Gov. Palin rallies crowd of 6,000 in Denver (Updated)

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Sarah Palin rallied a crowd of thousands to their feet in Denver Saturday night with a "red meat" speech criticizing President Obama and Congressional Democrats:

But Palin didn't mention any of Colorado's testy political fights.

In a speech to about 6,000 at the University of Denver, Palin criticized President Barack Obama and sounded classic conservative themes of smaller government and a stronger national defense.

What the outspoken conservative favorite didn't do was take sides or even mention politics in Colorado, where she's listed two House Democrats as targets for defeat, Reps. John Salazar and Betsy Markey.

Gov. Palin proved false the rumors being pushed by The Huffington Post that during her speech she would endorse Jane Norton over Ken Buck in Colorado's GOP primary race for the Senate:

Both Norton and Buck attended Palin's speech, but neither was on stage nor got a mention in Palin's remarks. Norton met privately with Palin before the speech.

Palin confined her remarks to national politics. She defended Arizona's immigration law. She said Obama's foreign policy was too weak against nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran. And she criticized the health care reform law and warned of peril caused by federal spending deficits.

"It's time for an awakening in America," Palin said.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate was joined on state by Salem media talk show hosts Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt, who also spoke. The three participated in a brief question and answer session after the governor's address.

Here's how Fox 31 (KDVR) covered the event:



Update:In a published story on its webstite, KDVR listed three quotes ostensibly from the governor's Denver speech. But after reviewing a video of the address at The Right Scoop, it seems that two of them were taken from or paraphrased from other Palin speeches. Only the "America got snookered" quote was actually part of Gov. Palin's Denver speech. Thanks to the Palin staff's R.A. Mansour for being the first to catch that. And shame on KDVR for, as Gov. Palin says, "making things up."

More coverage from KUSA and the Denver Post.

- JP