Right before she looked at the notes on her hand

As Sarah Palin left the stage at the inaugural National Tea Party Convention here Saturday night, the crowd erupted into chants of “Run Sarah Run!”

“I think you like her!” said Judson Phillips, the chief organizer of the convention, when the ovation finally stopped and people had stepped down from the chairs where they had been standing and waving flags.

Ms. Palin gave the Tea Party crowd exactly what they wanted to hear, declaring the primacy of the Tenth Amendment in limiting government powers, complaining about the bailouts and the “generational theft” of rising deficits, and urging the audience to back conservative challengers in contested primaries.

“America is ready for another revolution!” she told the crowd, prompting the first of several standing ovations.

The speech was closely watched as a potential signal of Ms. Palin’s political future and the extent to which the convention would embrace her. But Ms. Palin, while aligning herself firmly with the Tea Party, nevertheless urged the 1,100 delegates who had gathered in a hotel ballroom not to let the movement be defined by any one leader.

“This is about the people, and it’s bigger than any one king or queen of a tea party, and it’s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter,” she said.

That was just one of several digs at President Obama. “How’s that hopey-changey thing workin’ out for you?” she asked at one point. She blasted him for rising deficits, “apologizing for America” in speeches in other countries, and for allowing the so-called Christmas bomber to board a plane headed for the United States, saying he was weak on the war on terrorism.

“To win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law,” she declared.

Ms. Palin gave little hint to her political plans when Mr. Phillips, the organizer, prodded her in a brief question-and-answer period after her 40-minute speech. She said she would support those candidates who “understand free market principles” and “personal responsibility.”

Without saying which candidates she would support, she said she would campaign for conservative challengers in some Republican primaries.

“This is how we’re going to find the cream of the crop to face a challenger in the general,” she said. “Let’s not be afraid of contested primaries.”

When he asked her about the “two words that scare liberals: President Palin,” she demurred, smiling and looking to the side of the stage where she said her youngest daughter, Piper, was watching.

And pressed about the relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement, and whether the latter should become a third party, Ms. Palin suggested the two should be compatible.

“The Republican Party would be really smart to start trying to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible,” she said. “This is a beautiful movement because it is shaping the way politics are conducted. You’ve got both party machines running scared.”

The convention had gathered here to try to turn the activism of the Tea Party rallies over the last year into actual political power. Her speech was the keynote event of the convention, and the big draw for many of the 600 people who had paid $549 to attend – another 500, organizers said, paid $349 just to see for her speech alone.

The convention had been a pretty sedate affair until the Palin speech, with delegates sitting through panel discussions about how to effect changes in primary elections and how to use new technology to Tea Party advantage. But by the time she took the stage after the closing dinner Saturday night, convention-goers were hungry for the red meat.

They had begun lining up outside the ballroom three hours before the speech, breaking out at one point into “God Bless America.” As Judson Phillips, the chief convention organizer, warmed up the crowd for her speech, it erupted in chants of “USA! USA!” They raised a toast to Ronald Reagan, whose 99th birthday would have been Saturday. (“To Ronnie,” said one woman wearing sequins at the back of the room.)

When Andrew Breitbart, the founder of BigGovernment.com, introduced Ms. Palin by describing her as “the first person to tell us about the death panel,” the crowd cheered.

Ms. Palin’s fee for speaking was reported to be $100,000, and she was criticized by some Tea Party activists for taking a fee, much as the convention itself was criticized for charging a ticket price that is too high for tea partiers who consider themselves fiscal conservatives. But Mr. Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, the social networking site that sponsored the convention, refused to talk about how much she was paid.

“I’ll simply say this: when you get a speaker of the caliber of Governor Palin, it’s not done on the basis of a handshake,” he said. He added that there had been a confidentiality clause in the contract organizers signed with Ms. Palin. “Contractually I’m not allowed to talk about it,” he said. “I promised I wouldn’t do it.”

And Ms. Palin said she would make no apologies for taking money and turning it back, she said, to conservative causes, though she has not specified which ones she will donate to.

“I will live, I will die for the people of America,” she said. “This party that we call the Tea Party, this movement, as I say, is the future of politics in America.”

From the times … more….

Palin Assails Obama at Tea Party Meeting – NYTimes.com.