Sarah Palin speaks at the rally at Latham Park, Elon University.
Palin Excites Crowd at Elon University
By Keegan Calligar, Kate Austin and Bryce Little
Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin spoke to a packed crowd at Elon University Thursday afternoon as part of the “Road to Victory Rally.” Palin explained why Sen. John McCain is a better candidate than Democratic nominee Sen. Barak Obama, and talked about various issues, including taxes, the economy and making special needs children a priority.
Thousands of students and supporters packed Latham Park, many arriving as early as 9 a.m. for Palin’s speech, which she delivered around 2:45 p.m.
Politicians, including Celo Faucette, a candidate for State Representative in District 63, Rick Gunn, a candidate for North Carolina Senate in District 24, Sen. Elizabeth Dole and Sen. Richard Burr all addressed the crowd before Palin’s speech.
The Wells Family Band and country star Hank Williams Jr. entertained attendees.
Williams Jr. introduced Palin after singing his song in support of the Republican campaign, ‘The McCain-Palin Tradition.’
Palin told the crowd that McCain’s political and military experiences make him more qualified for president than Obama, and also spoke about taxes and the economy.
She said that Obama would raise taxes, while McCain would not.
“It’s a choice between a candidate that will raise your taxes, and the other choice is a true leader,” she said. “John McCain is going to Washington to work for Joe the Plumber and so many of you that own small businesses.”
Palin, whose infant son, Trig, has Down Syndrome, told the crowd that Americans must make special needs children a priority.
“As vice president, I am going to make sure that these families know that they have a friend and an advocate in the White House,” she said. “John and I have a vision for America where every child is cherished.”
George and Carol Joyce of Alamance County attended the rally to see Palin, whom they have supported since she accepted the vice presidential nomination, and were pleased with her performance.
“I’m a lifelong Republican, but that don’t mean I ain’t voting the other way,” George said.
Still, he will vote for Palin. “I like her ideas,” he said.
John Brown of Sioux Falls, SD, who used to live in North Carolina and is in the area visiting friends, thinks that Palin did a good job Thursday afternoon.
“I think she is a great speaker and said things that I believe in, and that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “It makes me feel good about being an American, and I think she is taking us in a good direction. I am afraid that the other guys are going to take us into a socialistic republic.”
Friends of the vice presidential candidate were also in attendance. Dick Stoffel, an Alaskan Delegate and personal friend of Palin’s, cheered and waved throughout the rally.
“I think she is doing real well,” said Stoffel. “Her and John are really good fighters. The fluff is not there so much, and they will just keep on knocking. And when the people go to the polls, I think we will be a landslide. It will be a surprise.”
At least one protestor was removed during the rally. As a protestor was escorted out of the park, Palin quipped, “Maybe we need to tell security that maybe he need not go. Maybe he needs to stay and learn a little bit.”
Alyssa Vigneault, an Elon junior from Massachusetts and an Obama supporter, attended the rally to explore Republican viewpoints.
“I went into the rally because it something that I wouldn’t normally submit myself to … but it was on campus and it was people I know and it was my community, so I went to see what the other side is like,” she said.
Vigneault said that she left the rally because she felt uncomfortable.
“I walked out because I was expressing my opinions, and I was surrounded by people who were yelling and supporting her,” she said. “It was a little intimidating, honestly.”
Vigneualt said that she joined friends protesting outside of Latham Park, but was blocked by the College Republicans, a student group on campus. She said that they then contacted the police, and Smith Jackson, Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students, told them that they had to move to a location farther away.
“He told us to move to the other side of Lake Mary Nell because of policy, and he could not tell us what policy,” she said. “He just told us we had to move and we were in the wrong place, [and we were told that] if we did not move or give up our signs, the police would get involved.”
Palin spoke at Elon following a campaign stop in Bangor, Maine Thursday morning. Her next campaign stops include West Chester, OH and Noblesville, IN, both on Friday.
what makes it so; she is passionately pro-American without being jingoistic; she is willing to fight for what she believes regardless of who’s lined up against her; she is willing to put her credibility and reputation on the line to help others who share her views. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, she is a normal, average, regular person.
Sarah Palin did not grow up rich or attend an Ivy League school. She did not spend her life in a courtroom extorting money from corporations or small businesses. She did not spend her life in an ivory tower or in an editorial room pontificating about how the world works in some fantasy universe where government regulations make everyone pure and everything perfect in every circumstance. No, she has lived a fairly normal life, one you might call working class.
I remember back in ’88 or ’92 someone asked George H.W. Bush if he knew the price of milk, and he didn’t. He was of course pilloried for being “out of touch” with the common man. (Frankly it doesn’t bother me at all that the VP or President of the United States doesn’t know the price of milk… let someone else buy the milk, I’d rather him focus on knowing how much of our money government is wasting!) Sarah Palin probably knows the price of a gallon of milk. More importantly, she understands America from where the tire hits the road. She started out her political career at the PTA because she wanted to improve the education her children were getting. From there she spent four years on the Wasilla city council and six years as mayor. Next she was appointed to chair the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and later defeated the incumbent to become the Governor of Alaska. In every one of those endeavors Palin showed herself to be not only capable, but effective and successful as well. Indeed, the latter two positions found her fighting an Alaska version of Tammany Hall.
She has demonstrated a willingness to fight for what she believes in, even if it is within her own party. She defeated the Murkowski machine in Alaska and she stood side by side with tea party candidates across the country in 2010, often against the wishes of the entrenched GOP establishment. Christine O’Donnell may have been a flawed candidate, but at least the citizens of Delaware had a choice between two distinctly different paths rather than the choice between the liberal and more liberal paths they would have had with Chris Coons and Mike Castle. They may have chosen bigger government, but at least for a change they had a choice, and Sarah Palin helped give them one.
Sarah Palin is also average in another way. She is not polished – or at least she wasn’t when she burst upon the national stage. She is not slick. She does not have a sound bite sized answer at the ready in case she gets asked any questions. Just the opposite, actually, often you can see her crafting an answer on the spot. The interview with Katie Couric was indeed painful to watch. The truth however is that her less than stellar performance in that and other early interviews were not signs that she was a dolt as many suggested, but rather the consequence of being thrown onto the world’s biggest stage with the klieg lights on max. You might say she was… shell-shocked. Many people, including myself, wondered how she could not name a single newspaper she read regularly or give a coherent answer on the Middle East. Knowing the answers and delivering them in front of a world wide audience are two different things. (Example: say the alphabet using nouns to represent each letter: Apple, Barrel, Continent etc. Now imagine having to do it in 20 seconds in front of 1,000 people and your job rests on your success…) Her poor performance communicated more about her interview preparation than her qualification to be President. Indeed a week later she outperformed Joe Biden in their debate, and few lefties would argue he was unqualified to be President. Her early performances were those of someone whose persona was not forged in front of camera. I’ll take someone who is right on the issues but flubs an interview 10 times out of 10…
And the issues are where Sarah Palin shines. Like Ronald Reagan, she understands that government is the problem more often than the solution. She understands that low taxes and fiscal discipline are an absolute necessity as government has no money other than that which it takes from taxpayers. She understands that Barack Obama was right when he suggested the Constitution “Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the federal government or state government must do on your behalf…” The difference is that to Obama and the left, that’s the problem whereas Sarah Palin understands that that is why the Constitution exists in the first place. She understands that an unconstrained government will continue to grow and usurp powers until eventually it strangles the life out of its citizens and our republic.
In addition to the issues, Sarah Palin seems to be made of steel. She has undergone a seemingly unending barrage of mocking and criticism to a degree that perhaps no other American politician has had to endure in modern times. Through it all however she has carried herself with grace, good humor and most importantly, she has understood that the issue is not her, it’s the country. The fact that she is willing to stand up and respond to the left – particularly the media – should not be seen as a symptom of being thin-skinned or even petty, but rather a desire to keep the focus where it should be, on policy and Constitutional government.
So the reasons I love Sarah Palin are thus: She knows what it will take to put the country back on solid economic footing. She’s a rabid Constitutionalist who will rein in the federal government. She will let American interests and the interests of the American people dictate American foreign policy rather than looking to international bodies for direction. She understands the importance of free markets, free trade and energy independence. She believes in American exceptionalism, and perhaps most of all, she understands that individual responsibility is the cornerstone of upon which character, community and country are built. Without that everything else collapses.
2012 is going to be the most important election in more than a century. Our nation has been shaken to its very foundations by an onslaught of government encroachment and unprecedented fiscal irresponsibility. In times like these, when those basic fundamental things that made America great in the first place are the very things being undermined, we would be lucky to have a ticket headed by someone who truly understands what it’s like to live and thrive as an average American, someone who didn’t spend most of her adult life in the insulated and unrealistic universe of liberalism consisting of courtrooms, college classrooms and the corridors of power that make up Washington D.C.
