More from Sarah Palin's speech in Hong Kong ...
Palin Speaks to Investors in Hong Kong
A number of people who heard the speech in a packed hotel ballroom, which was closed to the media, said Mrs. Palin spoke from notes for 90 minutes and that she was articulate, well-prepared and even compelling.
“The speech was wide-ranging, very balanced, and she beat all expectations,” said Doug A. Coulter, head of private equity in the Asia-Pacific region for LGT Capital Partners.
“She didn’t sound at all like a far-right-wing conservative. She seemed to be positioning herself as a libertarian or a small-c conservative,” he said, adding that she mentioned both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. “She brought up both those names.”
Mrs. Palin said she was speaking as “someone from Main Street U.S.A.,” and she touched on her concerns about oversized federal bailouts and the unsustainable American government deficit.
Mr. Goodé, a New Yorker who said he would never vote for Mrs. Palin, said she acquitted herself well.
“They really prepared her well,” he said. “She was articulate and she held her own. I give her credit. They’ve tried to categorize her as not being bright. She’s bright.”
Palin Addresses Asian Investors
"We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place," the former Republican U.S. vice presidential candidate said Wednesday at a conference sponsored by investment firm CLSA Asia Pacific Markets. "We're not interested in government fixes, we're interested in freedom," she added.
She described her political philosophy as a "common-sense conservatism," and said the free-market policies of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher should be guides for how to get out of the current economic situation. "Liberalism holds that there is no human problem that government can't fix if only the right people are put in charge," she said.
"There is no justice in taking from one person and giving to another," she said. "History shows it simply does not work."
Mrs. Palin blamed the U.S. Federal Reserve's low interest-rate policy of previous years for setting the stage for last year's global financial crisis. She opposed appointing the Fed as the chief overseer of systemic risk in the U.S. financial system. "The words 'fox' and 'henhouse' come to mind. The Fed's decisions have created the bubble," she said.
She called for tax cuts as well as the elimination of the capital gains and estate tax. Then, she said, the world will "watch the U.S. economy roar back to life."
On health care, Mrs. Palin defended her previous criticisms that the health-care overhaul proposed by Democrats would lead to health-care rationing and what she called "death panels." "It's just common sense that government attempts to solve problems like health care problem will just create new problems." She called for "market friendly" health care reform that gives tax breaks to individuals to buy health insurance.
Palin slams Obama's spending in debut speech in Asia
Some of those who attended praised her forthright views on government social and economic intervention and others walked out early in disgust.
"She was brilliant," said a European delegate, on condition of anonymity.
"She said America was spending a lot of money and it was a temporary solution. Normal people are having to pay more and more but things don't get better. The rich will leave the country and the poor will get poorer."
In the CLSA speech, which lasted about 75 minutes, Palin also tackled the recent US trade spat with China, a country she said the United States should have the best possible relationship with.
According to delegates, she said US President Barack Obama's administration worsened an already difficult situation when earlier this month he slapped duties on Chinese tire imports blamed for costing American jobs.
They said she praised the economic policies of former US President Ronald Reagan and criticised the current administration for intervening too much during the recent financial crisis.
Beltway Republicans don't like Sarah Palin. Is a third-party about to rise?
Mr. Coulter has no idea what a "far right wing" conservative believes. Ironically, if there is a such a creature as a "far right conservative" that person would be a libertarian, rubbing elbows with an anarchist, if we are to view the political spectrum of left to right as one of increasingly less government control the more "rightward" we go. As most NYC liberals, of which he no doubt some flavor, he only knows what the Left wing media tells him about "conservatives" and little more. I rather doubt that he as ever met an open conservative. His notion of "small 'c' conservatism" is also telling so far as it goes. Whatever does he mean by this remark? It is clear that we are supposed to understand it. Perhaps it means a "Small 'c' conservative" who is also a patriot and a Christian. We await clarification.
Palin is , of course, quite Conservative, and with a great big Capital "C" too, and by far the most conservative of any of the "leaders", if I may use that term, of the GOP. And good for her, too.
It shows you just how preposterous our "national debate" has become when people who should know better are of such superficial minds and spout such fatuous opinions.
Absolutely!
Today, they try to obfuscate this fact by leaning on a European point of view. They pit socialism on the left and fascism on the right. Which is laughable at best. Nobody should take that stuff seriously! Like George W. Bush, they try to paint him as "far right," when in reality, he was left-leaning. Big government is big government.
You either have more government or less government. And I'd rather rub elbows with the anarchists than the totalitarians, any day of the week!