Wise crackin’ Palin at Gridiron Dinner

After a very successful book signing in Fairfax, VA today, Sarah Palin joined House Rep. Barney Frank as keynote speakers at the Gridiron Club Winter dinner.  Sarah Palin spoke for 11 minutes and was quite a hit.

No matter what the lefties tell you, people simply cannot get enough of Sarah Palin and the Gridiron dinner was no exception.

From Politico:

While the Gridiron winter meeting is usually a small, low key affair, Palin’s appearance attracted a crowd of 195 — about double the average attendance of Gridiron members and their guests.

This is the first year that Gridiron officers have dropped the off-the-record rule that had been in place for more than a century. Modest twittering is permitted, though not during the speeches or songs. At a meeting this morning, the officers explained that the change is a bow to media realities – the rule was often broken and Palin's appearance was certain to leak anyway. 

Todd was in attendance as well and both Palins seem to have made fashion statements.

From Lynn Sweet: 

At the reception before the dinner, Palin told me she will be Tweeting later on tonight. She is carrying a purse made out of otter. (How do I know one fur from another. I don't. I asked her.)

It's snowing here--unusually early. Todd Palin told me they brought the weather with them. The event is black tie; Todd Palin's blue cummberbund is based on the Alaska state flag, with the Big Dipper and the North Star--for the most north state in the nation.

The important part of the dinner was obviously the jokes Palin told. She seems to have touched on everyone from the media, Obama and Biden, the McCain campaign and of course herself.

Here are some of the jokes I found about the web

On Herself: 

• "came down from my hotel room and I could see the Russian embassy."
• An alternate title for Going Rogue: "How To Look Like a Million Bucks, For Only $150,000" 
• "Sometimes you got to trust your instincts, and if you don't, you end up in a place like this," 

On McCain Campaign:

• “The view is so much better inside the bus than under the bus," 
• A zing at Steve Schmidt: "If I need a bald campaign manager I guess I'm left with James Carville,"

On Obama and Joe Biden:

• As for the president, Palin joked that she was looking at a magazine cover of Obama and Chinese president Hu Jinato during an airplane flight. A nearby passenger stated, "Hu's the Communist," she related. And, Palin said, "I thought he was asking a question."
• If the election had turned out differently, she said, "I could be the one overseeing the signing of bailout checks and vice president Biden could be on the road selling his book, 'Going Rogaine.'”

On The Media and Elites:

• "I went out for a jog. Or as Newsweek calls it--a photo shoot."
• As for her hosts, she said she was glad to be appearing before an elite audience of leading intellectuals, "or as I like to call it, a death panel."
• Addressing the crowd of journalists, the former Alaska governor poked fun at the penchant of political reporters to leaf through campaign book indexes to find their names, noting that she decided to skip the index on her book.
• So, at the dinner, she created one: "A: Alaska, media not understanding it, page 1-432. "B: Biased, Page 1-432."

On 2012 Aspiration:

• She did tell the crowd that on Sunday she'd be in Iowa — "from noon to three at Barnes and Noble. Come early, long lines are expected."

Via: Memeorandum

Via: My Way

Via: Lynne Sweet

Via: Politico