She was feisty. She was bold. And she was gutsy. At a Tea Party rally in Madison, Wis., on Saturday, Sarah Palin pulled no punches.
The former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential candidate credited the Tea Party with winning “an electoral victory of historic proportions last November.” She praised Scott Walker’s efforts toward fiscal discipline. She stood up to the GOP establishment. And she had a strong message for Barack Obama as we approach 2012: “Mr. President, game on!”
Palin, who stems from “a family of schoolteachers,” reached out to Wisconsin’s union members: “I’m here today as a patriot, as a taxpayer, as a former union member, and as the wife of a union member … A pension is a promise that must be kept. Now your Governor, Scott Walker, understands this. He understands that states must be solvent in order to keep their promises. And that’s what he’s trying to do. He’s not trying to hurt union members. Hey, folks — he’s trying to save your jobs and your pensions.”
She talked tough with respect to the watered-down budget compromise reached by President Obama, John Boehner, and Harry Reid, affirming, “That is not courage. That’s capitulation.” She added, “Now there is a lesson here — in the Beltway politico, something that they need to understand — the lesson comes from here in Madison. So, our lesson is to the GOP establishment first … if you stand on the platform, if you stand by your pledges, we will stand with you. We will fight with you, GOP. We have your back. Together we will win because America will win.”
“We didn’t elect you just to re-arrange the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic,” Palin continued. “We didn’t elect you just to stand back and watch Obama redistribute those deck chairs. What we need is for you to stand up, GOP, and fight.” She added, “Maybe I should ask some of the Badger women’s hockey team — those champions — maybe I should ask them if we should be suggesting to GOP leaders, they need to learn how to fight like a girl!”
Palin called out President Obama on his unsuccessful stimulus, big-government promoting SOTU address, and proclivity toward ignoring the will of the people via Obamacare, reckless spending, and proposals for tax increases on the middle class and job creators. She challenged his tendency to “apologize for America while you bow and kowtow to our enemies and you snub our allies like Israel,” as well as the manner in which “you [Barack Obama] cut off oil development here and then you hypocritically praise foreign countries for their drilling.”
“We the people, we rose up, and we decisively rejected the Left’s big-government agenda,” Palin asserted. “We don’t want it. We can’t afford it. And we are unwilling to pay for it.”
Palin’s distinctive humor emerged through such statements as “We’re flat broke, but he [Barack Obama] thinks these solar shingles and really fast trains will magically save us” and “Win the Future? WTF is about right.”
She continued, “No, our president isn’t leading. He’s punting on this debt crisis. The only future that Barack Obama is trying to win is his own re-election. He’s willing to mortgage your children’s future to ensure his own. And that is not the audacity of hope. That’s cynicism. Piling more debt onto our children and our grandchildren — it’s not courage. No, that’s cowardice.” She added, “You ignored us in 2010. But you cannot ignore us in 2012.”
Palin expressed strong support for common-sense conservatives in Madison and a positive message for America as we look forward to the next presidential election: “Madison, you defended that 2010 electoral mandate. You are heroes. You are patriots. And when the history of this Tea Party movement is written, what you accomplished here will not be forgotten. Your historic stand brought down the curtain on the last election, and the 2012 election begins here. We will take the courage and the integrity that you showed all of America. We will take it and we will win back our country … We will fight for America. And it starts here in Madison, Wisconsin. It starts here! It starts now! … Mr. President, game on!”
Palin’s Madison speech reminds us of some important things. She’s not in the least bit afraid of a tough crowd. She’ll hold members of her party accountable if they don’t keep their word. She is passionate about the Tea Party movement and isn’t about to abandon her conservative principles in order to fit in with what’s cool in D.C. And she is one tough cookie.
Most importantly, Sarah Palin sounds ready, willing, and able to tackle the Obama agenda. Like I always say, let the games begin.
Jedediah Bila is a conservative columnist and commentator living in New York City. For more information on Jedediah, please visit jedediahbila.com. Follow Jedediah on Twitter.