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Palin Adds to Buzz at Santa Barbara Tea Party Rally
It was billed as Round Two for the “Tea Party” movement that was sparked earlier this year in protest of the $787 billion stimulus bill. But Friday’s Wild West Show and Freedom Rally at De la Guerra Plaza took an abrupt detour with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s surprise announcement that she would not seek re-election next year and would instead resign from her job at the end of the month.
The Santa Barbara rally, one of more than 600 being held around the country on Independence Day weekend, follows April protests that drew nearly 1 million people nationwide. Concerned about what they say is out-of-control government spending, as well as escalating deficits, widespread government bailouts and a stalled recession, organizers describe the tea parties as a public platform for education and advocacy about a return to lower taxes, less government and more economic opportunity.
While the Santa Barbara Tea Party and Culpepper Society event was officially nonpartisan, speculation about Palin gave it a decidedly Republican edge.
“Our country needs her more than (Alaska) does,” Clair Beck said of the former Republican vice-presidential candidate. “She has good conservative values, good managerial experience, and good family values.”
Many at the rally suggested Palin stepped down to focus on a possible presidential campaign in 2012, but others believed her decision to leave before her term was up could have a negative effect on her political future.
“I’m very surprised,” Hanley Carpenter said. “I’m not sure what motivated her, and I have concerns about what’s going on behind closed doors.”
On the other hand, Carpenter joked, “it could be an interesting strategy.”
Susie Lockheed thought that perhaps Palin wanted to spend more time with her family. The 45-year-old first-term governor has five children, including a toddler with Down Syndrome, and she and her husband became grandparents earlier this year.
Lockheed also speculated that she might be eying a Senate seat or was offered her own TV show.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she showed up on Fox News,” she said. “I’d definitely watch her!”
Palin, who ran alongside Republican presidential nominee John McCain in their unsuccessful campaign for the White House last year, gave no real indication of her future plans in her announcement Friday.
“I choose, for my state and my family, more freedom,” she said. “Some are going to question the timing of this, and let me say this decision has been in the works for quite a while.”
Palin said once she had decided not to run for re-election, she didn’t want to serve out her remaining year as a “lame duck.”
“That’s not what’s best for Alaska at this time,” she said in announcing that she would leave office July 26. Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will succeed her.
Friday’s Wild West Show & Freedom Rally was spirited and motivational for the 300 or so people in attendance. It featured the performance of actor Peter Sherayko in a starring role as Buffalo Bill. There was also plenty of criticism of President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress.
“The people here are very devoted to America,” event coordinator Heather Bryden said. “They are concerned about the future of this country.”
“(The Democrats) are mortgaging our future,” Leslie Cornish said. “They’re making decisions we have to live with for a long, long time.”
“Buffalo Bill” will join the Santa Barbara Tea Party contingent marching in Saturday’s Spirit of ’76 Foundation Parade, which begins at 1 p.m. on State Street between Sola and Cota streets.
— Noozhawk intern Kenny Lindberg can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Comments
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» on 07.04.09 @ 05:23 AM
Ah, yes. The Culpepper Society and Sarah Palin - a match made in heaven (or maybe a little south of there).
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» on 07.04.09 @ 06:41 AM
Kenny - who is Sean Parnell?
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» on 07.04.09 @ 06:45 AM
“She has good conservative values, good managerial experience, and good family values.” ???
Conservative values - supporting socialistic oil payments for Alaska residents based only on the merit of breathing is conservative?
Managerial experience - squabbling with her own state party leaders and elected representatives shows leadership ability?
Good family values - having FIVE children and one a teenager with an out of wedlock child demonstrates family values?
It strikes me that this sort of thinking would also presume Rush Limbaugh a hundred yard dash specialist.
As long as there are large numbers of Repub’s who see quitter Palin as a legitimate choice for national office, the Dem’s will have smooth sailing.
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» on 07.04.09 @ 08:31 AM
“While the Santa Barbara Tea Party and Culpepper Society event was officially nonpartisan, speculation about Palin gave it a decidedly Republican edge.”
Could the reporting possibly be more inept? It had a “Republican edge” because the vast majority of attendees at these things are right wingers. The notion that it was “officially” nonpartisan is nonsense; As Lincoln said, calling a dog’s tail a leg doesn’t make it one.
“There was also plenty of criticism of President Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress.”
Gee, what a shock. The main thing that unites the folks who attend these things, aside from being immensely ignorant and rather dimwitted, is their opposition to Democrats, Obama in particular.
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» on 07.04.09 @ 09:03 AM
Why is it the good ole boys are so threatened by an attractive woman with POWER? I can tell you—as I’ve known it myself. WE GET MORE ATTENTION. And Sarah’s gone and done it again!!! Personally I admire Sarah’s guts to say NO MORE. No more bogus ethics charges, spiraling legal bills (defending bogus charges), assaults on her family, etc. If Todd can stand by his woman I think we can stand by Sarah. I admire her for having the GUTS to say NO MORE. And earch for bigger things, which we all know she’s going to do. And whatever it is, SHE WILL BE HEARD. And ain’t that a bitch for those who wish to silence her, and the rest of us, RIGHTEOUS AMERICANS with good-old fashioned VALUES.
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» on 07.04.09 @ 09:19 AM
Ha! Thanks Palin, I was sooo sick of hearing about MJ.
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» on 07.04.09 @ 09:22 AM
Marcel, you frenchie, please. We are not all Republicans. WE ARE AMERICANS! We are FREE thinkers, not socialists! Sail home, my boy, and see if it’s better on the Continent. If not, why are you HERE?
We will NOT standy by and see our country overtaken. And we WILL SPEAK UP - even when it’s easier to be a cheese-eating surrender monkey.
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» on 07.04.09 @ 09:47 AM
I love it that the Republican Party is imploding, with sex scandal after sex scandal and now Palin the hypocrite quitting because she can’t stand the heat of her own making.
President Obama is looking stronger and stronger every day, and has turned our country around. Republicans have proven themselves to be inept. Personally, I’d like to see them all move to Alaska with their bubble-headed, trailer trash Pinup Girl and leave the rest of us alone.
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» on 07.04.09 @ 09:48 AM
I’ve been ripped off! My interview wasn’t used at all, so I’ll add a tidbit of it here.
“The media is using Palin to distract people while Cap and Trade slides thru.
American’s want to work for what they get. They don’t want welfare in the form of free govt healthcare forced upon them.
I’m nonpartisan Independent.”
Your reporting was an act of stortelling with the main character being a fictitious Republican event - LIE!
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» on 07.04.09 @ 10:46 AM
So M. Kincaid, I am “immensely ignorant and rather dimwitted” because I attended? (Thank you for proving our point.)
I am so proud to be an American, especially today! We can still publicly disagree with the government. We are so lucky everyone, those who attended the tea party and those who despise Ms. Palin, we can all toast to our free thinking today! Don’t become a brick in the wall! (Pink Floyd). Wrap yourself in a flag and wear your Dem button or Repub button. Let’s celebrate!
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» on 07.04.09 @ 04:04 PM
Wow! Who let out all the kitty kats today in the comments section… Oh, it’s Independence Day, a day for true patriots, so they have nothing better to do but hide in their bunkers and whine.
Meeeoooooowwwww!
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» on 07.04.09 @ 09:44 PM
Children quit and go home when they get bored. Leaders of any party serve their terms. No one needs bash
Palin, her own actions say she doesn’t have what it takes to stay in for the long run.
Was that cut and run I just heard?
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» on 07.05.09 @ 03:49 AM
No Julie from Goleta,
You would still be “immensely ignorant and rather dimwitted” even if you had stayed home.
Good riddance christian-fairy tale obsessed Palin!
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» on 07.05.09 @ 04:45 AM
As one who attended the Tea Party, I strongly endorse the principle that we can’t stand by and watch the government take over more and more of the private economy, take over medicine, and march us rapidly down the road to socialism. Borrowing our way into financial bankruptcy and sliding into moral bankruptcy should alarm all Americans. All of this is happening at a dizzying pace. Our July 4th celebration was shared with recent refugees from the old USSR. They ruefully noted that they found the current situation in the USA dismaying. They fled socialism and persecution of their Christian faith to come here. The comments by Buffalo Bill at the Tea Party, however, made me cringe. Glorifying the slaughter of the buffalo and inciting an American Indian to angrily demand equal time was an unnecessary embarrassment.
The best part of the event, in my opinion, was enjoying the company of like minded citizens, the excellent speech by Carpinteria City Councilman Joe Armendariz, and the always lovely voice of Debbie Bertling.
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» on 07.05.09 @ 08:29 AM
The TEA Party “movement” may have a little more credibility if they had held their first event during the GWB Administration’s 1st 6 years, when the Republican Congress was spending money like drunken sailors on shoreleave. Most, if not all, of the problems the AFA (umbrella organization of TEA)mentions either were started or greatly exacerbated by the George W. Bush administration. The TEA parties when seen this way are a not-so-well disguised attempt to arouse public passions against Obama—for problems that he inherited from Bush. The 4th of July is a time to celebrate our freedom and way of life, not really a time to disingenuously protest the leadership of our Commander in Chief.
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» on 07.05.09 @ 11:48 AM
Seems to me that the one thing the GOP does NOT need right now is another whining, incoherent quitter.
If Palin has the “leadership” abilities she imagines America needs, the best way for her to truly showcase them would be to do the judge she asked her voters to entrust to her. The job she’s bailing out on, half-way through.
If she thinks there’s too much “heat” in Alaska’s kitchen, what does she think awaits
her if she tries to sneak back onto the national stage?
Reagan didn’t quit when he had to deal with a Democratic legislature during the Viet-Nam era. Nixon didn’t quit after he was cheated out of a 1960 win, and lost
the governorship to Pat Brown. Lagomarsino didn’t quit despite spending his whole
career in a Democrat Congress. Capps didn’t quit despite spending most of her
career in a Republican Congress.
America’s greatness was not forged by whining quitters. If Palin wants to spend more time with her family, and fly-fishing outside the media limelight, fine. But
if this is some strategic maneuver, I say, Thanks, but No Thanks.
And someone should tell Palin that America’s greatness wasn’t forged by being an
“aggressive point guard” either.
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» on 07.05.09 @ 05:58 PM
Sticks and stones, blah, blah, blah. At least some of you dems can have an intelligent comment.
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» on 07.05.09 @ 07:53 PM
Give me a brilliant Republican that doesn’t screw boys, dudes in bathrooms, or South American women that aren’t their wives, and I may consider voting for them. S. Palin surrendured rather than confront and challenge the lame-duck card, thus she’s a quitter. I can only hope that if Palin does become president, she’ll at least have the consistency of quitting that as well.
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» on 07.05.09 @ 10:30 PM
Notice the libs don’t quite remember 9-11 and its impact on the economy; a stock market at 7K and the comeback it and the economy made under GW. Oh yes, the expensive war, which pales in cost to Obama’s full scale attack on the American economy. oh, Yes 9-11 was GW’s fault and now that the I war is heading toward a potentially positive outcome, let’s focus on the collapse of financial system and lay that on GW—all his fault. President B. O. promised that unemployment would top out 8 percent; oops, 9.5 percent. Palin is not presidential stuff and I think she knows it; it will interesting to see if see can add some intellectual depth to her good lucks. She is good to look at, and who cares about the politics BS anyway?
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» on 07.06.09 @ 06:51 AM
Brilliant move, Sarah! Hitler Hussein Obama has shut down the media and is arranging cncentration camps for whites who refuse to worship allah, but new court case will declare him illegal soon. Then Sarah is ready. President Palin!
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» on 07.06.09 @ 07:18 AM
With all due respect and I have tons of respect for the freedom to rally and to protest, I believe it is time to think and act on what is right with America and push like the dickens to get the message out about what we do have and how we can further our ideals. Knowledge of what is wrong, i.e. high taxes, unwise and unlimited spending is one thing. Let’s get the message out on how to overcome it at all levels of our government. We need to know and submit FACTS and then act to implement the alternatives.
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» on 07.07.09 @ 04:16 PM
An obvious attempt to tie in Tea Partiers with Republicans when it is a bi-partisan effort. Shame on you Kenny Lindberg please don’t be another biased journalist.
A disgruntled Democrat
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» on 07.07.09 @ 04:49 PM
How about reporting the facts and keeping your obviously biased opinions to yourself intern? Fire this guy Noozhawk we don’t need another Independent in town.
There was a woman there with a sign on her back that said “Former Democrat Ask me why?” Did you happen to ask her any questions Kenny?
I attended, I am a Democrat and a liberal and I don’t want my money wasted on"green” spending, bailout programs illegal immigrants etc etc etc I can’t think of a single friend ( and I have many) that is not out looking for a job and these are professional people who have been laid off due to cutbacks who green jobs and construction jobs will never benefit. ENOUGH OF THIS!
I did not hear WORD about Sarah Palin and the only reason it was brought up is because YOU were the one bringing it up KENNY. This is BS.
I
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» on 07.07.09 @ 04:53 PM
wetting his French panties again
Go do it on your own soil, Marcy. We don’t need your European style socialism. I wonder why you are here and not there?
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» on 07.07.09 @ 05:04 PM
Patty’s inane ignorant Obama worship and slobbering is always good for a laugh - these are the people that voted him in!
“President Obama is looking stronger and stronger every day, and has turned our country around.”
Really? yes I agree he has turned it around - right into the financial sewer of socialism that has failed every other country it has been tried in. But stronger every day?
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 33% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-six percent (36%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –3.
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» on 07.09.09 @ 08:14 AM
Get your head out of the clouds Patty:
Independents edge away from Obama
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090709/pl_politico/24717
Many of those who voted Obama are now seeing the race to government control and outrageous unprecedented spending with no results.
The Obama phenomena was nothing but more celebrity and ego worship, similar to what we just saw with Michael Jackson. His star is fading.
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