Sarah Palin Warns Pres. Obama: "Stop Lecturing, Start Listening!"

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Palin to Obama: "Stop Lecturing, Start Listening"


Sarah Palin had some pointed advice to President Barack Obama on Saturday night: "Stop lecturing and start listening."

In her keynote address to the inaugural national "tea party" convention, Palin opened by pointing to Sen. Scott Brown's victory in a special election in Massachusetts for the seat that had been held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. She predicted a good year for conservative candidates, saying the policies of Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress will be short-lived.

She said that the Democratic loss showed that the nation was ready for another revolution and that "tea partiers" were part of it.

The former Alaska governor criticized the Obama administration's handling of the attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day, saying the suspect should have been interrogated more intensely. She said he doesn't deserve the constitutional rights that U.S. soldiers are willing to die for.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate told people attending the convention that it's time America had a commander in chief, not a professor at a lectern.

In a reference to the state of the economy, she derided a central part of the campaign message that Obama had used to gain election in 2008.

"How's that hopey changey thing working out for you?" Palin said.

She called Obama's proposed 2011 budget "immoral" because it increases the national debt, which she called "generational theft." She argued that the debt, which is held largely by other nations, "makes us less free" and "should tick us off."

The Obama administration has repeatedly argued that the nation's financial system was on the verge of collapse when Obama took office last year, and is now in the early stages of recovery.

After her 45-minute speech, Palin spent about 15 minutes answering questions that had been sent in by tea party activists.

Palin spoke to a sympathetic crowd. At the mere mention of her name, activists light up and whip out "Saracudda" buttons — a play off her "Sara Barracuda" nickname from her high school basketball team in Alaska.

With a dash of familiarity, many say they didn't vote for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in 2008 — they voted for "Sarah." Quite a few see her as the right person to carry their limited-government, low-tax, freedom-fighting mantel — if only she wanted it.

"She is the one," says Loren Nelson of Seattle. "And she's gonna do it."

Maybe.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee isn't saying whether she'll run for president in 2012.

Celebrity or Candidate?

In fact, Republican observers say she's seemingly done more lately to establish herself as a political celebrity focused on publicity rather than a political candidate focused on policy.

If she does launch a White House bid, she has a natural constituency with this anti-establishment grass-roots network that's motivated by anger over the growth of government, budget-busting spending and President Barack Obama's policies.

In her latest media blitz since her "Going Rogue" book release last fall and the publicity tour that went with it, Palin was receiving $100,000 for her appearance at the for-profit event. That sum has led to criticism from even some activists that it runs counter to the coalition's image and could preclude people from attending.

Palin struck back at critics in a column in USA Today, saying she weighed whether to participate.

"My decision came down to this: It's important to keep faith with people who put a little bit of their faith in you. Everyone attending this event is a soldier in the cause," she wrote. "I made a commitment to them to be there, and I am going to honor it."

Back to the Cause

Without elaborating, she says she won't benefit financially from speaking at the convention and any compensation from the appearance "will go right back to the cause."

"The soul of the Tea Party is the people who belong to it," Palin says. "They have the courage to stand up and speak out ... They believe in the same principles that guided my work in public service."

She called the "tea party" mentality an organic effort, a ground-up call to action. Because of that, she said, "the process may not always be pretty or perfect, but the message is loud and clear: We want a government worthy of the fine Americans that it serves."

The former Alaska governor also planned to tape an interview Saturday to air on "Fox News Sunday," the network where's been employed as a contributing analyst since January. Then it was off to Texas on Sunday to campaign for GOP Gov. Rick Perry, who is facing a bitter primary challenge from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Next month, she will speak at a rally in Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight, Nev., to kick off the Tea Party Express III tour. In April, she heads to Boston for "tea party" gathering there around the one-year anniversary of the coalition that began last spring.


View Larger Map

Sources: MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, Google Maps