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Posted on 04/25/2014 11:10:28 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
ORANGE BEACH, Alabama – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin offered plenty of red-meat attacks on President Barack Obama during an appearance at the Baldwin County Republican Party’s annual fundraising dinner Friday, but she did not spare her own party.
Palin, who rocketed to political stardom after presidential candidate John McCain tapped her as his running mate in 2008, expressed nearly as much exasperation with the GOP establishment as she did with Democrats.
She referenced her own upbringing in an Alaskan hunting family in declaring that she would fight politicians that conservatives deride as “Republicans in Name Only” during intra-party squabbles.
“I’m not afraid at all to go on a little RINO hunt,” she said.
Since her unsuccessful bid for vice president, Palin has devoted a great deal of energy toward supporting like-minded Republicans in primary battles, whether they be incumbents or challengers. Along the way, she has become one of the top draws on the speaking circuit.
Baldwin Republican Chairman Matt Simpson said it was a big coup to get Palin. He declined to say how much the party paid for her appearance and said the former governor agreed to an interview only with Yellowhammer News, a conservative blog in Alabama.
Simpson said about 500 people attended the speech at The Wharf in Orange Beach. The audience included most of the county’s Republican leaders, along with the chairman of the state GOP, U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Fairhope, Republican leaders from the rest of the state and even a U.S. Senate candidate for Louisiana.
Palin charmed her audience with her signature speaking style and a few local references. She noted the famed Flora-Bama Mullet Toss that takes place this weekend.
Turning serious, Palin questioned the commitment of some Republicans to repealing the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature legislative achievement.
“They’re giving a lot of lip service to it, but it’s not happening,” she said.
The reason, Palin suggested, is that some Republicans have concluded they are better off raising campaign contributions off of the issue and leaving the law alone. She said too few Republicans in Congress supported efforts by Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, to shut down the federal government in order to force the defunding of the health reform law.
“They left some of our guys out there alone,” she said. “Worse than that, they joined the lapdog media” in condemning Lee and Cruz.
Palin urged Republicans to “send reinforcements” to help tea party Republicans in Congress. She paraphrased a famous Obama quote in crediting the tea party for engineering the Republican takeover of the House in 2010.
“Republican establishment, you didn’t build that – the tea party did that,” she said.
Referencing big Republican electoral gains in Alabama since 2010, Palin held up the state as a model for the nation.
“Alabama really is the picture of this – especially Baldwin County,” she said.
Palin had plenty of fire for Obama and the Democrats, too, starting with the “Orwellian boondoggle” of Obamacare.
She blasted the administration over the National Security Agency spying scandal, the murder of the American ambassador in Benghazi, Libya, and Obama’s response to Russian aggression in Ukraine.
“We are going to do all we can to stop Barack Obama’s fundamental transformation of the most exceptional country in the world,” she said, later adding that his policies represent a “depression on the soul of America.”
Palin got her biggest applause and a standing ovation for her defense of America’s veterans. She decried cuts to veterans’ health benefits and Obama’s proposed defense cuts.
“They’re the ones who should be getting the free ‘Obamacare,’ not the prisoners,” she said.
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Run Palin. I want to see the LibTards heads explode.
I attended the dinner and she was great. Really fired up the crowd and spoke truth to power! It was a fun night!
The Mobile Press Register has become one of the worst newspapers in the country. I think they hire 7th graders as reporters.
It’s only natural that she’d group Obama and the RINOs together. How can you tell them apart?
It still pisses me off that she endorsed McCain in 2010. And now, while she’s giving this great speech attacking RINOs..McCain is hosting Hillary in Sedonia..go figure
McCain is hosting Hillary in Sedonia..go figure
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In this case perception is reality. The rinos and the dems are on the same team. And it ain’t our team.
Sarah’s endorsement of McCain in 2010 should have served as a bitter dose of reality to those who thought she was beyond reproach. You simply cannot reconcile her endorsement of McCain with her rhetoric.
I wouldn’t go that far. I can understand the political realities..IMHO, what she should have done is NOT endorse anyone in the race.,..sometimes..keeping one’s mouth shut is the best, and wisest, course of action..
They have to get things like that in there to paint her as a loser.
More apropos from her might be 'sled dog mentality; got their noses so close to their leaders butt they cannot see the world around them in it's true light.'
I agree. I’d also point out that I was disappointed to learn that Sarah, by her own admission, allowed herself to be muzzled during the 2008 campaign. Shouldn’t be able to do that to a Mama grizzly. Don’t get me wrong, though, because I really like her.
The cure for RINO and liberalism.
“I’m not afraid at all to go on a little RINO hunt,”
Looks like she missed at least 3 RINO’s on her hunt. McCain, Flake and Ayotte whom she endorsed.
Sure you can, loyalty and honoring her prior commitment to mcpain.
Wanna blame somebody, blame the voters of AZ, Sarah didn't vote and true conservatives were not swayed by her endorsement.
As usual, Sarah is right.
Gov Palin has the sharpest intellect of all politicians in the history of this country
Not my intention to place blame. I really, really like Sarah. I’d vote for her, for any office, in a heartbeat. However, IMHO mcpain didn’t/doesn’t deserve her loyalty. The principles she embraces don’t fit with the unprincipled mcpain.
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