My report on Gov. Palin's speech at SCI

self | January 30, 2011 | self

[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!

[kevkrom]

Perhaps we can have an Admin modify the title so that people can know the acronym instead of having to read downthread to figure it out?

[Bigg Red]

Excellent!

[Outlaw Woman]

They won't be able to help themselves; they will trail her and despite all their efforts to make her look bad, she'll persevere and will come out on top and will ‘connect’.

Expect many home-runs from this Lady.

[Verbosus]

"Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what’s “SCI”?"

I wondered that myself

[Verbosus]

"Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what’s “SCI”?"

I wondered that myself

[editor-surveyor]

A view with the fog removed.

[editor-surveyor]

.
>> “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.” <<

.
Really???

I’m shocked!
.

[Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus]

A view with the fog removed.

Nobody has ever said she doesn't give a good speech.

Why are you too afraid to recognise the BAD about her, as well as the GOOD? Why do you seem to be so psychologically incapable of being mature in this sort of discussion?

To ask the question bluntly - does it bother you that Palin is weak on the illegal immigration issue, she urged Stevens to support the LOST treaty, and has been soft on the gay agenda lately?

[editor-surveyor]

Safari Club

[editor-surveyor]

I hadn’t viewed you as being so weak on politics in the past, but this has been an eye opener.

No “bad” has yet surfaced on Palin. She is not in any way “weak” on immigration; she simply has the sense not to unnecessarily commmit to a potentially damaging position.

Those that would destroy her would of course have her commit to every difficult position.

What you demonstrate here is why Republicans are so poor at winning local elections, leaving us with few rising stars in state contests. The left knows how to give their candidates a pass on the thorny ones, and the media go along happily, but Republicans insist on eating their own young.
.

[Sarah Barracuda]

Thank you SO much for posting..sounds like an amazing time! Glad that Sarah did not stop saying “Don’t retreat, reload” I knew the moment that started circulating on PUKElitco that it was total BS..everything from the media are lies..you can’t trust anything coming out of their lying traps, if you want the truth, gotta go with someone who was actually there. Glad that your husband came around too, the media tries over and over again trying to make her out to be some kind of idiot but when people actually do talk to her they see her for the intelligent woman she really is.

[onyx]

Thank you so much, dear SFmom, for such a wonderful, detailed report of your fabulous evening!

Daily Beast page 3

“After some boilerplate comments about how “local government is the most responsive and responsible to the will of the people” she paused for a moment and stared out across the ballroom. And then came this:

“that’s why I think every president should have a run at gaining experience by being a councilmember, a mayor, a governor, a VP candidate, a commercial fisherman, a hockey mom.”

As the attendees cheered, Palin made a halfhearted attempt to quiet them down. “No, I’m kidding,” she said, beaming.

Woo-Hoo! GO SARAH!

[digger48]

My sis and her date were there. They’re both from the SF area too.

she got a kick hearing about the article from Newsweak that described the goers as wearing ankle-length hides and Flintstone-style fang jewelry.

[digger48]

In case you missed it, here’s a first-hand take on the event from a FReeper who was there.

[2ndDivisionVet]