The Advance

Issue date: 2/11/10 Section: News

The crowd applauds Sarah Palin's speech

Sarah Palin speaks with her daughter Piper

More than 6000 tickets were sold to the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce's Annual Banquet and Membership meeting on Friday, February fifth. Mentioned as being the largest ever Chamber of Commerce gathering to be held in the United States, "Why," one might ask, "was there such a large turnout?" The answer...Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential Candidate for 2009, was going to be the keynote speaker at the Bicentennial Center.

Much work went into getting ready for the big night, as new signs were put up, more seating was installed, and over 1400 meals were prepared.

Todd Davidson, who serves on the 2010 Board of Directors for the city of Salina, noted that the turnout rate for this event was huge, comparing it to Simon and Garfunkel's free concert in New York Central Park, 30 years ago. Despite how large the turnout was, he added that the attendance to the concert only made up 7 percent of the population of New York City. Palin's appearance on Friday night brought in approximately twice that amount.

Palin covered a wide range of topics in her speech, including her stance on Terrorism, Obama, and getting the United States debt down to a reasonable amount. Additionally, she urged Kansan citizens to pay attention to what's happening in Washington D.C. and gave advice on how, EVEN a small town like Salina, can hold politicians accountable and can have a voice in how the U.S. government is run.

The crowd response was mostly positive. Nancy Fawcett said, "I enjoyed it very much. I had had mostly a negative opinion of Ms. Palin, but while there are still many areas I disagree with, she has earned my respect."

Vince Pieschl echoed that, "I strongly endorsed about everything she said. I felt like she had things pretty well figured out."

She even had some major supporters like Ken Willard, who said, "Well I think Sara's exactly right on the issues. I've been a fan of hers ever since she's stepped on the national stage. I'd heard about her before and she is just terrific. If we could get Washington to follow her lead, we'd be in a lot better shape than we are. And we're gonna have to do that."

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