In a meandering speech before the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit on Friday, former Alaska Governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin hailed attendees as "the Americans that the media loves to hate."
The speech was a case study in Palin's politics of grievance. Denouncing the "Alinsky-loving, Orwellian, elitist" Obama administration, she served up her standard right-wing boilerplate, echoing Sen. Ted Cruz's call to abolish the IRS and blasting the “liberal elite who now decides who gets to have religious freedom and who doesn’t.”
Evoking memories of when she appeared onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference with a Big Gulp soda (to spite then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a non-liberal who was trying to ban sales of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces), Palin at one point in her speech brandished a latte to mock President Obama's so-called "latte salute," which triggered a right-wing meltdown this week.
In a speech in which one thought didn't always clearly lead to another, Palin applauded the assembled conservative activists for standing up for "truth" in politics -- and then proceeded to denounce a tabloid rumor, based on photos of her without a wedding ring, that she and husband Todd are about to get divorced. Palin told the crowd that she rarely wears a ring in Alaska because being in the state means “you’re choppin’ wood or butcherin’ up a moose or something.”
That led Palin to ask why liberals are "so intolerant."
"The lies they tell about you – calling you the haters and the bigots – and that disgusting charge, of being called racist," Palin went on to lament.
Palin, who has previously accused President Obama of a "shuck and jive" act, alleged that progressives "pull the race card" in order "to end debate." So "we win," Palin concluded.
The half-term governor's rambling rant served as yet another reminder that she's really just phoning it in at this point, more keen to cash in on her celebrity than to launch another bid for elected office. That means we'll be spared mindless speculation about a Palin entry into the 2016 GOP presidential race -- right?
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