Crowd favorite

NASHVILLE, Tenn.-The leader of the Tea Party movement? No thanks, Sarah Palin told a gathering over the weekend.

But the former Republican vice presidential candidate had a tough time convincing the 1,000 Tea Partiers in attendance at the nearly year-old movement's first national convention in Nashville.

They chanted, "Run, Sarah, run!" after she finished her hour-long keynote address Saturday night that ended the three-day event at the luxurious Gaylord Opryland Hotel.

Palin was coy when it came to her 2012 presidential aspirations. But she was clearly among friends. The Tea Party movement is probably the best thing to happen to her political ambitions since John McCain tapped the then relatively unknown Alaska governor to be his running mate on the GOP ticket in 2008.

Interrupted by numerous cheers and repeated standing ovations, Palin, in her first big speech since she resigned as Alaska's governor last July, told the crowd what they came to hear. She attacked Democrats for their approach on nearly every policy front, with foreign affairs, the economy, and energy receiving most of her attention.

"How's that hope, change stuff working out for you?" Palin joked to the crowd, referring to President Obama's famous campaign buzzwords. "The Obama-Pelosi-Reid agenda will leave us less secure, more in debt, and under the thumb of big government."

Palin also spent ample time praising the Tea Party movement. Calling it the "future of politics in America."

"America is ready for another revolution and you are a part of this," she told the crowd, adding that the movement deserves credit for its part in the election of Republican Scott Brown to the late Edward Kennedy's vacant Senate seat: "If there's hope in Massachusetts, there's hope everywhere."

Palin called the crowd "real people, not politicos" and praised them for speaking out for "common sense conservative principles." She warned inside-the-beltway professionals that they "better stop lecturing and start listening."

On what would have been former President Ronald Reagan's 99th birthday, a fact that was mentioned throughout the convention's closing banquet, Palin described the need for a tough Reagan-like foreign policy approach. She said that December's attempted terror attack aboard a Detroit-bound flight showed that the White House's security efforts are "out of touch."

Her address was televised live on numerous cable channels.

"Welcome C-SPAN", Palin said, beginning a jab at Congress' healthcare reform push. "You may not be welcome to the healthcare reform negotiations, but you have an invitation to the Tea Party."

The crowd ate it all up-many held up copes of Palin's latest book, others waved American and "Don't tread on me" flags, and a few raised "Palin 2012" bumper stickers.

But Palin said the Tea Party movement did not need a "top down" leader. She praised its "ground up" approach, saying that it is "forcing both parties to change the way they do business." She added that rivalries among Tea Party groups and conservative candidates running in primaries were not about a civil war, but showed "Democracy at work."

As attendees filed out of the convention hall after Palin's speech, they not surprisingly gave her rave reviews.

Decked out in a patriotic sequined hat and wearing a jacket with an American flag print covering the back, Donna Fike, 72, of Ridge Top, Tenn., said Palin invigorated everyone in the audience: "She is so sincere, and you know that every word she is saying she believes through her heart. She is a politician you can trust, which is rare these days."

Nancy Hiser, 26, of Findlay, Ohio, said Palin delivered a very clear message to Washington: "We are fed up with the deficit spending. We are fed up with disingenuous talk, and I think that is really the message of the whole Tea Party. We want less spending and more transparency."

But Democratic leaders in Washington, maybe snowed in by the city's weekend blizzard, largely ignored Palin's speech. Senate and House majority leaders as well as the White House did not out send out releases after her speech.