Sarah Palin 2.0 was unveiled last night at a speech to Asian bankers and investors in Hong Kong. The event was closed to the media, which is perhaps unsurprising. She's made no secret of her disdain for the press, and if she's testing out new ideas, she won't want them mercilessly picked apart by a news media that is admittedly prone to criticizing her. But, of course, audio from the speech has emerged, so we have a pretty good idea of what she said. She covered a range of topics including the financial meltdown─"We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place ... We're not interested in government fixes, we're interested in freedom"─and the rise of China, which she said "rightfully makes a lot of people nervous." She also spoke extensively about cultural and economic links between Alaska and the Pacific Rim and about the need for a rebirth of the GOP. There was no mention of death panels or lies about her. Instead she positioned herself as someone from "Main Street USA." According to The Wall Street Journal, her speech was met with strong applause.
The speech is a smart move in the reinvention of Sarah Palin. Sure she can give a good speech, whip up crowds, and raise money, but the longevity of her national political career hinges on her ability to have a voice in serious policy debates. For the woman whose foreign-policy credentials once rested on being able to see Russia from her state, there's no better way to reengineer her image than to speak before an international audience that is made up of people deeply involved in the most urgent global issue of the day─rebuilding the financial sector. It's an added bonus that the speech was overseas and closed to the press. Such a speech here would no doubt dominate cable news for at least a day or two and be critiqued from Miami to Wasilla. This way she can slowly build a reputation and try on her new image for size before its debuts in the States.
The New York Times reports reactions to her speech from attendees. One said, "She was articulate and she held her own. I give her credit. They’ve tried to categorize her as not being bright. She’s bright." But perhaps the most interesting audience comment was this: “She didn’t sound at all like a far-right-wing conservative. She seemed to be positioning herself as a libertarian or a small-c conservative." Small-C conservative? Really? That's certainly not the person we saw on the campaign trail in 2008. It is perhaps the person we'll see in 2012.
