What was the point of today's Glenn Beck/Sarah Palin rally in which tens of thousands of Tea Party supporters swarmed the Lincoln Memorial in DC? No one, including Palin or Beck, seemed to really know. There was lots of talk about “restoring honor” but what that means exactly is still unclear.
The New York Times reports on the event:
“For too long, this country has wandered in darkness,” Mr. Beck said Saturday. “This country has spent far too long worrying about scars and thinking about scars and concentrating on scars. Today, we are going to concentrate on the good things in America, the things that we have accomplished, and the things that we can do tomorrow.”
Mr. Beck was followed on stage by Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate and former Alaska governor, who said she was asked, in keeping with the theme of the day, not to focus on politics but to speak as the mother of a soldier.
CBS News has a rundown of Palin's speech at the rally.
“You have the same steel spine and the moral courage of Washington and Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.,” Palin added. She said it was “humbling” to be with the “patriots” who had gathered for the rally, people who understand “to never retreat.”
Palin said Americans will always be successful because they are guided by grace. “We will always come through, we will never give up and we shall endure,” the former Alaska governor said as a “U-S-A” chant broke out.
There's been much commotion about Beck's decision to hold the rally on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's “I Have a Dream” speech. Beck seemingly tried to deflect some of that backlash by inviting King's niece, Alveda King, to speak at the event. You may recall that she was also invited by NOM to speak at their Atlanta tour stop.
Al Sharpton led a counter protest event close nearby. Sharpton told the crowd: “Don't let anyone tell you that they have the right to take their country back. It's our country, too…They may have the mall, but we have the message. They may have the platform, but we have the dream.”
A clip of Beck at the rally and Palin's full speech, AFTER THE JUMP.
