Sarah Palin in Benton Harbor: 'Michigan is where I went rogue' (Updated)

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Speaking to a crowd of more than 3,000 at Lake Michigan College, Sarah Palin said the state had always been good to her and her family, and she reminded her audience, "Michigan is where I went rogue":

Referring back to the 2008 campaign trail, when she was asked about Michigan “closing up shop and moving out,” she said her crew “took it pretty hard we couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to leave…

“The campaign’s decision to give up on Michigan was almost symbolic of a bigger problem,” Palin said, adding that people shouldn’t give up on any place in America.
The “genesis of economic challenges here seem to have a lot to do with the unsustainable costs with doing business in Michigan,” she said.

Saying she isn’t anti-union, Palin said some union bosses created costs that led business to other states.

Palin compared Michigan to New Jersey and the $10 billion deficit its governor recently inherited.

“Of course the economy here can be fixed, but it’s going to take tough decisions,” Palin said. “Change can happen.

Though she had nothing but praise for the state of Michigan, Gov. Palin had only criticism for the current administration:

She attacked President Obama’s stimulus bill, which, she said, “put us on track to quadrupling our deficit.”

Palin said the left is setting up future generations to be “left with the bill” which she said was virtual “generational theft.”

She also described Obama’s healthcare bill as “Obamacare” and said it was a European style bill that would lead to more problems than it would create.

“In Europe it seems as though in some cases work has become almost an option,” Palin said European practices as a “socialist paradise” and a “utopia for it’s people” has resulted in a bill that it seemed America might be left to clean up and she said there was a threat that America could be on the same road.

Touching on the financial crisis currently facing Greece, Palin said some leaders in American “think they’re marching us toward a utopia but they’re marching us toward the edge of a cliff,” Palin said. “We need to learn a lesson from what we see.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate said that solutions to the nations problems, begin in the voting booth in November.

“We need to elect leaders that understand that the government works for us,” Palin said.

“Then we need to change course, by electing these new leaders and start doing things the common sense constitutional way” of doing things, she said.

The economy can’t be grown by growing government, Palin said, but rather by one small business, one entrepreneur at a time.

Sarah Palin's appearance in Benton Harbor was organized by the Southwestern Michigan Economic Club.

Update: More coverage by the South Bend Tribune.

- JP