Sarah Palin criticized President Barack Obama’s first year in office by saying “the list of broken promises is long” as she addressed the Tea Party movement’s inaugural national convention.

The campaign-style speech at a dinner in Nashville, Tennessee, last night was a frontal assault on the administration’s handling of national security and terrorism, even though she stopped short of declaring ambitions for a 2012 presidential bid as her audience chanted “Run Sarah, Run!”

“I am a big supporter of this movement,” she said. “America is ready for another revolution.”

The former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice- presidential nominee questioned whether the suspect in the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit was interrogated aggressively enough.

“Treating this like a mere law-enforcement matter places our country at grave risk because that’s not how radical Islamic extremists are looking at this,” she said. “To win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern.”

The current Democratic administration can no longer blame the previous one for the nation’s ills, Palin said.

“They own this now, and voters are going to hold them accountable,” she said in her speech.

Palin accused the administration of proposing an “immoral” 2011 budget that is equivalent to “generational theft.”

A hero of the leaderless Tea Party movement, she told her audience assembled in the U.S. country-music capital that their grassroots efforts will empower voters.

More Endorsements

Palin, 45, said she planned to endorse specific 2010 candidates and that the Republican Party should not be “afraid of contested primaries” within its ranks.

Her appearance -- the first of several Tea Party events Palin plans to attend in the coming months -- marks the end of the three-day National Tea Party Convention.

The convention at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel is the first national meeting of a movement that emerged last year amid protests over the policies of Obama and the Democrats who control Congress.

Palin’s supporters say the media has been overly critical of her and there is plenty of time for her to decide whether she will run for president.

“If that’s where God puts her, that’s where she’ll go,” said Tammy Holmes, 36, a small-business owner from Farmington, Missouri, who attended the conference.

Possible National Base

Tea Party activists, drawn to Palin’s anti-Washington rhetoric and working-mother personality, would form a natural base for Palin should she decide to make a White House bid.

There is little downside in closely associating herself with the movement, a Republican strategist said.

“The more she can talk to them and talk to conservative evangelicals, the more she can have a passionate following and appeal to a fairly large swath of GOP voters and independent voters,” said John Feehery, who advised former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

“She has attained rock star status,” he said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean she has a great voice, but she has attained celebrity. For a lot of folks she is off-key. But for her supporters, she’s the best thing since Elvis.”

Feehery said he is skeptical Palin will run for president.

“What she is doing, frankly, I think, is trying to make some money,” he said. “The media is fascinated by her and that’s a very big asset.”

Fox Interview

Palin also recorded an interview to air on “Fox News Sunday.” She has been employed as a contributor at the cable TV outlet, owned by New York-based News Corp., since January.

After Nashville, Palin is scheduled to campaign today for Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican facing a primary challenge from Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Palin is planning to speak in March at a Tea Party rally in Searchlight, Nevada, the hometown of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat who is in a tight race for re-election this year. She is also scheduled to appear in Boston in April for an event marking the movement’s one-year anniversary.

Tea Party activists could prove crucial to Republicans seeking gains in November, though organizing challenges remain for the mostly online community.

Speaking Fee

Palin was paid $100,000 for her speech, according to the Associated Press. She told her audience she would give her compensation “to the cause.”

About 1,100 people attended the dinner, said Mark Skoda, a convention spokesman. That includes 600 people who paid $549 each to attend the full conference and 500 people who paid $349 to hear Palin speak.

Palin burst onto the national scene 17 months ago when Senator John McCain picked her as a running mate for his Republican presidential campaign. She sold herself as a Washington outsider and “hockey mom,” and after losing the election capitalized on her exposure with a $1.25 million advance to write her memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life.”

Americans are split on Palin, with 43 percent seeing her in a positive light and 46 percent holding an unfavorable view, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Feb. 5. The poll was taken Jan. 22-24 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Article Source:  http://www. businessweek.com/news/2010-02-07/sarah-palin-tells-tea-party-u-s-needs-another-revolution-.html