Sarah Palin Tells Tea Party U.s. Needs Another Revolution
February 7th, 2010
Palin | 
The campaign-style speech at a dinner in Nashville, Tennessee, last night was a frontal assault on the administrations handling of national security and terrorism, even though she stopped short of declaring ambitions for a 2012 presidential bid as her audience chanted “Run Sarah, Run!”
“I am a big supporter of this movement,” she said. “America is ready for another revolution.”
The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice- presidential nominee questioned whether the suspect in the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit was interrogated aggressively enough.
“Treating this like a mere law-enforcement matter places our country at grave risk because thats not how radical Islamic extremists are looking at this,” she said. “To win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern.”
The current Democratic administration can no longer blame the previous one for the nations ills, Palin said.
“They own this now, and voters are going to hold them accountable,” she said in her speech.
Palin accused the administration of proposing an “immoral” 2011 budget that is equivalent to “generational theft.”
A hero of the leaderless Tea Party movement, she told her audience assembled in the U.S. country-music capital that their grassroots efforts will empower voters.
Endorsements
Palin, 45, said she planned to endorse specific 2010 candidates and that the Republican Party should not be “afraid of contested primaries” within its ranks.
Her appearance — the first of several Tea Party events Palin plans to attend in the coming months — marks the end of the three-day National Tea Party Convention.
Palins supporters say the media has been overly critical of her and there is plenty of time for her to decide whether she will run for president.
“If thats where God puts her, thats where shell go,” said Tammy Holmes, 36, a small-business owner from Farmington, Missouri, who attended the conference.
Possible National Base
Tea Party activists, drawn to Palins anti-Washington rhetoric and working-mother personality, would form a natural base for Palin should she decide to make a White House bid.
There is little downside in closely associating herself with the movement, a Republican strategist said.
“The more she can talk to them and talk to conservative evangelicals, the more she can have a passionate following and appeal to a fairly large swath of GOP voters and independent voters,” said John Feehery, who advised former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert.
“She has attained rock star status,” he said. “That doesnt necessarily mean she has a great voice, but she has attained celebrity. For a lot of folks she is off-key. But for her supporters, shes the best thing since Elvis.”