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Sarah Palin's book tour hits Fort Bragg
By MIKE BAKER
Associated Press
FORT BRAGG -- Sarah Palin brought her book-signing tour to North Carolina's Fort Bragg on Monday as thousands greeted the former Republican vice presidential candidate in a campaign-like gathering that tested military rules involving politicians.
The Department of Defense typically prohibits politicians from using installations as a platform, so Palin didn't give a speech and simply thanked soldiers individually. She was allowed to hold the event as a private citizen who was not campaigning, a Fort Bragg spokesman said.
Army officials initially feared the book signing might turn political and negative comments would be directed at President Barack Obama, so they barred media from attending. The Army later relented and allowed coverage, and many people who attended voiced their opposition to the commander in chief.
Palin's tour bus parked nearby, splashed with her photo, encouraged donations to her political action committee, while supporters made clear that she should run for president.
Palin's father, who greeted visitors as his daughter signed copies of the book, said in an interview that Obama's handling of the military was "scary."
"I see a decline in our might," Chuck Heath said. "People used to be afraid of us and respect us, [but] they're not afraid of us and don't respect us anymore."
Col. Billy Buckner, a spokesman for Fort Bragg, said the Army agreed to let Palin on post because she was no longer a politician.
"She fell into a little bit of a gray area," he said. "She's not a political figure per se, but she certainly carries a tremendous amount of interest and influence across the country."
The former Alaska governor began a nationwide tour last week to promote a new memoir, "Going Rogue."
She also has a planned visit to Fort Hood, Texas, on Dec. 4 -- just a month after 12 people were killed there in a shooting rampage.
Hundreds of Palin supporters arrived early at Fort Bragg, and one woman spent nearly 24 hours in line. Officials estimated that some 4,000 turned out. More than 500 had to be turned away as the three-hour signing ended.
G.R. Quinn, 58, a veteran who spent 20 years in the military, wore an "Impeach Obama" shirt. He blasted the president for closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, for the plan to hold a key Sept. 11 terrorism trial in New York and for Obama's handling of the military overseas.
"He's so wishy-washy about Afghanistan," Quinn said, adding he hopes more troops will be sent there.
While the supporters were primarily civilians, dozens of uniformed personnel also greeted Palin. They craned to snap photos and shook her hand as she left.
Associated Press
FORT BRAGG -- Sarah Palin brought her book-signing tour to North Carolina's Fort Bragg on Monday as thousands greeted the former Republican vice presidential candidate in a campaign-like gathering that tested military rules involving politicians.
The Department of Defense typically prohibits politicians from using installations as a platform, so Palin didn't give a speech and simply thanked soldiers individually. She was allowed to hold the event as a private citizen who was not campaigning, a Fort Bragg spokesman said.
Army officials initially feared the book signing might turn political and negative comments would be directed at President Barack Obama, so they barred media from attending. The Army later relented and allowed coverage, and many people who attended voiced their opposition to the commander in chief.
Palin's tour bus parked nearby, splashed with her photo, encouraged donations to her political action committee, while supporters made clear that she should run for president.
Palin's father, who greeted visitors as his daughter signed copies of the book, said in an interview that Obama's handling of the military was "scary."
"I see a decline in our might," Chuck Heath said. "People used to be afraid of us and respect us, [but] they're not afraid of us and don't respect us anymore."
Col. Billy Buckner, a spokesman for Fort Bragg, said the Army agreed to let Palin on post because she was no longer a politician.
"She fell into a little bit of a gray area," he said. "She's not a political figure per se, but she certainly carries a tremendous amount of interest and influence across the country."
The former Alaska governor began a nationwide tour last week to promote a new memoir, "Going Rogue."
She also has a planned visit to Fort Hood, Texas, on Dec. 4 -- just a month after 12 people were killed there in a shooting rampage.
Hundreds of Palin supporters arrived early at Fort Bragg, and one woman spent nearly 24 hours in line. Officials estimated that some 4,000 turned out. More than 500 had to be turned away as the three-hour signing ended.
G.R. Quinn, 58, a veteran who spent 20 years in the military, wore an "Impeach Obama" shirt. He blasted the president for closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, for the plan to hold a key Sept. 11 terrorism trial in New York and for Obama's handling of the military overseas.
"He's so wishy-washy about Afghanistan," Quinn said, adding he hopes more troops will be sent there.
While the supporters were primarily civilians, dozens of uniformed personnel also greeted Palin. They craned to snap photos and shook her hand as she left.


By Dewie Whetsell, Alaskan Fisherman
The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about to mention here.
1- Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as
Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican's "Corrupt Bastards Club" (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State housing and wearing orange jump suits. The Democrats reacted by skipping around the yard, throwing confetti and singing, "la la la la" (well, yo know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done anything similar.
2- Now with the CBC gone, there were fewer Alaskan politicians to protect the huge, giant oil companies here. So she constructed and enacted a new system of splitting the oil profits called "ACES." Exxon (the biggest corporation in the world) protested and Sarah told them, "don't let the door hit you in the stern on your way out." They stayed, and Alaska residents went from being merely wealthy to being filthy rich. Of course, the other huge international oil companies meekly fell in line. Again, give me the name of any other governor in the country that has done anything similar.
3-The other thing she did when she walked into the governor's office is she got the list of State requests for federal funding for projects, known as "pork." She went through the list, took 85% of them and placed them in the "when-hell-freezes-over" stack. She let locals know that if we need something built, we'll pay for it ourselves. Maybe she figured she could use the money she got from selling the previous governor's jet because it was extravagant. Maybe she could use the money she saved by dismissing the governor's cook (remarking that she could cook for her own family), giving back the State vehicle issued to her, maintaining that she already had a car, and dismissing her State provided security force (never mentioning - I imagine - that she's packing heat herself). I'm still waiting to hear the names of those other governors.
4- Now, even with her much-ridiculed "gosh and golly "mannerism, she also managed to
put together a totally new approach to getting a natural gas pipeline built which will be the biggest private construction project in the history of North America. No one else could do it although they tried. If that doesn't impress you, then you're trying too hard to be unimpressed while watching her do things like this while baking up a batch of brownies with her other hand.
5- For 30 years, Exxon held a lease to do exploratory drilling at a place called Point Thompson. They made excuses the entire time why they couldn't start drilling. In truth they were holding it like an investment. No governor for 30 years could make them get started... This summer, she told them she was revoking their lease and kicking them out. They protested and threatened court action. She shrugged and reminded them that she knew the way to the courthouse. Alaska won again.
6- President Obama wants the nation to be on 25% renewable resources for electricity by 2025. Sarah went to the legislature and submitted her plan for Alaska to be at 50% renewables by 2025. We are already at 25%. I can give you more specifics about things done, as opposed to style and persona. Everybody wants to be cool, sound cool, look cool. But that's just a cover-up. I'm still waiting to hear from liberals the names of other governors who can match what mine has done in two and a half years. I won't be holding my breath.
By the way, she was content to return to AK after the national election and go to work, but the haters wouldn't let her. Now these adolescent screechers are obviously not scuba divers. And no one ever told them what happens when you continually jab and pester a barracuda. Without warning, it will spin around and tear your face off. Should have known better. You have just read the truth about Sarah Palin that sends the media, along with the democrat party, into a wild uncontrolled frenzy to discredit her. I guess they are only interested in skirt chasers, dishonesty, immoral people, liars, womanizers, murderers, and bitter ex-presidents' wives. So "You go, Girl." I only wish the men in
Washington had your guts, determination, honesty, and morals. I rest my case.
Her cup runneth over, in so many ways. I hear Obama sites are labeling her 'dangerous'. Good.
It's time we punted them out of office, before they drive the bus into a permanent ditch.