Sarah Palin chose a gathering of tea party activists on Saturday as the backdrop for her first major political speech since accepting the Republican Party's nomination for vice president 18 months ago. With her remarks, greeted with wild enthusiasm here and carried live by all three major cable news networks, Palin moved firmly to reestablish herself as a politician capable of national office. She bounded onstage to cries of "run, Sarah, run" and then delivered a stinging rebuke of President Obama while striking a populist, even folksy tone. Serving up fiery rhetoric with a broad smile, she attacked the administration's policies on the economy and on national security, assailing in particular the decision to read Miranda rights to the man accused of attempting to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day.
"Treating this like a mere law enforcement matter places our country at great risk because that's not how radical Islamic extremists are looking at this," Palin said to thunderous applause. "They know we're at war, and to win that war we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern."
In a 40-minute speech at the inaugural National Tea Party Convention, she embraced the grass-roots movement of disaffected conservatives, calling it "ours," and said that "America is ready for another revolution." She called the country's national debt a "generational theft," adding that "many of us have had enough."
She pointed to GOP victories in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts as evidence of voter unrest, and she said in response to a question that the Republican Party "would be really smart to try to absorb" as much of the tea party movement as possible.
By delivering a paid keynote address at a convention other politicians had avoided because of allegations of profiteering, Palin displayed one of the traits that has electrified her anti-establishment followers: a talent for persistently and defiantly flouting the conventional rules of politics.
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She was reportedly paid a $100,000 speaking fee, and she told attendees Saturday that she will return the money "to the cause."
Yet the movement shuns any semblance of political elitism. And although many activists here embrace Palin as a spokeswoman, they are deeply divided over whether they want her as their leader - or whether they want any leader at all.
Palin understands this. "I caution against allowing this movement to be defined by any one leader or any one politician," she said Saturday night. "The tea party movement is not a top-down operation. It's a ground-up call to action... This is about the people, and it's bigger than any king or queen of the tea party, and it's a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter."
