An Evening With Sarah Palin, May 22, 2010: A Review, Part 4

"I can see November from my house!"

This is part 4 of my review of An Evening With Sarah Palin on May 22, 2010. Read part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Once Hugh Hewitt was finished and took his seat next to Prager, a video began introducing Sarah Palin. The crowd went nuts! It was truly a sight to behold. People were waiving flags and cheering and just very excited. The moment was full of pride, pleasure, and pregnant with anticipation.

Before I share some of Palin’s key topics and phrases I want to talk about my general impression of her and her style. Palin’s speech was not organized in the same way Prager’s and Hewitt’s were. They took pains to organize the material and made sure the audience could follow along. One might expect such a thing from professional communicators.

Palin’s speech was different. She framed it in terms of answering a question she received from Greta Van Susteren in a recent interview. So, while there was a structure, the audience had no way of knowing where we were going. It felt meandering and disorganized, a kind of a zigzag through the political issue book. In places it felt rushed and she did not wait for her applause lines which surprised me. I expected her to have much better timing than she did.

On the positive side, she was very funny and the crowd loved her. She had many great lines and spoke with a great deal of passion about many issues. For instance:

• Palin started by noting the appropriateness of her speaking in a hockey arena, a place where she is quite comfortable. She also noted that Colorado and Alaska have much in common like a love for the outdoors and environment. She noted how Coloradans chuckle when Easterners claim to have mountains in their states. Alaskans do the same to Colorado.
• Great line: “It’s ‘we the people’ not ‘me the president.’”
• “Why is he picking on Arizona? Every law has the ability to be abused.” There is no moral equivalency between Arizona and China. (Remember, someone in the administration had apologized to China (!) for the potential of the AZ immigration law to be abused not long before this event.)
• The Obama Doctrine: Alienate friends, coddle enemies.
• “Please, Mr. President, stop apologizing!”
• On Obamacare, Palin noted that some are already talking about the need to ration care as doctors become more scarce and premiums go up. Government’s power to set limits is a serious threat to freedom. “America, we got schnookered on this one!”
• No one is fixing Fannie and Freddy.
• “Today’s concerns will become tomorrow’s existential crisis.” I think by this she meant that what is merely a concern about the budget and deficit right now has the potential to threaten the very existence of America in the future.
• My favorite line was the one Palin had written on her hand: “I can see November from my house!”
• She shared a story about Reagan as a lifeguard saving many people in the river. “Reagan was a lifeguard for America,” she said. She also quoted him: “We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say there are no heroes just don’t know where to look.”
• Palin also noted the link between prosperity and generosity. This deserves more thought and I would like to do another post about it someday because it is true. Without our tremendous prosperity we could not give so much to the world. How much, for instance, were smaller less prosperous nations able to come to Haiti’s aid? Compare that to America’s outpouring. It matters, doesn’t it?

My last note was a saying from her dad: “Don’t let ‘em get you down. Don’t retreat. Just reload.” The crowd went crazy.

Come back tomorrow for Part 5 of my review of An Evening With Sarah Palin which finally brings us to Palin’s speech.

Tags: Alaska, China, Greta Van Susteren, Hugh Hewitt, Politics, Republican Party (United States), Sarah Palin, United States