I will not run in 2012...
I will not run in 2016...
I will serve out my current term as Governor...
I will not subject my family to any more abuse and hate...
And the rest of you people in Obamerica
can kiss my perfectly-formed ass."
Posted on 12/01/2008 8:24:37 PM PST by fkabuckeyesrule
7 p.m.: Walked out of the Gwinnett auditorium with Tom Baxter, late of this page, who made this observation: That the thousands who attended the Sarah Palin/Saxby Chambliss rally were the most down-scale crowd he’s seen at a GOP event this year.
In other words, these were white, young blue-collar newcomers to the process.
“They’ve got no money,” Baxter noted. Three weeks ago, the Chambliss rally that featured John McCain in Cobb County drew a smaller and substantially different crowd — still white, but older and in business suits.
At the end of the 35-mile drive back to Atlanta, the Jim Martin rally at the state Capitol — featuring U.S. Rep. John Lewis and hip-hop star Ludacris — was just shutting down. Not as large a crowd as the Palin event, but close to a thousand, who gathered in the open on a cold, blustery night. So not a bad showing.
An emphasis on youth was the one thing both events had in common on Monday. We’ll see which side turns out.
4:50 p.m.: The biggest applause lines so far for Sarah Palin have been on abortion and the Second Amendment. She spoke about the remaking of the Republican party.
“”We recognize there was frustration, disappointment by the electorate,” Palin said. Palin promised a GOP that was both conservative and oriented to the American working class.
She just finished, with everyone again standing. All in all, the speech was very similar to the one she gave this morning. Palin goes from here to the National Governors Association meeting in Philadelphia, where the agenda includes a meeting with President-elect Barack Obama.
4:35 p.m.: Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and former GOP nominee for vice president, just got an extended standing ovation from a crowd of several thousand in the Gwinnett Center.
Palin said re-electing Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss, and denying Democrats a 60th vote in the Senate, was essential to “maintaining the checks and balances needed for our democracy.”
She mentioned that she had been here once before — a politician always likes to say, “It’s good to be back” — when her oldest son graduated from boot camp at Fort Benning. “Georgia, you took care of my boy, now he’s taking care of you,” she said.
On Chambliss: “Saxby’s not going to be an easy yes vote, but he’s not going to be an automatic no vote,” Palin said.
4:25 p.m.: The preacher has given the invocation. Among the gathering’s sins, he proclaims, is the “political correctness” to which many Americans have succumbed.
“We have broken your laws and called it tolerance,” he said. The preacher thanked God for the nation’s biblical foundations, and for the refusal by some to “to bow to modern idols.”
State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine led the Pledge of Allegiance. U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson is introducing Saxby Chambliss now.
Chambliss campaign people say 20,000 people have seen Sarah Palin — who hasn’t appeared yet — during the day. Chambliss’ re-election is necessary, Isakson said, “to stop a runaway train.”
4:10 p.m.: Still waiting on Sarah Palin and Saxby Chambliss. But close to 60 people have been standing on the dais waiting for 40 minutes or so. It’s very clear that Georgia’s Republican leadership doesn’t mind being seen with her. Quite the opposite.
You may think that strange, but quite a few Georgia Republicans were more than cautious when it came to being seen with John McCain. Even last month, after he lost.
3:46 p.m.: Just so you realize that very little is impromptu in any campaign, the Insider just spotted an aide passing out a hand-painted “Palin-Chambliss 2012” sign.
This event isn’t far from Ralph Reed’s office in Duluth. He’s here, too. Along with many state lawmakers from Cobb, north Fulton and Gwinnett counties, too. And Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren.
More hand-crafted signs. “Read my lipstick. Vote Sax.” No porcine references.
3:35 p.m.: Runoff? What runoff?
Oh, the Saxby Chambliss signs are plentiful, but it’s clear even before you walk in that this is a Sarah Palin for President event, four years ahead of its time.
Several thousand people are already here at the Gwinnett Center, a majority grouped in front into one large mosh pit.
A decidedly younger crowd than Republicans usually draw to the events like this, and the music is less twangy as well. More rock than country, and many young ladies with tiaras and beauty contest ribbons.
A Chambliss spokeswoman says the press will have to be satisfied with the stump speech that the governor of Alaska will give here — no separate press availability, where news is more likely to be made.
Three previous speeches — in Augusta, Savannah and Perry — have all been similar. The main theme that Palin has used thus far: That the national GOP needs to be rebuilt, and this is the place to start.
Dozens of people are now packing the stage.
Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, a Public Service Commission candidate also in tomorrow’s runoff, has positioned himself so that any straight-on camera that captures Palin will include him in the background.
If you want to go to this website you can make comments. Since it's the AJC the Michael Moore/Bill Maher types dominate the comments.
We’ll be here waiting for you when you come back Sarah. Better step up your game, though. I’m hoping you have some real conservatives to compete with in the primary.
Well well...the McCain burden has been lifted, Governor Palin is on her own, and speaking her own mind, let’s see what tomorrow will bring.
“Palin promised a GOP that was both conservative and oriented to the American working class.”
That is the key to GOP dominance. Demonstrating through public policy the direct effects of conservative views on working class individuals.
I was at the Gwinnett event. The crowd was in the thousands and unlike anything I’ve ever seen at a GOP gig, especially for a runoff.
I would have loved to have gome but I had to work. I saw Reagan in 1984 at the Ohio State basketball arena and I’ll never forget it.
What is that supposed to mean you post it a lot.
Sort of fkabuckeyesrules, the AJC server may be on the verge of crashing at the moment, the Maher types are being challenged for a change.
Rally on Palin!
Chuckle.
I like Palin....I love your post. My thoughts to a T.
Wonderful picture Old Sarge, how about:
He’s a communist
He’s a liar
He’s twisted
He could marry Bill Ayers in CA
And he hates babies
Haha.
Vini, Vidi, Vici!
We love you Sarah.
Sarah needs to break free from the chains of the lamestream media. Difficult as that may be though, after that watch out.
I’m hoping you have some real conservatives to compete with in the primary.
I understand the sentiment but we can only afford one real conservative candidate. We need to make sure that the conservative is well vetted and then broadly supported within the next two years. No more coy candidates and no more splitting a half dozen ways among semi conservative candidates.
Great post!!!! I love it!!!
AMEN to that!
Ive read reports of her being offered 5-7M for a book deal. Part of me saw how she was treated and just hopes she takes the money and the DC elite and media to shove it.
They were afraid of her, including many GOP types because she’s so far from what they’re used to and was the most outsider candidate arguably ever. At least recently. On the GOP side, McCain, Bush, Cheney, Dole, Kemp, Bush, Quayle, Reagan, Ford, Nixon, etc... They were all of DC and the establishment. Even if they disagreed with their politics the media all hung with them and knew them and felt comfortable with them.
Not Sarah and Todd. I mean, this is a guy who even if they had won, would have been in Anchorage in February racing snow machines and probably wanting to bag salmon up in the Beaufort Sea. Not exactly they type hanging out with Tina Brown and Sally Quinn. Same with Sarah.
It’s also amazing how even though she was only running for VP the press went after her and attacked her as if she was the top of the ticket. One thing youve noticed in the month since the election in all the talk of Obama’s cabinet and his plans and everything, you havent heard a peep about or from Joe Biden. Because the VP disappears into the weeds, just as Palin would have done if McCain had won.
For those who want to see her President, it may have been better that McCain lost. If he won, the odds of the GOP winning a 4th or a 5th staright term were even worse than they were this year. So cahnces are she would have maxed out at VP, unless McCain died, which is unlikely.
Now, if Obama screws up and has a bad first term she;s in great shape. She’s still in decent shape for 2016 or beyond. She’s only 44. In 2024 she’ll be the same age Hillary is now, so she has another 4-5 cycles to potentially run in.
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