Sarah Palin Crashes National Gridiron Club - Five Blocks from White House

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Sarah Palin showed no fear in entering the belly of the beast when she shocked the Washington elite and agreed to be featured co-speaker at the National Gridiron Club, home of the nation's elite journalists in our nation's capitol.

Last Saturday she traveled to Washington, DC and joined fellow co-speaker Barney Frank, yes that Barney Frank, and won raving reviews for her series of one liners. Interest in Palin by the enemy camp was so great that the attendance doubled from normal and they even agreed to waive the normal rule that the talks were off the record so the many journalists could cover the speech.

Since the media were incapable of giving a full review of the speech, as the left leaners could not allow themselves to say too many nice things about Sarah, I am reprinting the entire text of her talk.

It was a new, confident and self assured Sarah Palin who stood before the gang who once said she was afraid to confront the major media of America. Enjoy...



Text of Remarks by ex-Gov. Sarah Palin to the Gridiron Club, Dec. 5, 2009:

Good evening. It’s great to be in Washington and I am loving the weather.

I braved the elements and went out for a jog! Or, as Newsweek calls it, a cover-shoot.

It’s a privilege to be here tonight at the Washington DC Barnes & Noble. Tonight, I'll be reading excerpts from my new book. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? “Going Rogue”

Yukon wasn’t sure if I’d go with that title and somebody suggested I follow the East Coast selfhelp trend and go with, “How To Look Like A Million Bucks…For Only 150 Grand.”

Todd liked, “The Audacity of North Slope.”

Hey, I considered not having a title at all.



I’ve said it before, but you Beltway types just don’t seem to get it. You don’t need a title to make an impact. But anyway, let’s get started. I’ll begin my first reading on Page 209.

It was pitch black when we touched down in Arizona late on August 27, 2008. The next morning we drove to John McCain’s ranch in Sedona. John was waiting on the porch. Before he can say a word, I tell him, I'm quoting now:

I know why I’m here, and I’m ready. But, I'm worried. The cost of credit protection for the largest U.S. banks is rising precipitously. Have you given any thought to the run on the entities in the parallel banking system? Do you realize the vulnerability created when these institutions borrow short term in liquid markets to invest long
term in illiquid assets?

John said, “You betcha!”

I thought, “You betcha?”

Who talks that way?

Well, sometimes you just have to trust your instincts. When you don’t, you end up in places like this.

Who would have guessed that I’d be palling around with this group? At least now I can put a face to all the newspapers I read.

It is good to be here and in front of this audience of leading journalists and intellectuals. Or, as I call it, a death panel.

To be honest, I had some serious reservations about coming to visit your cozy little club. The Gridiron still hasn’t offered membership to anyone from my hometown paper in Wasilla, the Matanuska-Susitna Valley Frontiersman.

And my dad thought it was just a plain bad idea to leave the book tour for some football game. He might have a point!

I’ve been touring this great, great land of ours over the last few weeks. I have to say, the view is much better from inside the bus, than under it!

But really, I am thrilled to be with you. And I’d like to thank the Gridiron for the invitation and Dick Cooper for his introduction.

To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, this has to be the most extraordinary collection of people who have gathered to viciously attack me since the last corporate gathering at CBS.

Despite what you have read, or more likely, despite what you have written, I do feel a real bond with all of you. I studied journalism, earned a communications degree and for a time only wanted to be a journalist. I was even a television sportscaster back home.

I’m guessing some of you probably got your start the exact same way… once there was television.

Let me get back to the book. I know that many of you are still upset because I wouldn’t play that silly Washington game. You know, the one where all of you read a book in its entirety, from the first page of the index to the last.

But think about it, because you actually had to read the whole book in the vein hope of finding your name, you now know all about Denali, mom, dad, ungulate eyeballs, slaying salmon on the Nushagak and Ugashik near Alegnigak, where we make AGOOTAK and moose chili! You’re welcome.

Still, I want to do something very special for this audience of Washington elite. So, I’ll read from the index--which I chose not to include in the hardback. Would you believe me if I said I didn’t include it because we wanted to save trees?

Under A we have…

Alaska, media not understanding. Pages 1-432.

Under B…

Biased media. Pages 1-432

And under C…

Conservative media. See acknowledgments.

I’ll stop there.



I know this can be a long night, and as I understand it, we’re going to break with a Gridiron tradition. Normally, the Democrat speaker would deliver a speech after me. But instead, John McCain’s campaign staff asked if they could use that time for a rebuttal.

A lot has been made of a few campaign relationships. The closeness. The warm fuzzy feelings. John and I both agree all those staffers should just move past it. It’s history.

Let’s just say, if I ever need a bald campaign manager, it appears all I’m left with is James Carville.

I don’t want to say that I’ve burned a bridge, but I know all about cancelling a bridge to nowhere.

That Democrat speaker I referred to is, of course, the one-and-only Barney Frank.

And I’m the controversial one?

Barney, the nation owes you and the government a debt. A huge, historic, unbelievable debt. But, it’s good to be here with you, Mr. Chairman.

Because by Chairman, I don’t just mean the House Financial Services Committee. As far as I can tell, Barney’s also the Chair of AIG, CITI, and the Bank of America.

I don’t want to say that the U.S. Government is taking over the role of the private sector, but I have to admit, on the flight here, thumbing through a magazine and looking at a photo of President Obama with the President of China, the person next to me pointed at it and said, “Hu’s a communist.”

I thought they were asking a question.

Still, when I see this administration in action, I can’t help think of what might have been. I could be the Vice President overseeing the signing of bailout checks. And Joe Biden would be on the road, selling his new book, "Going Rogaine."

Speaking of books….

Did I mention mine? “Going Rogue”

Makes a great stocking stuffer. Available now at a bookstore near you.

Hey, I have to pay for my campaign vetting bill somehow.

Really, the response has been great. So I’ll close by reading a final passage. Page 403:

I’ve been asked a lot lately, “Where are you going next?’

Good question!

Wherever I go I know that, as with anyone in the public eye, I’ll continue to have my share of disagreements with those in the media. Maybe even more than my share. It will come as no surprise that I don’t think I was always treated fairly, or equally.

But despite that, I respect the media very much. It’s important. A free press allows for vigorous debate! And that debate is absolutely vital for our democracy.

So as hard as it can sometimes be, we must all look past personal grievances. We must move beyond petty politics. And we must allow these incredibly talented and hard-working women and men to ask the hard questions and hold us, and our government, accountable.

Because their mission is as true as the sun rising over the Talkeetna and Susitna Mountains. OK – so none of that is actually in the book. Not a word. But I do believe it!

And I believe we live in a beautiful country blessed with so many different people who want the best for their children, families and for our great nation. I’m so proud to be an American.

And that is what I’ll be talking about when I travel to, really where I’m headed. No better place than here to announce where I’m going. I’m going to Iowa!

I’ll be there tomorrow from noon to 3:00 pm at the Barnes & Noble on Sergeant Road in Sioux City. Come early. Long lines are expected.

Thank you everyone. God Bless the U.S.A!




NEWS COVERAGE HIGHLIGHTS

THE WASHINGTON POST
TODAY'S NEWSPAPER

Sarah Palin in the belly of the beast: Washington

By Steve Holland
Reuters
Sunday, December 6, 2009; 1:07 AM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican firebrand Sarah Palin invaded the city she loves to hate on Saturday and rubbed shoulders with the herd of journalists she usually holds in disdain.

Palin was the guest speaker at the annual winter dinner of the Gridiron Club of leading Washington journalists -- a venue at which many potential presidential candidates have made an appearance, including Barack Obama a few years ago.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

Sarah Palin: What she said at Gridiron dinner
By Dave Cook | 12.06.09

Sarah Palin served up 11-1/2 minutes of gentle gibes aimed at Democrats, the media, the McCain campaign, and herself during an appearance at Saturday evening’s Gridiron12 dinner in Washington.

Ms. Palin’s powerful impact as a cultural figure and potential future presidential candidate was much in evidence at the black tie event. The club’s winter dinner is usually a low key, off-the-record affair. This year’s dinner, featuring Palin and liberal Rep. Barney Frank (D) of Massachusetts as speakers, drew 190 journalists and spouses, an increase of 17.3 percent from the number who attended last year. The Gridiron Club’s members are veteran reporters and bureau chiefs.

In a nod to the intense media interest in Palin, the Gridiron Club’s board dropped a 100 year old rule – often violated – that comments made at the dinner were off the record and could not be reported. Instead, twittering was allowed, although not during speeches or songs. Palin tweets herself and noted in her dinner remarks that she had “the Twitter thing going.”

It's the way she tells them: Sarah Palin jokes with journalists

Former Alaksa governor mocks her reputation for foreign policy naivety at Washington dinner


THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The Comedy Duo of Palin and Frank
By JACKIE CALMES

Sarah Palin may have some ‘splainin’ to do with the conservative fans on her book tour as word spreads of her partying Saturday night with the elites of the dread Mainstream Media. In her featured “roast,” the media types even got off easier than her former associates on the McCain campaign.

Sometimes you’ve got “to trust your instincts,” she told the group. “And when you don’t, you end up in a place like this.”

The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate stopped in Washington to be the Republican speaker at the annual white-tie winter dinner of the Gridiron Club, the 124-year-old assemblage of veteran Washington reporters. She gamely appeared opposite Democratic Congressman Barney Frank, one of the capital’s funniest people.


THE GUARDIAN UK

Andrew Clark in New York
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 December 2009 15.20 GMT

The former Alaska governor Sarah Palin revealed a hitherto hidden capacity for self-parody when she delivered a string of quips at a dinner for journalists in Washington on Saturday, likening the event to appearing before a "death panel".

Palin – who became a deeply divisive figure in the US while campaigning as John McCain's vice-presidential running mate – joked to a gathering of the Gridiron Club about her reputation for foreign policy naivety.

"I came down from my hotel room and I could see the Russian embassy," she said – a play on a much-mocked election attempt to shore up her foreign policy expertise by remarking that Russia was visible from parts of Alaska.


THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

BY Andrew Malcolm

POLITICS AND COMMENTARY, COAST TO COAST, FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Sarah Palin speech: The view's better from inside the bus than under it
December 5, 2009 | 8:08 pm

The lines began forming Saturday morning outside the Sioux Falls Barnes & Noble bookstore, fully 35 hours before former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was to arrive there to sign her new book, "Going Rogue."

But the mother of five was far from South Dakota tonight. In fact, she was only about a half-dozen blocks from the White House that she didn't help John McCain win.

Palin appeared in a brand-new role for the possible 2012 Republican presidential candidate -- joke-teller as the GOP's representative at the annual winter Gridiron Dinner, a 124-year-old group of Washington writers and guests who hold such regular opportunities for political writers to mingle with the power people who really matter.

Speakers there -- past ones have included someone named Barack Obama -- are intentionally funny -- or trying to be, anyway -- and usually off the record.

But an exception allowing news coverage was made tonight given the intense interest in Palin, who attracted about twice the usual dinner crowd.

And she appeared to succeed better than her Democratic counterpart, Rep. Barney Frank. It was a refreshingly different look at Palin, who's more often quoted as a media scold and harsh critic of what's-his-name in the White House.

Palin, whose intelligence has been widely challenged by many in her audience, said she....
...was pleased to appear before an elite audience of intellectual heavyweights: "Or as I like to call it, a death panel."


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Palin Boosts Oprah Ratings - Blows Nielsen Lights Out

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It was just another day for Sarah Palin as she had an exceptional interview with talk show Queen Oprah Winfrey then sat back to hear the firestorm of criticism from the far left media. In the process, the Nielsen TV ratings company was trying to compile the overnight audience for the Oprah Show and their computer processing center lost power for much of the night delaying ratings reports for more than 24 hours.

At the time of this writing they are still not back on the air but Oprah averaged under 7 million viewers last year and her first few shows this year have been around 7 million. Let us see who benefited the most from the appearance, Oprah with ratings or Sarah with book sales. It was a long awaited interview ever since Oprah endorsed Obama last year and then said no candidates would be on her show.



Of course Obama had already been on the show and she did appear with him several times during the campaign not to mention the ill-fated Chicago Olympic bid trip with the Obama's. Still, when she asked Palin if she was upset from being shunned Sarah said she didn't ask to be on the show and didn't expect to be with Oprah's support of Obama. It was a very generous answer.

The long awaited interview with the girl that won't go away Sarah Palin went fine and the response from the liberal media was typically deafening which in and of itself tells you a lot about the bias of the media and bitterness they feel about her being a populist politician and now a stunningly successful author. You see, nearly every liberal media member I saw complaining about the interview has a book for sale and none are even in the same universe with Sarah in terms of sales.

Examples of media bias:

Complaints that the Palin book and Oprah interview fail to address Palin's ambitions in 2012 miss the entire point of the book. Although the last chapter does talk about the future, the intent of the book was a reflection on the past. Why in the world would a memoir about the past talk about a political campaign well into the future? This is biased and a deliberate distortion of the book.



All the liberal media trash Palin as a viable candidate for president yet Palin did not run for president (maybe our elitist media need a fact check on them) and she has never expressed an interest in running for president in 2012. She is trying to sell books, the same thing all the journalists are doing. Perhaps they should try reporting news. Maybe the negativity on the part of liberal elitists has more to do with the fact Palin has sold far more books than they ever will meaning jealously is a powerful motivator for biased reporting.

Polls used to show how Palin has lost her popularity by all the liberal media from Washington Post reporters to MSNBC comrades do not reflect registered voters, are not scientific and are designed to distort the results. In spite of this, the polls show that Palin has lost less popularity than Obama and his wife Michelle yet the liberal elitists forget to mention that point.

For the truth pay attention to the polls from Rasmussen, a long established and reputable polling firm for the national media. Palin hit a high on her national favorability rating right after the Republican convention last year when she reached 52% favorable. Monday of this week, November 16, 2009 Rasmussen reported Palin had a 51% national favorable rating.

For a dose of the truth, that represents a loss of 1% in the polls a year after the election and after Sarah resigned as Governor of Alaska. For comparison, Obama reached a 65% favorable rating on January 21 of this year and now has a 48% favorable rating. a loss of 17%. Now if my math is correct that means Obama lost 16 times as much support as Palin since he took office. Funny the liberal liars didn't mention this fact.



Chris Matthews, dean of MSNBC naysayers, continues to show fabricated pictures of Palin in his stories, and does not say they are photo shop fabrications. This is a violation of basic journalistic standards yet indicative of the MSNBC hatred for Palin. It demonstrates why MSNBC is at the bottom of the pit in terms of ratings and credibility.

Norah O'Donnell, MSNBC reporter, while attempting to do unbiased news reporting consistently uses stories, quotes and photos clearly intended to undermine Palin's credibility. She also says there is no way Palin can get elected president in 2012, a most audacious opinion from someone who is supposed to report the news, not opinions.



Tina Brown, journalist, partner in the Daily Beast blog site and former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker had this to say about Palin.

"That Sarah Palin, oh what a tease."

Tina compared Palin's style to Obama who she described in the following way.

"Obama's cerebral aloofness makes him a cold fish in a hot medium, and Michelle, who used to provide the human crackle, looked as downcast as her husband's latest poll numbers when peddling health care to seniors last week."

The good news is that for all the bad there was a lot of good and the general public knows better than to trust the national media when it comes to Sarah Palin. Long ago the public figured out she was one of them, not one of Washington elitists.

More later when Nielsen finally gets back on track.

Sarah's Back and the Liberals are Wailin' as Palin tears down the Wall of Silence

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Just as Sarah Palin bursts back onto the American scene in a way that makes huge losers of all those who tried to destroy her, President Obama hops on Air Force One and heads to Asia for the next week. Coincidence or did the thought of Palin stealing the national spotlight for a few days drive him to the other end of the world.

It seems as if there was a Wall of Silence built around Sarah last year by the liberal media and only stories that trashed and bashed her reached the papers and airways. They kept her out of the media alright but they couldn't keep this straight talking reformer from reaching right into the hearts and minds of all those Americans who feel disenfranchised by corrupted politicians and special interests, by Obama who promised to fix the corrupt system, and yes, even by the news media who sell advertising to the corrupt people.



Like the Berlin Wall that came tumbling down ten years ago, Palin's Wall of Silence has come tumbling down now and all the King's horses and all the King's men (the Obama White House gang) along with the fanatic liberals who think they got Obama elected, are helpless, hapless and hopeless as they watch her media blitz.



You see, the only way a small group of outspoken liberals could keep Sarah away was to deny her access to the powerful television personalities and their high ratings. They did it for a year. During the campaign and after they would not allow her on their programs. Celebrities like Oprah and Barbara Wawa kept her away from their millions of fans.



Just when the libs think they have discredited Palin for good thanks to Katie Couric and CBS and their exposure of the punk who got Palin's daughter pregnant. Remember him? It was his exposure (good old Levi Johnson) they were exposing when they made him a media sensation because the Alaska slacker was going to bare all for Playgirl magazine. Now that may excite Katie but it hardly deserved to make the national news headlines.



Can you believe those people staging these non-news news stories? Pornography is one of the deadliest sins of the most popular technology of the 21st Century, the Internet. CBS was effectively generating porn traffic by highlighting the Playgirl spread, so to speak, on our bare, bear hunter, back woods boy from the northern frontier. Then Levi goes and tries to capitalize on the shame he brought to the Palin's.



Then Palin writes a book. This is the same ditty the media had been trashing all along. If she was brainless and clueless like the liberals said how could she ever write a book? When it was forecast to be a runaway best seller and she was given a $1.4 million advance it nearly choked the poor liberals to death.



But the greatest thrust of the dagger into their hearts came when fellow liberal stalwarts Oprah Winfrey and Barbara (the View) Wawa brought down the liberal media Wall of Silence around Sarah and booked her onto their popular television shows. Here's a secret. November is sweeps month for the TV programs when Nielsen measures the audiences and those rating are used to set the cost of advertising on those programs for the next few months.



Advertising is the lifeblood of television. The ratings determine the value of that lifeblood. So, Oprah casts aside the liberals and books Sarah on her show to be the first to introduce her new book, Sarah Palin - Going Rogue. Very smart indeed. So much like a capitalist. Barbara then lands a series of interviews with Palin to be shown on numerous shows on ABC next week beginning with Good Morning America. Let us see how many more book sales these rare appearances by Palin generate, and then we can determine if she might not be a lot smarter on the economy than we were told.



However, the Palin triumph does not stop there. In fact it didn't even start there. They came to her and asked her to be on their shows. She already had set up a national book tour to go out and meet the public while promoting her book. Sarah always understood that governing in America is all about the people, not the politicians and special interests. Look out for her. She will be cruisin the country in a big RV with a giant size painting of her book cover on it.



Her first stop will be Grand Rapids, Michigan. The home of the auto companies, union dominated and liberal leaning state of Michigan hardly seems the place for a conservative to launch her tour. But this was the very city the McCain campaign would not let her visit during the campaign saying there was no way to win Michigan. Palin said she would pay for the trip herself if she could go see the people of Michigan. Still the McCain people refused.



She patiently waited a year and now she is fulfilling one of her unhappy campaign experiences, not being able to go to Grand Rapids. People say they like Palin because "she is one of us." They also like her passion, compassion, principles, honesty and independence. After watching her survive one of the most intense and hateful smear campaigns in history, this much you really appreciate about Sarah Palin. She is one of us. She is not one of them.



This small town girl from the Alaska frontier grew up with dreams like all of us have. She dreamed of being a good Christian, having a good husband and kids, and building a good life. She was independent, strong willed, flew her own bush plane and learned survival in the frontier. She had absolutely nothing in common with the silver spoon liberal left.



This time Just Plain Sarah will get a fair chance in the media to present herself to the American public as she goes where she is most at home, in the heartlands and great plains, the mountains and small towns, and Main Streets of America. Here is where people understand Palin is someone who genuinely cares about you and your life.



Here is where she can relate to all those who have sent a son to fight in the war. Who are raising a handicapped child. Who have lived through the tragedy of teen pregnancy. Who have been frustrated by government and are fed up with special interests and Wall Street. Who are dedicated to bringing about change in our government, change that restores the morals and morality of our nation. Change we still have not got.



Love her or hate her Sarah Palin is going to carry on the spirit of patriotism that resonates with most Americans along with her Christian values and common sense approach to honest government. Palin is definitely someone who has "Gone Rogue". She might just be our best hope to stop them.

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