Palin fires up NRA crowd, hits Obama for using Newtown families
(CNN) – Sarah Palin blasted President Barack Obama and gun control advocates Friday, blaming them for "exploiting" recent mass shooting tragedies to promote their political agenda.
Speaking to a welcoming crowd at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston, the folksy former governor from Alaska also used chewing tobacco at one point to draw some laughs.
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Palin, wearing a shirt that read "Women hunt," was one of several speakers at the NRA gathering who targeted the Obama administration and some lawmakers for wanting tighter firearm restrictions after the Newtown elementary school massacre.
In the days leading up to the Senate's April 17 vote on gun control proposals, the president invited families of Newtown victims to fly on Air Force One to Washington and lobby Congress.
Newtown families also participated in media interviews and appeared in an ad made by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the pro-gun control group co-chaired by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
When the upper chamber ultimately fell short of the 60 votes needed to pass a bipartisan compromise to expand the background check system, some of those family members stood behind the president not long after the vote as he chided Capitol Hill for what he described as a "shameful day in Washington."
Palin argued the president was practicing the "politics of emotion" by "flying in grieving parents on Air Force One, making them backdrops in his perpetual campaign-style press events."
Par for the course, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee faulted the media for being a "reliable, poodle-skirted cheerleader for a president who writes the book on exploiting tragedy."
Politics of emotion, she argued, won't make the country safer. "It's the opposite of leadership. It's the manipulation of the people by the politicians for their own political ends. It's not just self-serving. It's destructive and it must stop."
Charging the president with being disingenuous in the wake of the shooting was a running theme throughout the day at the NRA. Palin added Obama was ignoring another tragedy.
"We could use a bit more emotion by the way of what goes on every single day on the streets of cities like Chicago and New York," Palin said.
Speaking of New York, Palin took the opportunity to take a swipe at Bloomberg, a mayor she has vehemently opposes for what she describes as his nanny state politics. In her last big speech at a major conservative gathering in March, Palin made headlines for sipping a "Big Gulp" on stage, a knock against New York's ban against certain large sugary drinks.
"Now I see that the mayor of New York now wants to ban public displays of legal tobacco products," she said, referring to his recent push to keep tobacco products out of sight at stores in order to de-glamorize the product.
"I tell ya," she said, as she pulling out a pack of chewing tobacco. "Don't make me do it."
With the crowd roaring, she put the pack back in her pocket.
"It's funny because Todd's been looking for this all morning."
Let's see... only job she can get is to fire up already fiery crowds by bashing President Obama. Hope you have something as a back up Sarah.....
""I tell ya," she said, as she pulling out a pack of chewing tobacco. "Don't make me do it."
With the crowd roaring, she put the pack back in her pocket."
She glamorizes tobacco and the crowd roars? Tobacco? It just goes to show that all she has to do is pick something a liberal or traditional conservative says, show she's against it, and the lemmings following the far-right extremists approve. How sad our nation is so full of ignorant people. We need a new kind of' religion where the goal of the missionaries is to educate the people in East Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, etc. as to how our government is set up, that tobacco is really, really bad, etc.
Only dolts and misfits get fired up by Alaska's ultimate conman.
I love how Palin and the GOP try to fuel fear when it comes any sort of reasonable gun legislation. Meanwhile, this last week we've heard the very same GOP hypocrites criticize the government for not searching/spying on/arresting the Boston Marathon bombers based on the suspicions of the Russian government! The same government that brutally slaughtered the Chechyan for daring to want to have democratic representation (you know, like the people of the original Boston Tea Party). The Russians basically have flagged tens of thousands people as being potential terrorists because of where they were born. The GOP wants to suspend the Constitution based on the word of a government who has used Ricin to assassinate political candidates. But insisting on a background check to buy or transfer ownership of a gun is Facism according to these same NRA puppets, pubic safety be damned. 25% of the people killed by the Boston bombers were killed by a gun. It would be great to know where they got the gun (maybe from another terrorist cell?) but we can't thanks to the GOP. The 2nd amendment is sacred and absolute (but no other amendments) even for a terrorist according to these idiots.
Why do we tolerate the "firing up" of a crowd of morons by a moron? This bunch has bought up every gun and round of ammunition available and threaten to start an uprising against the government. They are a danger to themselves and others. Sarah Palin uses lies and propaganda to excite a riot that openly threatens to assassinate our President. Why is this not illegal? She plans on running for the Senate for the state of Alaska. Someone better find a good Democrat to run against her.
They're dumb. Of course they love her.
"Palin fires up NRA crowd"
I'm a gun owner, but shun the NRA. This headline shows just how stupid those members are.
Yeah I'm sure Obama just has a political agenda. He wouldn't just you know be opposed to twenty elementary school kids being murdered at their school. I'm sure that's got nothing to do with it. When Ms Palin had the opportunity to serve she, um, quit.
Says a lot about the average IQ of those in attendance.............
Anyone who can be fired up by Palin is a mental pygmy.
,,,,,,,WOW,,,Palin is SUCH AS WINNER................oh,........maybe if she stayed thru 1 TERM..........or won Dancin wid da sters..
All I can say, again, is Thank you John McCain for making this imbecile a national celebrity. What were you thinking? Oh thats right, you weren't, again.
Is this sorry excuse for a human being still out there? There is no benevolent god. If there were, he wouldn't have wasted valuable protoplasm on the likes of Sarah Palin.
Liberals HATE gun toten chicks.
When did she turn into a bag lady ?
Fires up? Without a gun? Wow!
The media keeps putting palin in the news thinking anyone cares what that misfit is doing. I would rather hear what Donald Duck, Porky Pig and Goofey are up to....
Ms. Palin has to be the most pathetic person in the world, this woman is so predictable it's almost comical, the people that support her and actually wanted to see her as President of the United States are just as insane as Ms. Palin has become.
Her need for attention is unmatched, her childishness and ignorance is profound, it's very difficult to regard her in any serious manner if your sane and rational.