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Sarah Palin: ‘When We Take Up Our Arms, We’re Talkin’ About Our Vote!’

» 15 comments

At a campaign rally for Senator John McCain today, former Alaska Governor and future TV travel guide Sarah Palin was in fine form, urging supporters to “send the Maverick back” to the Senate, poking fun at her Telepalmter, and joking that some might think that McCain was at the original Boston Tea Party.

She then brought up the “lamestream” media’s silly focus on violence and threats in the wake of health care reform’s passage, and made a clarification that might be a week too late. .

Palin starts by saying that there’s a “ginned-up controversy” about conservatives inciting violence just because they “happen to oppose some of the things in the Obama administration.”

Maybe she meant that they happen to oppose some of the things she made up about the Obama administration, like that they want to kill her son with a “Death Panel.”

But then, an audience member yells out “We’ll do it with our vote!”

Palin seizes on this, saying “When we take up our arms, we’re talkin’ about our vote!”

Perhaps she could have issued that clarification before the racial and sexual slurs, spit and brick attacks,  and death threats that followed passage of health care reform. The controversy intersected with Palin when she tweeted her supporters to “reload,” and directed them to a congressional map on her Facebook page that featured crosshairs over vulnerable Democratic districts. Critics say this would be irresponsible even in a cool political climate.

Does this rise to the level of “incitement?” Not in my view. As a political rhetoritician myself, I am loath to relieve criminals of responsibility for their actions based on anything but the clearest of provocations. The fact that bunches of people want to work themselves up into an apocalyptic frenzy based on transparent political posturing is on them.

Is it “ginned up?” Also no. The rash of overreaction is definitely cause for concern, and Republicans who ignore this do so at their peril.Just as John McCain did at the end of the presidential campaign, Republicans need to help cool things down.

As far as the politics go, it may be unfair to accuse Republicans of “incitement,” but highlighting the natural extension of their years-long campaign of hyperbole and misinformation is fair game. If the tables were turned, the Democrats could expect nothing less.

Here’s the full speech:

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  • valkyrie101

    Isn’t there metaphor, allegory or imagery about reclaiming political power that does not require reference to guns?

  • Jelperman

    Oh please! Fomenting violent threats is nothing new for Caribou Barbie. Remember, this is the same person who accused Obama of “palling around with terrorists” and said nothing when one of her semen-crusted supporters shouted “KILL HIM!” right in front of her. She also chose, out of all the right-wing writers available, Westbrook Pegler to quote from in her acceptance speech. Pegler is best known as an avowed Nazi who called for the assassinations of FDR and Robert Kennedy.

  • roxsteady

    Nails on a chalkboard! Did you notice the expression on McCain’s face when she said something about, “This BS from the lamestream media”? He looked constipated. Even he know this type of spew is juvenile and low brow. It’s the kind of things a hayseed would say when they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about. Which pretty much sums her up. I actually felt embarrassed for McCain for having to lower himself to this. Say what you will, and many on this site do about Nancy Pelosi but, we ladies on the left are very proud of her. To put it bluntly, she gets shit done. She doesn’t quit.

  • writer

    Until this November.

  • Bias-Media

    I’m at a loss to understand what it is that Palin have said that is SOOOOOO different from other politicians, pundits, PAC leaders, or MSM commentators that, coming out of her mouth, it’s “Hate Speech” or “comments that incite violence”, whereas coming out of others (ex: Al Sharpton, Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Tim Kaines, or even President Obama himself), it’s regarded as “freedom of speech” or better yet, “FACTS”?????

    example:

    Tea Beggers (started by Anderson Cooper, used by Obama many times)…this is not hate speech BY THE STANDARDS USED ON PALIN??? I would argue this is hate speech by common sense standards…along the lines of “negro” or “wet backs”…

    (what is *factual* about Tea Party Protesters being “Tea Beggers”? and Please look this term up in the dictionary before you respond)

    NOTE: I purposely left out pundits from the Conservative side for obvious reasons in the context of this question

  • Moderate

    Wow! Sarah Palin can get the attention of all three news networks and most og the internet bloggers. Not many people have that much power.

  • TylerDurdin

    Thanks sarah. Remember, libs are s-l-o-wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Janet-Shan/1127645593 Janet Shan

    It’s ironic that John McCain couldn’t wait to get rid of Sarah Palin when he lost the presidential election and now she’s campaigning on his behalf. It’s actually laughable — dumb and dumber. I hope he gets voted out of office.

    http://blackpoliticalthought.blogspot.com

  • The Real Royal King

    The media is unfair when it comes to Palin. Everytime she says something, she appears thrice, once to say what she said, once to sy what she meant to say and once to say what she ought to have said.

  • writer

    Such an obsession. It must be love.

  • The Real Royal King

    We all remember that McCain constipation look. He always surrounded himself by women who were saying the oddest thinks, Momma, Cindy, Meghan, Sarah, Holy Joe, the Graham Cracker …. You’d have thought one of them might have carried a couple of Fiber Con with her.

  • MichelleF

    Nice of you to try Sarah, but the libs aren’t interested because it doesn’t fit their template of you. Of course they knew what you were talking about.

    Lib Talker Malloy Calls for Deaths of Limbaugh, Beck and O’Reilly

    Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/03/27/lib-talker-malloy-calls-deaths-limbaugh-beck-and-oreilly#ixzz0jO1tfYu2

    I asked Mediaite to post on their page like they did this article, so let’s see if they do.

  • MichelleF

    The Real Royal King says:
    March 27, 2010 at 12:26 am
    The media is unfair when it comes to Palin. Everytime she says something, she appears thrice, once to say what she said, once to sy what she meant to say and once to say what she ought to have said

    You’ve obviously never heard BO TRY to speak off prompter. He has to think through every word to make sure he doesn’t let the truth slip. And don’t get me started on Biden! He’s the gift that keeps on giving.

    Obama – they bring a knife, you bring a GUN

  • TylerDurdin

    On MSNBC today, Contessa Brewer has said Pain is “targeting”….. 5 times already.

    Libs, contact Contessa and demand she stop her hate speech!!!!!!

    bawahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

  • felixw

    Anderson Cooper talked about “battleground states” in the last election. Obviously he is inciting people to violence.

    Dan Rather reported on the “war on drugs.” Obviously he is inciting people to violence.

    As a community organizer, Obama worked on the “front lines” or the “war on poverty.” Obviously he is inciting people to violence.

    CNN had a show called Crossfire. Obviously the network is inciting violence.

    Etc. etc.

    Honestly, my left-leaning friends, you come up with some idiotic smears in your daily attempt to avoid substantive discussion of the ongoing destruction of the American economy. But this decision to apply political correctness to the common metaphors everyone uses all the time in political discourse may be the most idiotic of all. Or, to put it differently, your latest salvos in the culture war will inevitably backfire.

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