Palin’s Rally in Cali

“Some days just make up for all the crummy!!” …Edith Ann, Lily Tomlin’s famous  Laugh-in Character from the 60’s

(Good day after a long week of bailout b.s.)

At Palin Rally in Cali

 A crowd of approximately 23,000 gathered to hear Governor Sarah Palin, Republican vice presidential candidate speak in Carson,California yesterday afternoon, followed by a $1,000 a plate fundraiser in Costa Mesa.  And we were there to hear her first hand.  She was articulate, focused and showed she was up for the fight, ready to be V.P. and ready to be President if it were ever necessary.  Political convert and lifetime Democrat, the Los Angeles President of the National Organization for Women was there to introduce Governor Palin and show support. 

Vowing to "take the gloves off," GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin unleashed an aggressive new attack against Democrat Barack Obama on Saturday, charging at her first public rally in California that her Democratic opponent "sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country." 

"This is not a guy who sees America as you and I see America," she said, before a cheering capacity crowd of 10,000 at the Home Depot Center in Carson with another 7,000 in bleachers across the street watching on a huge screen, in a pointed effort to link the Democrat to William Ayers, a former 1960s radical who co-founded the Weather Underground. "We see America as a force for good in the world." (The Weather Underground took credit for Vietnam War-era protests that included nonfatal explosions targeting the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.)

The crowd was full of fired-up supporters who waited for hours to get into the arena and to hear her address, waving homemade "God Bless Sarah" and "You go, girl!" signs.  People even brought ThunderStix, did the wave, and energetically chanted "U-S-A! U-S-A!" before her speech.  Ticket supporter Jon Voight helped to rally the crowd before Governor Palin arrived, but he did not speak at the actual rally.

She spoke for about 25 minutes and spent another 15 to 20 minutes afterward posing for photos and signing autographs at the Carson rally. From there, she was headed to a 90-minute fundraiser at the Costa Mesa Performing Arts Center to raise funds for the Republican National Committee, the state GOP and the McCain-Palin Victory fund. Today, she will appear in Burlingame at another invitation-only breakfast event for GOP donors.

"There is a time when it’s necessary to take the gloves off, and that time is right now," Sarah said, adding that her campaign adviser encouraged the move saying, "the heels are on, the gloves are off."

"Evidently, there’s been a lot of interest in what I like to read lately," Palin said in a laughing reference to a recent interview with CBS anchor Katie Couric where she was unable to name publications she regularly reads. "Well, I was reading today a copy of the New York Times," she said to loud boos, "and I was really interested to read about Barack Obama’s friends from Chicago."

The story in question, published Saturday, explored the "crossed paths" of Obama and Ayers, and what it characterized as sporadic links the two shared as residents of Hyde Park and as members of a nonprofit organization concentrating on Chicago schools.

"One of his earliest supporters is a man who, according to the New York Times, was a domestic terrorist … part of a group which launched a campaign to bomb" the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol, Palin told the Carson crowd. "These are the same guys who think that patriotism is paying higher taxes."

Supporters of the GOP ticket, including actor Jon Voight, echoed Palin’s comments and even further in their attacks at the rally. The actor told a pre-rally press conference that "no one’s vetting Obama at all … this fellow has a lot of very strange associations … such as his affiliation with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist, Reverend Wright and a long list of others."  Voight told reporters that Ayers and Obama "worked together at the Chicago Annenberg Challenge … four years together, radicalizing the Chicago school system. That’s what their agenda was."  McCain campaign spokesman Rick Gorka later said “Voight does not speak for the campaign".

Much to the crowd’s delight, in her address, Palin, repeatedly jabbed at the media. In a reference to her interview with Couric, Sarah admitted that she had been "flippant" in some answers, but didn’t think the questions she was being asked were very relevant. "Oh, come on, let’s start talking to the American people about the issues that you guys want to know about," she said, and the crowd cheered.

Sarah had the Carson crowd chanting and cheering her on as she told them "our opponents take this state and all of you for granted. …But I’ve got some news for millions of Californians, this is still Reagan country."

There were some laughs, but the GOP vice presidential candidate also hit hard on issues, like taxes and offshore oil drilling; as the audience chanted "Drill, baby, drill!"

It was a great event… full of hope and the possible promise of real change.

 

“Republicans believe every day is the 4th of July. Democrats believe every day is April 15^th.” …Ronald Reagan”

 

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