With special thanks to Sarah Pac and The Right Scoop.
Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker, the final speech of the February CPAC and she lived up to the billing.
By far, the best Sarah has sounded in a speech. It is absolutely amazing how much she has improved. Not a stale moment and the best was saved for the last, seriously. No stumbling over here words. While scripted, much of it came from the heart, not the tele-prompter. It was a rapid fire presentation, full of a determination that, often, stopped short of being angry. Everything from her hand gestures to her tone of voice has improved . . . . . and the speech was great. At least, make yourself listen to the last four or five minutes . . . .but it is all good. You are about to listen to a speech that got 20 standing ovations. Palin rocked the convention and made it clear, that she is a player in the life of conservative politics.
A few of my favorite moments included Sarah making fun of Obama's first campaign slogan, "Win the Future." She point to the fact that the short version of "Win the Future" is WTF -- and then said, "And I'm the idiot."
She spoke of "common sense with a servants heaert."
When heckled by a small band of Occupy folks, the crowd shouted them down. The demonstrators apparently stayed in the assembly, quietly, at one point being addressed by our First Lady.
She talked about the privileged Washington politician, mentioning the fact that 7 of the 10 richest counties in the nation, border Washington D.C. and chastised the privileged elite, making it clear she was talking about people in both major parties.
It was clear to me that she is not overly excited about Romney, and stressed, implicitly, that he need to bridge the gap between himself and the doubters in the TEA party crowd.
She proclaimed a victory for TEA party conservatives, come November, without making any "guarantees," and then directed this remark to the GOP Establishment: in the context of even more TEA party types coming to Washington, she said "and this time, Establishment , we expect them to get leadership posts in congress."
She is so close to making a clear break from John McCain as to be obvious, but, if that every happens, it will not be during this campaign cycle.