PrintJuly 29, 2009
Palin's Commencement Address
Sarah Palin's Farewell Address as Governor of Alaska Sunday was no farewell address at all. It was just the beginning; it was a commencement address. "I will fight even harder for you, for what is right and for the truth," she promised. "And I have never felt I needed a title to do that!"
Her speech embodied what a great American sounds like, and what a President ought to sound like. Palin made no apologies. She said nothing like Obama's inane drone of "America's best days are behind us." No tearing down of our nation. Obama ranks on us; Palin raises us up and speaks of national pride.
First and foremost, she thanked our brave men and women defending this great nation and ripped the media, warning:
"You represent what could and should be a respected, honest profession that could and should be a cornerstone of our democracy. Democracy depends on you, and that is why, that's why our troops are willing to die for you. So, how about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit makin' things up?"
She briefly outlined her plans for real energy independence -- American resources for Americans -- speaking of commercializing our clean natural gas (AGIA) as the first private sector energy project in the history of America. Palin believes (and rightly so) that the pressing issue of our time is energy independence. "There is," she said, "an inherent link between energy and prosperity...We will prove you can be pro-development and pro-environment because no one loves their clean air, and their land, and their wildlife more than an Alaskan. We will protect it!"
She invoked America's pioneering spirit. She urged us to resist enslavement to big central government: "Be wary of accepting government largess."
Sarah Palin embodies what an American is. She is what Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin envisioned when they carved out the American idea.
Anyone who wants write her off, proceed at your own risk.
The more evil succeeds and overwhelms our foreign and domestic policy, our culture, our discourse and the very social fabric of our lives, the clearer it becomes that Palin is the antidote, the answer to fighting this morally bankrupt sewer in which we find ourselves during the Obama Administration.
The low state of the world is a fact, but so are great Americans who will fight tooth and nail to stop what Obama is doing to America. Clear thinking Americans see what is happening. America is being tested in a way she never has been before. The President has in every decision reinforced the impression that he is a radical, even a communist/Islamist: the usurpation of the Constitution, the bankrupting of our nation, the illegal grab of private wealth, the infiltration of Islamic supremacism, the abandonment of our allies, the weakening of our military. It's stunning.
Sarah Palin sees it, too. Smart, sharp, patriotic, she best represents the majority of Americans. Not Obama's shills in the press, not the chattering elites and the Beltway insiders, but Americans. There was no way she could stay on as Governor, as she was unable to fulfill her duties while the leftists in America had her tied up in bogus lawsuits (all of which she won). She agreed to pay the travel fees for taking her children on one of her trips. Obama should do the same with those trips to Paris for his two girls. Pay it back. Pay back the $100,000 it cost taxpayers for his "date" in New York. Pay it back. Pay for those ridiculous $100 steaks and his 20 million dollar "farm" rental for a little R and R next week. Obama and his gang are the pigs at the public trough, not Palin. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds.
There is no more iconic image than Sarah Palin at the Governor's picnic with Mark Levin's book on her lap, Liberty and Tyranny. The American Thinker called Levin's book "a compelling primer on the most basic principles of the American political order." Tony Blankley in the Washington Times said the book "carefully lays out the central historic, philosophic and constitutional relationship between conservative principles and our individual freedom." Contrast that to Obama was once photographed carrying while strolling across an airport tarmac: The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria.
America wants Palin. Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele said recently that she would not run in 2012. But Steele speaks for no one. Neither he nor the GOP will pick our candidate. Palin is going to help us win back the House and Senate by campaigning and working for candidates in that fight in 2010. And we, the good, decent folks in America, are going to help her win the White House in 2012.
We need her. She knows it. She is heeding our call. Is she a hack like Obama, planning to campaign on the taxpayers' dime, as he did as a junior senator when he ran for President? No. Is that in itself extraordinary in these times? Yes. But so is integrity, ethics and decency. The left is calling her a "quitter." She is just the opposite, my friends. Sarah Palin is a fighter, a winner. And she is getting into the fight.
Sarah Palin is a Great American. She is the leader Americans need. She is the leader the tea parties need. In closing, Palin said, "G-d bless America." Have you ever heard Obama utter those words?
The American Revolution has its leader. North to the future!
Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website and former associate publisher of the New York Observer.
