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

When Dr. Dan Met Sarah

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Dr. Dan Benishek is a general surgeon and a GOP candidate for U.S.Congress representing Michigan's 1st congressional district, the seat held by Democrat Bart Stupak, who has announced that he will not seek reelection. The paths of Benishek and Sarah Palin merged over the weekend at the Defending the American Dream Summit with Sarah Palin, today in Clarkston, MI:

“Governor Palin is a common sense conservative who has challenged the status quo and energized a new kind of activist within our party,” said Dr. Benishek, “Her energy and enthusiasm are contagious.”

[...]

Having spoken with Dr. Dan at length, I know his values and Sarah’s are parallel, and they are able to strike a chord with honest, hard-working people, us regular Joes and Janes who see what is happening to this country, and feel compelled to help change it.

I don’t know if everyone is thinking the same thing at the same time, but during her speech... Sarah said, “You guys are saying, like I am, enough is enough. We’re taking it back. We’re gonna put our government back on the side of the people. We’re changing the face of government one rally, one vote, one election at a time. Some of the things the left is doing can be seen as a plus because it’s getting us riled up, getting us united.”

Enough is enough, just happens to be the slogan of the Benishek candidacy.

Read the full blog post at jennerationx.

- JP

Sarah Palin's Weekend Speeches (Updated)

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TheBlogProf caught most of Gov. Palin's Clarkston speech on video, and TheRightScoop has all of the segments collected in one post.

Glen Enloe has posted a favorable post about that Independence speech on the KC Star's Midwest Voices blog, and the libs are pounding him for it in the comments section. Seems that "progressives" won't tolerate any media narrative that doesn't try to destroy Sarah Palin. Progressives are about as tolerant of views opposed to their own as is the Taliban.

Update: Jesse Cornish has a firsthand account of Gov. Palin's Michigan speech here, and Michigan Capitol Confidential has a report here. Nicole Coulter has a not-up-close, but very personal account of the Wichita speech posted at C4P here. Nice Deb's videos of Gov. Palin's Independence speech are posted here.

- JP

Detroit Free Press: The 'Anti-Obama' Addreses Crowd of 1500 in Michigan

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The Freep's Dawson Bell reported today that Gov. Palin "resumed her role as the anti-Obama" this morning at Clarkson's Mt. Zion church. The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate told the audience of 1,500 that American voters are suffering from buyer's remorse because the "hopey changey stuff" of the 2008 election wasn't the kind of they were hoping for. To remedy the situation, Sarah Palin prescribed a heavy dose of Common sense in the form of conservative values and the Constitution, medicine which should be taken while repealing Obamacare and standing up for American exceptionalism and a robust military:

It may be hard, but it's not complicated, Palin said at the Defending the American Dream Summit, sponsored by the Michigan chapter of Americans for Prosperity.

"When you look at what's happening in Washington, D.C., it's easy to get discouraged," she said. "But I beg you not to do that. Don't allow anyone to tell you to sit down and shut up."

Introduced as "the left's worst nightmare," Palin went after President Obama, Democratic leaders in Congress and the media with gusto in her 40-minute address.

But Obama got the closest scrutiny.

During a brief question and answer period after delivering her speech, Palin cited the president's recent comment that America was the world's dominant military superpower "whether we like it or not."

"We like being a dominant superpower," Palin said. "What kind of a comment was that coming from a president?"

The AFP summit will continue all day, while Gov. Palin travels to the Kansas City area, where she will speak to the Winning Back America conference in Independence at 6 PM.

While Sarah Palin was speaking in Clarkston, the most radically leftist president in American history was telling the graduating class at the the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh fans should "try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post website" -- a far-left hate site known for publishing lies, smears and innuendo, much of it aimed a Gov. Palin and conservative talk radio hosts. We can't recall a more partisan commencement address made by any other American president, but this one promised "post-partisan" leadership. So much for false promises and false prophets.

- JP

TheBlogProf: Sarah Palin in Michigan

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TheBlogProg was at the Sarah Palin speech this morning in Clarkston, Michigan:

The event occurred right after massive thunderstorms rolled through the area. Thousands showed up anyway including huge tea party groups. There were supposed to be counterprotesters there but for the few hours that I was there I could not find a single one. And I was looking! The crowd was upbeat and cheery despite the rain. Many were there at 6 in the morning to see Sarah Palin speak at 9am. The auditorium at Mount Zion Church was packed full of patriots and there was also a good ensemble of media there as well. Several thousand showed up to enthusiastically greet the former Alaskan Governor and Vice Presidential candidate. The auditorium at Mount Zion was packed full.

The blogging Michigander captured some video and photos from the event:

I got about the first 25 minutes of her speech before someone from American for Prospertity asked me to stop. I obliged but pointed out that just about everyone with a cell phone was recording the speech anyway. AfP were filming the whole thing with 3 professional cameras, but nobody could tell me if it would be uploaded to the internet.

Read TheBlogProf's full after action report here.

May Day in Michigan: Palin and the President

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Both Sarah Palin and President Barack Obama will be in Michigan (and only about 50 miles apart) giving speeches May 1, notes Tom Gantert of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Michigan Capitol Confidential:

Palin will speak May 1 at the Americans for Prosperity's "Defending the American Dream" event at Mt. Zion church in Clarkston. President Obama will give the spring commencement address at the University of Michigan on the same day.

Scott Hagerstrom, the chairman of the Michigan chapter of AFP, said he felt lucky to get Palin, since he was told she gets 2,500 requests a year.

Hagerstrom said one of the reasons he wanted Palin to speak was "her willingness to take on the status quo."

"People are tired of politics as usual," he said.

The AFP event starts at 8 a.m. and goes until 4 p.m. Palin will speak before noon, Hagerstrom said. Tickets range from $59 to $99.

Some political junkies are already characterizing the dueling May Day events as a preview of 2012 presidential campaign. The latest PPP survey show that Gov. Palin has closed on Obama's lead in the poll and is now in a statistical tie with the president.

- JP

Southwest Michigan Going Rogue in May

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Sarah Palin will return in May to the state where she launched her end of the year book tour:

Palin will speak to the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan in Benton Harbor on May 13, a spokesman for the group told CNN.

The only woman to be the vice presidential candidate of the Republican Party hearts Michigan. When the McCain's campaign pulled out of the state in 2008, Sarah Palin and her husband Todd publicly questioned the decision and pressed campaign officials to let the pair make more visits to the state.

The club's website is here, and the press release is here.

- JP

Matthew May: Steve Schmidt is the GOP's Bob Shrum

On the American Thinker Blog, Matthew May slices and dices Steve Schmidt:

Steve Schmidt is a loser.

That is not a smear but a documented fact. Schmidt managed the McCain for President campaign. McCain, as you will recall, lost to Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Schmidt and his candidate bungled the campaign so badly that an untested, smooth-talking, America-bashing dilettante now occupies the White House as Commander-in-Chief.

Great job, guys!

Like a diligent virus, Schmidt refuses to leave the body politic. He is back again to call Sarah Palin's new book "total fiction." Interesting.

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The one thing - the only thing - the McCain campaign got right was introducing Sarah Palin to the national stage.

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So when a hack like Steve Schmidt says that Palin's book is "total fiction," consider the source. He and his bitter aides should retreat to the sidelines for a long, long time and reflect upon how badly their bungling stupidity and unwillingness to tell the hard truths about candidate Obama has damaged the republic.

Read May's full post here to learn how many Michigan Republicans felt abandoned by Schmidt's decision to cede the Great Lakes State to Obama and how it hurt Michigan GOP candidates down the ticket.

- JP

Pulisher says Michigan is where Going Rogue will sell the most copies

Mark Hornbeck of The Detroit News on why Michigan was chosen to kick off Sarah Palin's Going Rogue book tour:

Some political observers say Michigan is a natural place to open her tour. Recall that Palin took issue with John McCain's presidential campaign last year when it decided to pull staff and ad dollars out of Michigan in early October and concede this state to then Democratic candidate Barack Obama. That was the first time Palin publicly challenged a McCain camp call and was seen as "going rogue."

The tour will take Palin to friendly territory, including Republican-rich West Michigan.

HarperCollins publicist Tina Andreadis told the newspaper:

"She feels like this is where her fans are and Harper feels this is where she'll sell the most books."

Our updated Going Rogue Book Tour schedule is here.

- JP