Top Ten Quotes from Sarah Palin's RightOnline Address

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin delivered a call to arms to the online “Army of Davids” in its battle against the Goliath that is the “lamestream media” Friday at the RightOnline conference in Las Vegas.

Of course, this was also the late Andrew Breitbart’s life’s mission, and Palin keynoted the fifth annual conference on the same night it honored Breitbart’s life and legacy. Palin showed once again how she, like Breitbart, could inspire conservatives, be funny, and mock liberals in a way that allows her message to cut through the mainstream media’s filter.

Here are the top ten quotes from her address. 

1. On not being co-opted by the permanent political class

Sometimes you gotta rage against the machine … to hold them accountable … Whatever the outcome is in November, please do not get co-opted by the permanent political class. Granted you will not make many friends in the Beltway or in Hollywood … or in HBO … you won’t be one of the cool kids … doggone it … aww … sometimes you’ll find yourself under the bus … but you need to stay outside of the machines … sometimes you gotta rage against it … stay outside of the political establishments in order to hold them accountable … don’t spin the GOP failures the same way the left does for President Obama …

2. On Andrew Breitbart’s legacy of fearlessness 

As we honor Andrew Breitbart, remember his greatest gift he left for us is fearlessness … and I would hope … that you would be able to reload with that inspiration of his fearlessness … stand your ground and others will stand with you .. courage inspires courage .. victory begets victory … don’t retreat, reload with that inspiration.

3. On Matt Drudge and his clairvoyance 

The new media rose up precisely because the old media failed to tell the truth. That very first new media breakthrough was about 15 years ago when this lowly little store clerk in a lowly little apartment equipped with his computer and a modem broke one of the biggest stories of the decade. His name was Matt Drudge and the rest is history. And in hindsight, we see that the story he broke was more than just a president having an affair. To me it was much, much more than that. It was about a major old media publication that had spiked the story eleven times. And they knew all about it. Eleven times! Not just once to check their facts. Not twice just to double-check. Eleven times they spiked the story. Why? Because as charter members of that Democrat Media Complex they were protecting their guy. So, when a fellow with a modem and a website found out about this, he decided to tell the truth they refused to tell. And oh how that old media cried foul and they howled. They denounced Drudge as irresponsible and unprofessional and even dangerous and anti-everything from motherhood to apple pie. How dare that nobody from nowhere without a degree or a pedigree try to influence the national discourse. But the real reason they feared him was because he wasn’t beholden to the old media’s machine and the Thought Police. Unshackled, he was free. And a few months later, Drudge got to speak at the National Press Club in DC. He predicted the future in his speech there. He said, “We have entered an era vibrating with the din of small voices. Every citizen can be a reporter, can take on the powers that be….I envision a future where there’ll be 300 million reporters, where anyone from anywhere can report for any reason. It’s freedom of participation absolutely realized.” Thus the birth of citizen journalism, and you are the future he predicted!

4. On national security leaks and augmented figures in polls 

But if they 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 their polls. Now here we are in Vegas. And in Vegas — and in Washington too — they talk a lot about polls. There are a lot of poles in Vegas. The White House likes to cite polls  … because the figures involved in those polls are usually augmented too … 

5. On the Tea Party’s steel spine

You showed D.C. what having a spine looks like. Or, as I said that day in Wisconsin, you showed them how to ‘fight like a girl.’

6.  On the mainstream media’s failure to vet Obama 

Had the media done its job … we would have known of his association with anti-American intellectuals and then not be surprised at his desire to apologize for America to foreign dictators, or that he is the first President of the United States in history to not believe we are an exceptional nation …

7. On Obama’s failed energy strategy 

So as we’re preaching ‘drill, baby drill’ … and he’s preaching ‘stop, baby stop’ …

8. Teasing Obama for having eaten a dog in his youth in Indonesia 

Why did they (the mainstream media) at least not read his autobiography? … they would have learned a whole lot … about pot smoking and cocaine smoking and what he ate … Fido. Rufus. … I find it funny that I get a hard time for eating elk and moose … come on, does anybody have a pet moose? There’s a difference. 

9. On the power of truth 

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

10. On being influencers in pop culture 

Breitbart said ‘culture is upstream of politics’ … it’s not selling out, it’s infiltrating and influencing.