room and good thing because the room was huge and they were needed. She looked smashing! She was on her game in every way. My husband, who had been somewhat lukewarm on Palin due to his perception that she wasn't a good speaker and that she wasn't intelligent enough completely evaporated after the speech. He told me that he now believes her to be a great speaker and to be intelligent. He conceded that the hatchet job the MSM does on her had had its effect on him until yesterday.
The first part of her speech seemed to be entirely extemporaneous with numerous personal annecdotes and observations. Her husband, parents and good friends who taught her to hunt were in the audience.
She began with a salute to the military. Then she spoke about her Alaska TV program in which it took numerous shots to bring down the caribou. She was kidded a lot about her poor marksmanship but kept telling her father at the time that she believed the scope was off. It turned out she was right. Her father had been hiking with the gun and had fallen on the tundra. The gun's scope DID get tweaked during that fall, which she discovered when she tested it later. This was the reason she didn't get the caribou on the first shot. She said that her father got a piece of hate mail from a woman who criticized him for killing caribou, saying that he should not kill caribou and just let the grocery stores make it! We all laughed, but I will say that it was a constant theme among the members of SCI that too many non-hunters really are clueless about where their food supply comes from!
She spoke about Bristol's decision to do DWTS: that Bristol thought that there was so much hatred toward the family that they might as well dance!
She never backed down from the "don't retreat, reload" statement. She made some comment about how her opposition wanted her to do that, but gave no indication that she intended to accede to their desires. She got lots of applause throughout the speech from the crowd.
It's too bad the coverage of the content of her speech is so poor. She devoted a lot of time to an overall theme she wanted to emphasize, which is that local control is far better, more efficient and more sensitive to issues than an overbearing federal mandate. One of the cases in point was the ESA's (Environmental Species Act's) unintended consequences in the case of wolves. Now that wolves are protected, caribou, elk and moose are being decimated, as the wolf packs target the young and take them out. She made us all laugh when she talked about the various photoshopped images and videos showing her dangling from a helicopter skid "smoking a pack". She said that aerial hunting is illegal and that she has never done it.
Her delivery was upbeat, optimistic and put a smile on everyone's face. The talk was clearly specific to SCI, as opposed to a rehearsed stump speech. She rarely referenced notes and was almost always smiling during her delivery. Her face darkened only when talking....briefly ...about Tuscon shooting.
I am fairly convinced that the fact that she agreed to speak at the SCI Saturday night dinner was the reason SCI was breaking records for its convention fund raising efforts in the midst of this dismal economy. My impression is that SCI members from east of California attended in record numbers, which made up for the severe drop-off in California attendees. The change was very stark. It was very clear how bad the California economy is for even the more comfortable members of the SCI! Vendors were really feeling it.
If you have never been to an SCI show, it's an amazing experience. Next year it will be in Las Vegas. Y'all come!
Almost everything the lsm says about Sarah Palin is “crap”. And that is putting it politely.
Excellent first-hand FReeper report! Thank you so much for posting this!
Yes
This is precisely what will win the Presidency for her. Once she actually makes personal contact with the public, game over. She will convince even the most stiff-necked doubters. Palin has it.
Thank you for your account of the evening!
I do not know the demographics of the organization. The conference isn’t cheap. Most of the audience members were probably 45+ in age. I’m guessing the average is 55 because you have to have the time and money to get there. Regardless of the age, these people are fit and able to hunt in often demanding conditions...men AND women. They are outdoors people. They are conservationists. More land and animals have been conserved by people like these than all the eco-nuts put together!
The conference is attended by safari guides from all over the world, the world’s finest taxidermists, sculptors, artists and hunting weapons manufacturers. For example, there are some of the most beautiful carved hunting knives from Italian artisans I ever saw! Purdy shotguns! All manner of upscale hunting gear. Experts from around the world come to deliver lectures on habitat, hunting techniques, etc. I also attended the SCI-PAC lunch, which headlined Michael Reagan. His opening zinger: “I’m sure glad I’m Michael Reagan and not Michael Carter”.
Maybe Palin can be the “Citizens’ President”. Wouldn’t that be nice.
Thank you for posting this! Very uplifting. God bless and protect America and Free Republic.
ltr
Those who describe Sarah overexposed and needing to back off and go silent for a while - they are not really interested in doing her favors.
The MSM reported that she had and this was from a reporter, who had his ear up to a closed door. The Media was excluded from the speech.
The only problem I have with this kind of thinking is that these people also vote. And that, my friends, is really scary.
Almost as scary as our vp stating that mubaric (Egypt) is not a dictator. And this clown is "one heartbeat away"???
And just as an afterthought....in present day Egypt, the "muslim brotherhood" leader is going to form a "coalition government" (and of course, the US is doing nothing at this point but watching).
Do you all remember some time ago when the Taliban ran Afghanistan...and what they did to the priceless archiological treasures in that coutry??
Now imagine Egypt under "taliban" style rule.
You were told that. There were reporters in the room. I sat five chairs from one.
“My husband, who had been somewhat lukewarm on Palin due to his perception that she wasn’t a good speaker and that she wasn’t intelligent enough completely evaporated after the speech. He told me that he now believes her to be a great speaker and to be intelligent. He conceded that the hatchet job the MSM does on her had had its effect on him until yesterday.”
This is exactly what happens with the mainstream media and Rush Limbaugh! Otherwise intelligent and reasonable people have grown up on the spoon-fed lies of the MSM and think they hate Rush because they think he’s hateful.
They don’t hate the real Rush Limbaugh, but the straw one the evening news and wonks like the New York Times and local newspaper pundits made up.
You should explain what SCI is. I had to look it up. ( Were not all insiders)
“This is precisely what will win the Presidency for her. Once she actually makes personal contact with the public, game over. She will convince even the most stiff-necked doubters.”
Sounds good to me. How is she going to reach the American public when the Lefties own the media?
SCI?
Safari Club International.
Thank you. I swim in several varieties of alphabet soup daily, and therefore must often ask! LOL
Here is another write up about Sarah’s speech.
http://www.rgj.com/article/20110129/NEWS/110129023/1321/news
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