Sarah Palin Brings Common Sense Conservatism To Long Island, NY

What I would look for [in 2012] is . . . somebody who’s administered locally, state, interstate with energy issues, so maybe a mayor, a governor, an oil commissioner, maybe somebody who’s already run for something, vice president . . .

~ Sarah Palin on the 2012 presidential contest

Sarah Palin was in New York on Thursday talking with the Long Island Association. Sarah speaks on a number of topics, from the economy, to Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood. She also continues to tease a presidential run.

Katrina Trinko offers this:

Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin isn’t ready to commit to a presidential run, but she indicated that she might decide soon, citing the need to connect with individual voters.

"Nothing is more effective than being actually there with the people in the diner, shaking hands," Palin said during an interview today conducted by Long Island Association president Kevin Law at a luncheon sponsored by the group.

"I’d be the first to not necessarily recommend a short amount of time," she remarked, citing the four days she had to prepare for the national scene as the vice presidential candidate. "Four days isn’t a whole lot of time to be prepared. It’s not even time enough to pack a bag. That’s why sometimes you have to borrow a wardrobe, and then you get crucified for borrowing a wardrobe for six weeks on the trail," she wryly remarked, alluding to the uproar when it was discovered that clothes for Palin and her family during the campaign had cost $150,000.

But Palin cautioned that her recent decisions to appoint political strategist Michael Glassner as her PAC’s chief of staff shouldn’t be seen as a sign of presidential ambitions.

"I am still thinking about it [a presidential run], certainly haven’t made up my mind. Hired a chief of staff because, to tell you the truth, Todd’s getting kind of tired of doing it all for me," Palin answered. "Just in the past couple of weeks we’ve been so doggone busy, that Todd has finally said look, I do have a few things I need to do . . . so we hired a chief of staff for practical, logistical reasons."

Asked about poll numbers:

"I look at those poll numbers and I say well, if I’m going to do this, then obviously I got to get out there and let people know who I am, what I stand for, and what my record is. I can’t rely on a liberal-leaning press," she said.

"And I think what’s going to be really important if I were to do that is to have more interaction with people like you who have no kid gloves on and you would actually ask why are your poll numbers are so poor," Palin added. "That kind of stuff is healthy to get to discuss."

Wearing a black jacket and skirt, a prominent flag bracelet, and leopard-print heels, Palin initially appeared stressed, delivering rapid-fire answers crammed with statistics. But as the interview continued, she visibly relaxed and even occasionally bantered with Law.

"‘Your poll numbers really stink. What’s your reaction to that?’" she playfully said, mockingly rephrasing his initial question to her.

Talking about the increasing prices of various commodities over the past two years, Palin took one jab at Michelle Obama. "It’s no wonder Michelle Obama is telling everybody you better breastfeed your babies . . . yeah, you better, because the price of milk is so high right now."

"And may that not be the takeaway [of the interview], please," she hastily added.

Palin also indicated that a government shutdown, a possibility if a compromise cannot be reached on spending when the Continuing Resolution expires March 4, should not be seen as the nuclear option.

"I am so thankful for these strong congressmen and women who are saying no, we are not going to vote for the debt ceiling to be raised. To me, all that’s going to do is create this allowance for more big spenders," she said.

[ .... ]

Palin rejects the idea that any government shutdown would have the same impact as it did in 1995. "There were mistakes made back then, even in technique," she remarked.

Talking about Egypt, Palin said the U.S.’s priority should be ensuring that the Muslim Brotherhood did not gain political control of the country — and stressed that the U.S. should ensure that Israel wasn’t threatened.

Whether Palin opts to run or not, she thinks she has the qualifications to become president — and believes 2012 will be fascinating.

"What I would look for [in 2012] is . . . somebody who’s administered locally, state, interstate with energy issues, so maybe a mayor, a governor, an oil commissioner, maybe somebody who’s already run for something, vice president . . . " she joked.

"It’s going to be a blast though," Palin added, "to see who does offer themselves up in the name of service, and see what their ideas are, hear their ideas, solutions that they want to see in this country."

If she does run, look for Palin to enjoy the campaign.

"Competition is so good, man," she said. "I love sports. I love competition."

Read the entire report here.

Other comments heard at the event, via CNN:

On her 2012 ambitions:

When asked who else she might envision at the top of the GOP ticket Palin responded, "No one is more qualified to multi-tasking and doing all the things you need to do as a President than a woman."

"What I would look for in terms of character is someone who's been on the front lines, who understands how to administer, how to lead a team, how to run a business."

On the threat from the Muslim Brotherhood:

"We have to be sure a group like the Muslim Brotherhood isn't invited in to take over,"

"The Muslim Brotherhood believes in sharia law."

"If they're radical enough to have already spoken against liberties and freedom is this good for Egypt and their freedoms?"

Palin also criticized the Obama Administration for appearing to flip-flop on Egypt.

"There was so much confusion about where our administration was," Palin said. "I won't condemn them for adding to the confusion, but the American public does deserve to know whose side we're on."

On the president's budget proposal:

President Obama's budget plan will take the country "on the road to ruin," .

"What the people of America are saying is, 'enough is enough no more status quo we don't want to continue deficit spending.'"

"Tone deaf politicians they're going to be fired and they're going to be replaced in the next election cycle if they don't pay attention"

Michael Reagan Interviews Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin is one of the most dynamic individuals in American politics today. She is clearly leading a movement that will restore America to greatness.

Sarah often finds herself compared to the great Ronald Reagan, and with good reason. Both are strong leaders and both see America is the greatest nation the world has ever known. Like Reagan before her, Sarah sees America as the Shining City on a Hill.

No less than Ronald Reagan’s son, Michael, made this comparison back in September of 2008 in a beautiful piece entitled Welcome Back Dad:

I've been trying to convince my fellow conservatives that they have been wasting their time in a fruitless quest for a new Ronald Reagan to emerge and lead our party and our nation. I insisted that we'd never see his like again because he was one of a kind.

I was wrong!

Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he's a she.

And what a she!

In one blockbuster of a speech, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resurrected my Dad's indomitable spirit and sent it soaring above the convention center, shooting shock waves through the cynical media's assigned spaces and electrifying the huge audience with the kind of inspiring rhetoric we haven't heard since my Dad left the scene.

This was Ronald Reagan at his best -- the same Ronald Reagan who made the address known now solely as "The Speech," which during the Goldwater campaign set the tone and the agenda for the rebirth of the traditional conservative movement that later sent him to the White House for eight years and revived the moribund GOP.

Last night was an extraordinary event. Widely seen beforehand as a make-or-break effort -- either an opportunity for Sarah Palin to show that she was the happy warrior that John McCain assured us she was, or a disaster that would dash McCain's presidential hopes and send her back to Alaska, sadder but wiser.

Obviously un-intimidated by either the savage onslaught to which the left-leaning media had subjected her, or the incredible challenge she faced -- and oozing with confidence -- she strode defiantly to the podium and proved she was everything and even more than John McCain told us.

Much has been made of the fact that she is a woman. What we saw last night, however, was something much more than a just a woman accomplishing something no Republican woman has ever achieved. What we saw was a red-blooded American with that rare, God-given ability to rally her dispirited fellow Republicans and take up the daunting task of leading them -- and all her fellow Americans -- on a pilgrimage to that shining city on the hill my father envisioned as our nation's real destination.

In a few words she managed to rip the mask from the faces of her Democratic rivals and reveal them for what they are -- a pair of old-fashioned liberals making promises that cannot be kept without bankrupting the nation and reducing most Americans to the status of mendicants begging for their daily bread at the feet of an all-powerful government.

Most important, by comparing her own stunning record of achievement with his, she showed Barack Obama for the sham that he is, a man without any solid accomplishments beyond conspicuous self-aggrandizement.

Like Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin is one of us. She knows how most of us live because that's the way she lives. She shares our homespun values and our beliefs, and she glories in her status as a small-town woman who put her shoulder to the wheel and made life better for her neighbors.

Her astonishing rise up from the grass-roots, her total lack of self-importance, and her ordinary American values and modest lifestyle reveal her to be the kind of hard-working, optimistic, ordinary American who made this country the greatest, most powerful nation on the face of the earth.

As hard as you might try, you won't find that kind of plain-spoken, down-to-earth, self-reliant American in the upper ranks of the liberal-infested, elitist Democratic Party, or in the Obama campaign.

Sarah Palin didn't go to Harvard, or fiddle around in urban neighborhood leftist activism while engaging in opportunism within the ranks of one of the nation's most corrupt political machines, never challenging it and going along to get along, like Barack Obama.

Instead she took on the corrupt establishment in Alaska and beat it, rising to the governorship while bringing reforms to every level of government she served in on her way up the ladder.

Welcome back, Dad, even if you're wearing a dress and bearing children this time around.

How fitting is it then that Michael Reagan would sit down with Sarah, and conduct an incredibly dynamic interview, on a variety of topics ranging from ObamaCare, to national security, our financial future and more.

Thanks to Ted Belman at Canada Free Press, we have the opportunity to check this landmark interview out. Belman writes:

I remember when Ronald Reagan was first running for president, the Jewish intellectuals disparaged him as an idiot, a "B" movie actor and a cowboy.

I became a fan after hearing him speak and then I told everyone of my friends, "you gotta listen to him". I was sure they would also embrace him after doing so.

Now Sarah Palin is following in his footsteps and being even more viciously portrayed. Those who love her consider her to be this generation's Reagan.

Please, you gotta listen to the great interview of Sarah Palin by Michael Reagan.

Nothing I could argue would be near as effective as her owns words and delivery.

I completely in agreement with Ted, you simply must listen to this great interview, where Michael and Sarah have a great conversation about all of the pressing issues that face our nation.

A little teaser, Sarah does answer the question we are all dying to know the answer to, sorta.

To check out this great conversation click right here.