Palin: People seeking "freedom from oppressive regimes wonder if Alaska is still that beacon of hope for their cause"

She starts her speech by saying how proud she is to be an American.

She then asks the audience, "Do you love your freedom?" She then repeats, in case the birthers assembled in front of her didn't catch it the first time, "I am so proud to be an American" and then polishes the cliché ridden opening off by stating, "Happy birthday Ronald Reagan!"

The video is about 1minute and 21 seconds into it's 59 minute and 11 seconds playing time and I am bored already. I know this woman only speaks in platitudes but, even by her standards, this is shocking.

Talk about giving them what they want. And, apparently, they are paying her $100,000 for this gunk. Which is possibly why, so early on in her speech, she states, "I look forward to attending more tea party events in the near future." At $100,000 a pop I would look forward to that.

The New York Times report that she fed these eleven hundred people, paying over $500 a pop, "exactly what they wanted to hear."

Ms. Palin gave the Tea Party crowd exactly what they wanted to hear, declaring the primacy of the Tenth Amendment 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.

The 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.

In her most frontal assault on Obama she cites the Christmas Day bomber and decries the Democrats for treating his attempted terrorist attack as a crime rather than "an act of war" and says, "We need a Commander in Chief, not a professor of law standing at a lectern". It's a line designed to please this audience and they duly loved it.

She then hits Obama a few times for relying on teleprompters, and - ironically - swiftly shows why politicians find them useful by stating:

And around the world, people who are seeking freedom from oppressive regimes wonder if Alaska is still that beacon of hope for their cause."

It struck me as an instant reminder of her gaffe filled election campaign with McCain, where every single interview and speech appeared as mine fields to be manoeuvred with the greatest care and one found oneself feeling embarrassed by her blatant lack of knowledge.

From the subjects she hit upon tonight (North Korea, Iran, Japan) one can only hope that she has brushed up a lot since then. But she continues to give the impression of someone who can only speak in the broadest of terms, terms which it appears she has learned at the feet of Glenn Beck.

The Tea Party crowd simply adore this stuff, but, if I am honest, I find it shrill and rather boring.

Click here for whole speech.

Tags: Palin, tea party convention