More than 2,000 Sarah Palin Supporters Turn Out for Iowa Speech; Don’t Get Hoped for Presidential Announcement – 9/3/11

Around 2,000 people turned out to hear Sarah Palin speak this afternoon at a Tea Party Rally in Indianola, Iowa. Most were hoping to hear Palin announce she is running for President, but their hopes were not fulfilled. Palin gave a speech sounding very much like a candidate – but she still gave no indication of her intentions one way or the other:

POLITICO: The 2,000 people who came from across the country to see Sarah Palin address a tea party rally here Saturday wanted one thing: To hear her say she’s running for president.

They didn’t get it.

These are the Palin die-hards — the supporters who remain convinced she will run, no matter the mounting conventional wisdom that she won’t.

They came on planes, in cars, on chartered buses. They wore “Palin 2012” T-shirts and buttons and hung a banner on a riser reading, “Run, Sarah … RUN!!! For Cubs, Country & Constitution.” They waited out an intense Midwestern summer storm that drenched the field, a little south of Des Moines, where Palin’s name had been mowed into the grass behind the stage.

Many say they haven’t even considered supporting another candidate, and will wait as long as Palin takes to make up her mind. Without her to vote for, some said they’d sit out the primary. Others refused to even consider the question.

But instead of a declaration, the Palin supporters at the Tea Party of America event got an intensely political speech from the former Alaska governor that scorched President Obama and the “permanent political class” of both parties. . . . Read More