Sarah Palin: Authentic and on the Money

Posted by Erick Erickson (Profile)

Sunday, February 7th at 10:44PM EST 

Governor Sarah Palin took to the stage at the National Tea Party Convention on Saturday night and hit it out of the park. She hit all the notes perfectly. She threw in some great lines. But above all else, she proved herself authentic, sincere, and in touch with conservatives and independents.
You can see the whole speech here. As Andrew Malcolm noted, she started by recognizing Ronald Reagan’s birthday, which was the day of her speech.
Governor Palin offered a full throated endorsement of the tea party movement, a movement that has seen as much hatred and scorn from the media and both political parties’ establishments as the Governor herself.
She said, “The Republican Party would be really smart to start trying to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible” and also said Republicans should not be afraid of primaries.
Here’s the thing — and it is what I mentioned the other day. Sarah Palin’s history in politics is of not a reformer in general, but of a house cleaner. She has, in every job she has held, rooted out corruption and cleaned up the place.
She said in her speech that she would support candidates dedicated to personal responsibility and the free market — kind of like the candidates RedState supports. And that means there are some Republicans who might want to watch out.
From Utah to South Carolina to Florida to Indiana via Texas, Republican races just might get real interesting soon.
Echoing a point I have made repeatedly, Governor Palin says the tea party does not need a leader. But, given her ability to unite disparate tea party groups and voices, she could help solve the problem that cropped up in Illinois where all the tea party groups went for separate candidates. That would align Governor Pain with Senator Jim DeMint as the two most powerful politicians on the right.

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