Sarah Palin dropped a hint of a possible presidential run Sunday night in Norfolk, Virginia, according to a report in the Daily Press of Newport News. The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate told an audience of thousands of conservative voters in the Ted Constant Convocation Center that the country needs a new president:
"So folks let's start the task in November and what we start in November 2010 let's finish it off in November 2012."The anti-Palin Associated Press grossly misrepresented the size of the crowd on the campus of Old Dominion University at "several hundred people." AP's Bob Lewis wrote that the former Alaska governor blasted the Obama administration for downgrading the nation's status as a superpower and being willing to sell out its allies. She accused the president of selling out Israel over its naval blockade of Gaza and not treating Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with the respect the head of state of a longtime U.S. ally deserves:
Palin came to southeastern Virginia — a military Mecca filled with conservatives — for Freedom Fest, a concert and rally to support the troops, police and firefighters. Palin was the marquis guest speaking after former Virginia governor George Allen a few hours after crooner Lee Greenwood sung "God Bless the U.S.A."
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The local visit is part of Palin's weeklong swing through the south, with events in Atlanta and Texas. Palin is reportedly mulling a run for president in 2012, and many evangelical voters are wooing her slapping Palin 2012 bumper stickers on their cars and building websites backing her.
Palin said spending cuts are vital in Washington, but she told the veteran-laden crowd that cuts should never touch defense.
"There are no shortcuts on national security," she said.
She also said Obama lacked the resolve to stand up to Russia and China.- JP
"Do they think, really, that we're getting anything in return for all this bowing and kowtowing and apologizing? No, we don't get anything positive in return for this," Palin said at the event spearheaded by a Norfolk talk radio station.
"So while President Obama is getting pushed around by the likes of Russia and China, our allies are left to wonder about the value of an alliance with our country any more. They're asking what is it worth," she said.
Palin, former Virginia Sen. George Allen and Iran-Contra figure Oliver North, who ran for a Virginia Senate seat and lost, each took turns decrying what they said was the deterioration of U.S. military might and will under Obama's watch.
Palin said that Obama and an allied Democratic Congress had cut military spending while showing no such restraint on other expenditures, running up trillions in new deficits.
North and particularly Allen had already whipped the crowd into a lather.
