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Palin Responds to ‘Run, Sarah, Run’
By KATE ZERNIKE
NASHVILLE — Sarah Palin said she would consider a run for president in 2012 “if I believe that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family,” according to a television interview broadcast Sunday morning.
“It would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country,” she told host Chris Wallace on the news program “Fox News Sunday” in an interview conducted a few hours before her Saturday night address at the inaugural National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. “I won’t close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future.”
Those words were buttressed by the response she received inside the convention Saturday night. As Ms. Palin left the convention stage, the crowd erupted into chants of “Run, Sarah, Run.”
Ms. Palin gave the Tea Party crowd exactly what they wanted to hear on Saturday, declaring the primacy of the Tenth Commmandment in limiting government powers, complaining about the bailouts and the “generational theft” of rising deficits, and urging the audience to back conservative challengers in contested primaries.
“America is ready for another revolution!” she told the crowd, prompting the first of several standing ovations.
While Ms. Palin told Fox News that she approved of President Obama’s beefing up the American military force in Afghanistan, she was dismissive of his decision to try some high-profile accused terrorists in United States civilian courtrooms. She called on Attorney General Eric Holder, who formally made the decision, to resign.
“We’re at war and these are acts of war that these terrorists are committing and we need to treat them differently,” she said. “I don’t think terrorists are worthy of rights that people like my son fight and are willing to die for.”
In the Fox interview, Mr. Wallace took note of a poll showing her leading other potential Republican candidates with 16 percent of the respondents, and asked if she was more knowledgeable on domestic and foreign matters now than during her run in 2008 as the Republican vice presidential candidate.
“I would hope so,” she replied. Before she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate, she said, her “engagement was with the state of Alaska” and such issues as ramping up energy production. She was often criticized during that campaign as ignorant of key policy matters.
“Now that my focus has been enlarged, I sure as heck better be more astute on these current events, national issues,” she said during the recorded interview.
Ms. Palin gave fewer hints about her political plans a few hours later at the convention, when Judson Phillips, the organizer, prodded her in a brief question-and-answer period after her 40-minute speech. When he asked her about the “two words that scare liberals: President Palin,” she demurred, smiling and looking to the side of the stage where she said her youngest daughter, Piper, was watching.
She said she would support those candidates who “understand free market principles” and “personal responsibility.” Without saying which candidates she would support, she said she would campaign for conservative challengers in some Republican primaries.
“This is how we’re going to find the cream of the crop to face a challenger in the general,” she said. “Let’s not be afraid of contested primaries.”
Her speech was closely watched as a potential signal of Ms. Palin’s political future and the extent to which the convention would embrace her. But Ms. Palin, while aligning herself firmly with the Tea Party, nevertheless urged the 1,100 delegates who had gathered in a hotel ballroom not to let the movement be defined by any one leader.
“This is about the people, and it’s bigger than any one king or queen of a tea party, and it’s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter,” she said.
That was just one of several digs at President Obama. “How’s that hopey-changey thing workin’ out for you?” she asked at one point. She blasted him for rising deficits, “apologizing for America” in speeches in other countries, and for allowing the so-called Christmas bomber to board a plane headed for the United States, saying he was weak on the war on terrorism.
“To win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law,” she declared.
Pressed about the relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement, and whether the latter should become a third party, Ms. Palin suggested to Mr. Phillips that the two should be compatible.
“The Republican Party would be really smart to start trying to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible,” she said. “This is a beautiful movement because it is shaping the way politics are conducted. You’ve got both party machines running scared.”
The convention had gathered here to try to turn the activism of the Tea Party rallies over the last year into actual political power. Her speech was the keynote event of the convention, and the big draw for many of the 600 people who had paid $549 to attend – another 500, organizers said, paid $349 just to see for her speech alone.
The convention had been a pretty sedate affair until the Palin speech, with delegates sitting through panel discussions about how to effect changes in primary elections and how to use new technology to Tea Party advantage. But by the time she took the stage after the closing dinner Saturday night, convention-goers were hungry for the red meat.
They had begun lining up outside the ballroom three hours before the speech, breaking out at one point into “God Bless America.” As Mr. Phillips, the chief convention organizer, warmed up the crowd for her speech, it erupted in chants of “USA! USA!” They raised a toast to Ronald Reagan, whose 99th birthday would have been Saturday. (“To Ronnie,” said one woman wearing sequins at the back of the room.)
When Andrew Breitbart, the founder of BigGovernment.com, introduced Ms. Palin by describing her as “the first person to tell us about the death panel,” the crowd cheered.
Ms. Palin’s fee for speaking was reported to be $100,000, and she was criticized by some Tea Party activists for taking a fee, much as the convention itself was criticized for charging a ticket price that is too high for tea partiers who consider themselves fiscal conservatives. But Mr. Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, the social networking site that sponsored the convention, refused to talk about how much she was paid.
“I’ll simply say this: when you get a speaker of the caliber of Governor Palin, it’s not done on the basis of a handshake,” he said. He added that there had been a confidentiality clause in the contract organizers signed with Ms. Palin. “Contractually I’m not allowed to talk about it,” he said. “I promised I wouldn’t do it.”
And Ms. Palin said she would make no apologies for taking money and turning it back, she said, to conservative causes, though she has not specified which ones she will donate to.
“I will live, I will die for the people of America,” she said. “This party that we call the Tea Party, this movement, as I say, is the future of politics in America.”
Joseph Berger contributed reporting from New York.
By KATE ZERNIKE
NASHVILLE — Sarah Palin said she would consider a run for president in 2012 “if I believe that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family,” according to a television interview broadcast Sunday morning.
“It would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country,” she told host Chris Wallace on the news program “Fox News Sunday” in an interview conducted a few hours before her Saturday night address at the inaugural National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. “I won’t close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future.”
Those words were buttressed by the response she received inside the convention Saturday night. As Ms. Palin left the convention stage, the crowd erupted into chants of “Run, Sarah, Run.”
Ms. Palin gave the Tea Party crowd exactly what they wanted to hear on Saturday, declaring the primacy of the Tenth Commmandment in limiting government powers, complaining about the bailouts and the “generational theft” of rising deficits, and urging the audience to back conservative challengers in contested primaries.
“America is ready for another revolution!” she told the crowd, prompting the first of several standing ovations.
While Ms. Palin told Fox News that she approved of President Obama’s beefing up the American military force in Afghanistan, she was dismissive of his decision to try some high-profile accused terrorists in United States civilian courtrooms. She called on Attorney General Eric Holder, who formally made the decision, to resign.
“We’re at war and these are acts of war that these terrorists are committing and we need to treat them differently,” she said. “I don’t think terrorists are worthy of rights that people like my son fight and are willing to die for.”
In the Fox interview, Mr. Wallace took note of a poll showing her leading other potential Republican candidates with 16 percent of the respondents, and asked if she was more knowledgeable on domestic and foreign matters now than during her run in 2008 as the Republican vice presidential candidate.
“I would hope so,” she replied. Before she was chosen as John McCain’s running mate, she said, her “engagement was with the state of Alaska” and such issues as ramping up energy production. She was often criticized during that campaign as ignorant of key policy matters.
“Now that my focus has been enlarged, I sure as heck better be more astute on these current events, national issues,” she said during the recorded interview.
Ms. Palin gave fewer hints about her political plans a few hours later at the convention, when Judson Phillips, the organizer, prodded her in a brief question-and-answer period after her 40-minute speech. When he asked her about the “two words that scare liberals: President Palin,” she demurred, smiling and looking to the side of the stage where she said her youngest daughter, Piper, was watching.
She said she would support those candidates who “understand free market principles” and “personal responsibility.” Without saying which candidates she would support, she said she would campaign for conservative challengers in some Republican primaries.
“This is how we’re going to find the cream of the crop to face a challenger in the general,” she said. “Let’s not be afraid of contested primaries.”
Her speech was closely watched as a potential signal of Ms. Palin’s political future and the extent to which the convention would embrace her. But Ms. Palin, while aligning herself firmly with the Tea Party, nevertheless urged the 1,100 delegates who had gathered in a hotel ballroom not to let the movement be defined by any one leader.
“This is about the people, and it’s bigger than any one king or queen of a tea party, and it’s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter,” she said.
That was just one of several digs at President Obama. “How’s that hopey-changey thing workin’ out for you?” she asked at one point. She blasted him for rising deficits, “apologizing for America” in speeches in other countries, and for allowing the so-called Christmas bomber to board a plane headed for the United States, saying he was weak on the war on terrorism.
“To win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law,” she declared.
Pressed about the relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement, and whether the latter should become a third party, Ms. Palin suggested to Mr. Phillips that the two should be compatible.
“The Republican Party would be really smart to start trying to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible,” she said. “This is a beautiful movement because it is shaping the way politics are conducted. You’ve got both party machines running scared.”
The convention had gathered here to try to turn the activism of the Tea Party rallies over the last year into actual political power. Her speech was the keynote event of the convention, and the big draw for many of the 600 people who had paid $549 to attend – another 500, organizers said, paid $349 just to see for her speech alone.
The convention had been a pretty sedate affair until the Palin speech, with delegates sitting through panel discussions about how to effect changes in primary elections and how to use new technology to Tea Party advantage. But by the time she took the stage after the closing dinner Saturday night, convention-goers were hungry for the red meat.
They had begun lining up outside the ballroom three hours before the speech, breaking out at one point into “God Bless America.” As Mr. Phillips, the chief convention organizer, warmed up the crowd for her speech, it erupted in chants of “USA! USA!” They raised a toast to Ronald Reagan, whose 99th birthday would have been Saturday. (“To Ronnie,” said one woman wearing sequins at the back of the room.)
When Andrew Breitbart, the founder of BigGovernment.com, introduced Ms. Palin by describing her as “the first person to tell us about the death panel,” the crowd cheered.
Ms. Palin’s fee for speaking was reported to be $100,000, and she was criticized by some Tea Party activists for taking a fee, much as the convention itself was criticized for charging a ticket price that is too high for tea partiers who consider themselves fiscal conservatives. But Mr. Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, the social networking site that sponsored the convention, refused to talk about how much she was paid.
“I’ll simply say this: when you get a speaker of the caliber of Governor Palin, it’s not done on the basis of a handshake,” he said. He added that there had been a confidentiality clause in the contract organizers signed with Ms. Palin. “Contractually I’m not allowed to talk about it,” he said. “I promised I wouldn’t do it.”
And Ms. Palin said she would make no apologies for taking money and turning it back, she said, to conservative causes, though she has not specified which ones she will donate to.
“I will live, I will die for the people of America,” she said. “This party that we call the Tea Party, this movement, as I say, is the future of politics in America.”
Joseph Berger contributed reporting from New York.
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