Palin: Conservatives must rally to defeat Obama

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Saturday called on conservatives to unify behind the eventual Republican presidential nominee to help right a “sinking ship” captained by President Obama.

“Don’t let them divide us — we must stand as conservatives with common sense, with a servant’s heart, for the good of our party, but more important for the sake of our country — we must stand united whoever our nominee is,” said Mrs. Palin, who delivered the keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

“We must replace Obama at the ballot box. He is sinking our ship of state. When a ship is going down, the last thing you need is a community organizer just reorganizing the deck chairs.”

The CPAC crowd began lining up two hours before the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate’s afternoon speech at a massive ballroom at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park hotel, and she didn’t disappoint. They cheered and applauded almost every sentence.

A group of protesters briefly interrupted Mrs. Palin but were drowned out with chants of “USA” and “Sarah” by supporters.

“See, you just won — you see how easy it is?” she said after joining the crowd’s “USA” chant.

Mrs. Palin, who hasn’t endorsed a Republican candidate, spoke a day after the the party’s three leading White House hopefuls — Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich — spoke at the three-day event, which is among the nation’s premier annual gatherings of political conservatives.

She warned the crowd that the while she welcomes a prolonged primary battle, “let’s make sure that this competition brings out the best in our party.”

Mrs. Palin spoke a day after the Republican Party’s three leading presidential candidates — Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich — spoke at the three-day event, which is among the nation’s premier annual gatherings of political conservatives.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate warned the receptive crowd that the while she welcomes a prolonged primary battle, “let’s make sure that this competition brings out the best in our party.”

“We know that the far left and their media allies can’t beat us on the issues, so instead they’ll destroy our records, they’ll smear our reputations, they’ll even attack our families,” she said. “Let’s not do the job for them, OK, Republicans and independents?”

She devoted much of her address to attacking Mr. Obama, saying the nation’s fortunes “hang in the balance” because of his administration.

“He promised to fundamentally transform America and that’s one promise that he has kept — transforming the shinning city on the hill into a sinking ship,” she said.

While unemployment figures have dropped in recent months, the former governor said too many Americans are still out of work, while millions of Americans live in poverty — a scenario she blamed on the president.

“This government isn’t too big to fail, it’s too big to succeed, it’s too big to ignore, and it’s too big bear anymore,” she said. “For the first time in our history, folks are fearing the future is going to be worse than our past.

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