MORE DESIGNS HERE
Posted on 12/01/2008 9:23:52 AM PST by publius1
Augusta — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin roared back onto the campaign trail Monday, calling on Georgians to re-elect incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss in his hotly contested runoff with Democrat Jim Martin.
“The eyes of the nation are on you,” Palin told several thousand people at the James Brown Arena for her 8:55 a.m. speech, the first of four appearances in the state. “We all have Georgia on our mind.”
Palin will end the swing with a 4 p.m. rally at the Gwinnett Center.
Martin started the last day of campaigning greeting commuters at a downtown Atlanta MARTA station, then planned to travel to Augusta and Macon before returning to Atlanta for an appearance at the Capitol with civil rights veterans and hip-hop star Ludacris.
Martin spokesman Matt Canter also said the Democrat will have “Georgia’s own Miss Alaska” on hand to sing the national anthem at a 5:30 p.m. rally at the Capitol.
Atlanta-based recording artist Maryline Blackburn won the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant — the one where Palin finished as a runner-up.
The Palin rally in Augusta drew a crowd of 3,000 to 4,000 people, many holding aloft campaign signs and shouting their adoration of the GOP vice presidential candidate.
“Sarah! Sarah! Sarah!,” they chanted. One woman stood behind Palin with a huge red sign that read: “Save My Gun.”
It was Palin’s first campaign stop since she and U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) lost the Nov. 4 election to President-elect Barack Obama. The McCain-Palin ticket, however, carried Georgia by about 200,000 votes, and Chambliss brought Palin to the state in a last-minute effort to push conservative voters to the polls for Tuesday’s runoff.
Palin also scheduled Monday stops in Savannah and Perry before coming to Gwinnett.
The high-profile Chambliss-Martin race has attracted national attention because it could tilt the balance of power in the upper chamber of Congress.
Palin cast the race Monday as the first step for Republicans to rebuild their party.
“It takes rebuilding, and I say, let that begin here in Georgia tomorrow,” Palin said.
She said Chambliss is needed to provide a check on the Democratic majority. She stressed Chambliss’s support for gun rights, opposition to abortion and opposition to tax hikes.
Democrats want to oust Chambliss and elect Martin to help secure a 60-vote, filibuster proof “super majority” in the senate.
Democrats now have 58 seats in the upper chamber, with only races in Georgia and Minnesota to be resolved.
Palin and Chambliss were accompanied by U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, Gov. Sonny Perdue and U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Marietta).
Palin spoke for 12 minutes, but many in the crowd lingered for another 20 minutes as she signed autographs and posed for photos with local officials.
Penny and Chuck Ballas got back into Augusta at midnight Sunday from a trip to New York City. They found out Palin was going to be in town and got up at the break of day to attend Monday’s rally.
“I told my wife, ‘I haven’t even had my coffee yet, but I’ll do this for Sarah,”’ Chuck Ballas said.
Penny Ballas said she thought Palin had gotten a raw deal from the media. Palin has been lambasted by some on the left, but is immensely popular with many conservatives.
“She is a breath of fresh air,” said Penny Ballas. “She tells it like it is. She is not a politician yet.”
Valerie Yost of Wrens was in line at 7:10 a.m. for Palin’s scheduled 8:30 a.m. appearance. The line snaked several blocks around the area as the GOP faithful sipped coffee and vendors hawked buttons with Palin’s likeness. One button read: “Sara Palin for President. You Go Girl. 2012.”
“We love Sarah,” Yost said. “She’s a regular person like the rest of and she know what we have to go through. She does so many good things for her family and for people in general.”
Palin thanks Georgians for their hospitality to her son, who trained in the state before his deployment to Iraq.
She urged the crowd to not only vote, but to contact friends and relatives and get them to the polls.
“The stakes are so high,” she said. “American is counting on you.”
I can't seem to find any video -- does anyone have anything????
We better win this or our party is dead!
I agree, if they win this, the Dems will pull out ALL the stops in Minnesota...
So how many showed up last week at Romney's rally?
Martin spokesman Matt Canter also said the Democrat will have “Georgia’s own Miss Alaska” on hand to sing the national anthem at a 5:30 p.m. rally at the Capitol.
Atlanta-based recording artist Maryline Blackburn won the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant — the one where Palin finished as a runner-up.
oh goshhhh
I am just back from Augusta and waiting to go to Gwinnett. She did an excellent job this morning and the crowd loved seeing here in Georgia. She hit all the right themes about rebuilding the party but should have mentioned Reagan at least once. Anyway, she is the future of our party and the future is bright once we get rid of the RINOs and get back to the roots that made our party great.
300 tops. In Romney's defense, he got no press coverage and Saxby did a lousy job of getting out the voters. No parking, website map unreadable, it was just an embarrasing effort.
this thread is useless w/o pictures
If Chambliss wins it handily it doesn’t bode well for Democrats.
Sarah Palin is earning some good chits for herself here, especially if Saxby wins.
Hey, I saw her in person at the Shippensburg, PA rally on October 28, and the cameras absolutely do not do her justice, do they? She’s a very potent speaker, despite what the stupid libs say about her.
I can’t wait for this run-off to be over so that I will stop getting 10-15 calls per day from this PAC or that. The last one, about 5 minutes ago, was an extremely poorly done recording from Michael Reagan.
OUTSTANDING!
Even the Georgia State Trooper in that picture is smiling!
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