Palin at Tea Party convention: "How's that hope-y, change-y thing workin out for ya?"

AP Photo/Ed Reinke

Former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin used her opportunity as the keynote speaker at Saturday's Tea Party convention held in Nashville, to criticize President Obama's year in office and to urge on the growing conservative movement. 

Palin lauded the 1,100 people in attendance saying America is ready for the Tea Party group.  She specifically pointed to the recent election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts to the Senate as evidence of the voters sending a message to Washington, D.C.  "Scott Brown represents what this beautiful movement is all about," beamed Palin.  Yet, someone should have reminded the former Governor of Alaska that Brown is pro-choice; something that flies in the face of the Tea Party's pro-life agenda.

Palin spent the majority of her address ripping into President Obama and policies enacted within the past year.  She criticized the bank bailout and the stimulus plan, saying they were ways for the "federal government to take over the States."  She claimed Obama is making the U.S. beholden to foreign governments with respect to the nation's debt and slammed the President on his decisions regarding the war saying, "We need a Commander in Chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern."  Did Palin forget that 25 lawyers have served as President of the United States, including Abraham Lincoln and Richard Nixon?  She also accused President Obama of apologizing to tyrannical dictators for the U.S. and added, "Alaska is a beacon of hope for people in oppressive regimes;" a statement sure to raise a few eyebrows among the political pundits.

While she didn't outline any detailed policy ideas of her own, Palin stressed the need for a pro-market agenda, lower taxes for small businesses and a "jump start for energy projects."  She attacked the current health care legislation being negotiated in Congress by calling for the need for insurance across state lines; a provision that is already in the bill.

Palin's speech was not only well received at the convention but among her Facebook fans as well.  Conventioneers chanted "Run Sarah, run," and one of her Facebook fans commented, "God must love us because he made so many of us."