politico.com
Palin: Dems will apply abortion mind-set to elderly
By: Jonathan Martin
November 7, 2009 12:02 PM EST
WEST ALLIS, Wis. – Sarah Palin rallied thousands of abortion opponents Friday night with a a stark warning that the same philosophy that allows abortion rights could soon be invoked to allow the government to cut off health care for the elderly or children with special needs.
Speaking to a fund-raising banquet of Wisconsin Right to Life, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee asserted that if policy-makers don’t believe a child in the womb is valuable, then “perhaps the same mind-set applies to other persons.”
“What may they feel about an elderly person who doesn’t have a whole lot of productive years left,” Palin asked an audience of about 5,000 who paid $30 each to hear her speak in an airplane hangar-like exhibition hall at the Wisconsin state fairgrounds just outside of Milwaukee. “In order to save government money, government health care has to be rationed… [so] than this elderly person that perhaps could be seen as costing taxpayers to pay for a non-productive life? Do you think our elderly will be first in line for limited health care?
“And what about the child who perhaps isn’t deemed normal or perfect per someone’s subjective measure of their use or questionable purpose in the eyes of a panel of bureaucrats making our health care decisions for us,” she continued.
Palin did not expressly raise the prospect of government-mandated “death panels” to determine who lives or dies – the incendiary and inaccurate charge she made over the summer about Democratic health care plans—but repeatedly suggested that liberal social policies could lead to de facto euthanasia.
Her warning was couched in repeated rhetorical questions about what might happen when laws are made by those she portrayed as having an insufficient appreciation for the sanctity of all human life.
“We have to think this through,” she said. “We have to get to the truth of this matter, health care reform.”
The fund-raiser was advertised as closed to media coverage, but at least three reporters, including one from POLITICO, attended simply by purchasing a ticket like other members of the public.
Palin has made few public appearances since resigning as governor in July, sequestering herself to write a much-anticipated book coming out later this month. But a year after the election that made her a global celebrity, her star has dimmed little with those same conservative activists who thronged her campaign rallies in this and other states.
The event made clear that for her ardent supporters she remains more phenomenon than traditional politician.
The line to get into the venue here stretched over a half-mile outside the building and a local conservative talk radio station even marked the event by printing t-shirts that welcomed her to the city, noted the date of her appearance and deemed her: “America’s Conservative Conscience.” The anti-abortion group that hosted the event sought to raise money by including pledge cards on every chair that included an offer to become part of “Sarah’s Rogues” by giving $1,000 to the group in exchange for an autographed copy of her forthcoming memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.
The event and the enthusiastic response were a vivid reminder of the following she commands. But her remarks also illuminated the mix of assets and limitations she would possess if she seeks to become a 2012 presidential contender.
Palin had remarks prepared but frequently wandered off-script to make a point, offering audience members a casual “awesome” or “bogus” in discussing otherwise weighty topics.
As in: “It is so bogus that society is sending a message right now and has been for probably the last 40 years that a woman isn’t strong enough or smart enough to be able to pursue an education, a career and her rights and still let her baby live.”
Other Palin touchstones included: praise for the military, jeers for the “the liberal media” and a general manner of speaking that often veered into rhetorical culs-de-sac.
While she drew applause during her remarks, Palin’s extemporaneous and frequently discursive style was such that she never truly roused a true-believing crowd as passionate about the issue at hand as she. Not once during her address did they rise to their feet.
In a closing exhortation, she urged the audience, “Don't ever let anyone to tell you to sit down and shut up.”
She then got a standing ovation from most of the crowd, but a few had begun to leave before she even finished and within seconds of her concluding, scores more got up and put on their jackets as they walked away.
In addition to the suggestion that government officials would consider hastening the death of the infirm or handicapped, she began her remarks with a puzzling commentary on the design of newly minted dollar coins.
Noting that there had been a lot of “change” of late, Palin recalled a recent conversation with a friend about how the phrase “In God We Trust” had been moved to the edge of the new coins.
“Who calls a shot like that?” she demanded. “Who makes a decision like that?”
She added: “It’s a disturbing trend.”
Unsaid but implied was that the new Democratic White House was behind such a move to secularize the nation’s currency.
But the new coins – concerns over which apparently stemmed from an email chain letter widely circulated among conservatives – were commissioned by the Republican-led Congress in 2005 and approved by President Bush.
Palin also offered flashes of the traits that endear her to many conservatives. Offering great personal detail, she relayed the story of how she came to find out that her infant son, Trigg, had Down Syndrome. She confessed to being scared and said that she and her husband, Todd, turned to God to prepare them.
After years of advocating against abortion in theory – what she called “preaching to the choir” – Palin said she was presented with the stark reality of what to do with a special-needs baby.
“I am thankful to have been asked to walk the walk,” she said.
Palin also included a few less personal, but as compelling, flourishes in her remarks, citing Pope John Paul II (never a bad idea in a heavily-Catholic part of the country), referring to scripture (John 16:13) and noting that such feminist pioneers as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had opposed abortion (she called them “foremothers”).
She also demonstrated a politician’s ability to connect with a local crowd, relating that her grandmother was born in Chippewa Falls, her dad had played high school football with Packers great Jerry Kramer and, with an audience that likely watched a lot of Fox News, noted her relationship with the network’s talk show, Wisconsin native Greta Van Susteren.
Further, Palin talked with ease about the abortion issue, touting polling this year that showed a majority of the country opposing the procedure, recalling successful ad campaigns (“Choose Life”) on the issue and casting her own opposition to it in terms familiar to the movement.
Palin didn’t mention President Obama by name, but did take a shot at him for opposing an abortion-related measure as an Illinois state senator and more than once mocked his catch phrase.
"Let's talk about change we can believe in," Palin said. "Friends, a majority of Americans identify as pro life, and thank God for that."
She reserved her toughest critique for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, eliciting boos from the crowd at the mention of the speaker’s name. Palin urged Pelosi to allow House members to vote on an amendment that would bar any taxpayer funds from being used to fund abortion.
“We need to make sure she hears the message that she will held accountable if she does not let this at least come to a vote of her colleagues so they can have their voice be heard,” Palin said.
After she concluded her remarks – and presented the organization with an over-sized, $1,000 check – Palin signed autographs for some of the few hundred people who surged toward the dais.
Alissa Maerzke, 12 and wearing a “Palin 2012” t-shirt, was elated that she got the former governor’s signature.
After collecting a congratulatory hug from her mom, Maerzke recounted that she asked Palin if she was going to run for president. “She just smiled,” said the girl.
In the line on the way into the event, a gentleman wearing a Harley-Davidson fleece pull-over and jeans joked to his friends that he was going to ask Palin to marry him, summing up his devotion this way: “She thinks like I do, she’s absolutely gorgeous and Democrats are afraid of her – what’s not to like?”
I can see how she might appeal to the home schooling crowd, but anyone else? I just don't get.
