Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin rallied conservative media activists for “victory in 2012” as the keynote speaker at the RightOnline conference in Las Vegas on Friday, but never mentioned the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Mitt Romney.
Instead, Palin directed fire at her two favorite targets – President Obama and the mainstream media.
“We would have known, had the media done its job, of [Obama’s] strange attraction to the most leftist -– radical of leftist ideas,” Palin said, adding that “if [the media] had done their job, perhaps we would not be shocked to know that our White House would politicize national security by leaking highly confidential information to prop up the polls.”
National security leaks which led to news reports documenting the administration’s “kill list” of suspected terrorists and a cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear program sparked congressional anger and led to charges from GOP lawmakers that the leaks were intended to bolster Obama’s foreign policy credentials.
President Obama, earlier this month, rebuked critics who suggested the White House purposely leaked national security information to help his reelection campaign.
“The notion that my White House would purposely release classified national security information is offensive,” Obama said. “It’s wrong, and people, I think, need to have a better sense of how I approach this office and how the people around me here approach this office.”
The FBI opened an investigation this week into the leaks, but House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said there were concerns that sources of the leaks could be involved in the investigations. Obama said the White House has “mechanisms in place” to “root out” people who leak national security information.
But Palin also mocked the president for two items Obama addressed in his memoir - trying drugs and eating dog meat as a child in Indonesia.
“That cocaine snorting, and what he ate — Fido? Rufus?,” Palin said. “I think it’s funny that the cocktail circuit gives me a hard time for eating elk and moose. Anybody here have a pet moose? There’s a difference.”
But Palin’s headlining speech was also notable for what it left out – support for the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, Mitt Romney.
Palin voted for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) in the Alaska caucuses this year, and was critical of Romney, who at the time was still struggling to fend off a steady flow of up-and-coming challengers that were viewed by the base as more conservative alternatives.
“I trust that [Romney’s] idea of conservatism is evolving and I base this on a pretty moderate past he has had, even in some cases a liberal past," Palin told Fox News in February. "He agreed with mandating on a state level what his constituents needed to be provided, needed to purchase in the way of healthcare and RomneyCare, which of course was the precursor to ObamneyCare."
