Sarah Palin Addresses Tea Party Convention

"This is about the people ... and it's a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter," she said, a reference to Obama's use of teleprompters which conservative critics frequently chide him for.

Referring to mounting debt and government programs, Palin said: "What they are doing ... They're sticking our kids with the bill. And that's immoral. That's generational theft.".....
You can catch the full Reuters article here.

I'm still having a hard time getting my head around this Sarah Palin thing. If I was a Conservative/Republican I would be embarrassed to have her as "the face of the party". I just caught the second half of her speech last night and then the soundbytes from Fox and CNN. She can wisecrack about Obama's teleprompter all she wants. At least he doesn't sound like the female Yogi Berra of politics. Just like she did when campaigning, she leaves you wondering "what the hell did she just say?". Yet the sheeple applaud on demand. 


I was dumbfounded that she had the gall to accuse Obama of "generational theft". Talk about hypocrisy. As my memory serves me, Clinton left Bush with a balanced budget. Bush immediately gave all his rich buddies tax breaks, repealed decades old financial regulations and started two wars. While I don't support the way Bush/Cheney went about it; I do support the wars and believe that once we were there we are committed to finishing the task in a proper and honorable way that doesn't harm our future security. That said, the rest of the "generational debt" that has been passed along began to accrue on the Bush/Cheney watch. TARP never should have happened. The same people that tell us, "Oh well, that's capitalism" when a person or small business fails were asking for a bailout. What happened to "Oh well, that's capitalism" when it was their turn? Bush bailed them out with our money. While it's true that Obama has expanded the boondoggle on his watch, he certainly wasn't the one responsible. If I was Sarah Palin, I'd be looking in the mirror and figuring out which rich white guy is standing behind her waiting to give her a push off the precipice they've placed her on.


It's obvious that Republican/Conservatives are in defensive mode and are using Sarah Palin as a front to deflect attention from the fact that they are the ones who have led us into this recession on the backs of the average taxpayer. It will be interesting as we roll up on Congressional elections how it all plays out. My thinking says that after the Congressional elections a more traditional Republican candidate will emerge. I'll give credit to RNC Chairman Steele for his skill in executing this diversion. It will be interesting to see how Palin's downfall will play out. What will her "Howard Dean yell" be?

Of course all this brilliant planning may be for naught. I suspect, from talking to them, that the Tea Party people are educated people who are fairly conservative in some ways, but more centrist in others. They are, generally speaking, disenfranchised by the conservatives on the far right and the wacky liberals on the left. They would prefer a candidate that isn't beholden to either extreme. This is partly why I'm having trouble getting my head around the Sarah Palin thing. These aren't stupid, gullible people. Which is what I think will eventually derail the RNC's strategy. They're playing with fire. Apparently they aren't getting that this group has a lot of unhappy Obama supporters and Hillaryites. The larger and stronger this voting block gets, the harder it will be to get a candidate elected without appeasing this new base. While it's been a slow and agonizing process, the cycle of politics is starting to shift back to the middle where it should be. If ever a third party were to emerge in American politics, now is the time the ground would be most fertile. Who would this new party run as a candidate that would have enough experience and popularity to lead a populist revolution? While I'm not sure I have an answer to this question, I'm thoroughly convinced it's not Sarah Palin.