Palin in Hong Kong

Untethered to the governor’s desk in Alaska, Sarah Palin addressed the CLSA Investors’ Forum in Hong Kong. The Associated Press had the most complete and likely most accurate coverage of the speech, including actual quotes from Mrs. Palin’s speech.

The speech was closed to the press, which gave the rest of the media reports on it a blind-men-describing-an-elephant quality.

Agence France Press reported:

“She was brilliant,” said a European delegate, on condition of anonymity.

“She said America was spending a lot of money and it was a temporary solution. Normal people are having to pay more and more but things don’t get better. The rich will leave the country and the poor will get poorer.”

Two US delegates left early, with one saying “it was awful, we couldn’t stand it any longer.” He declined to be identified.

Another attendee said: “It was almost more of a speech promoting investment in Alaska. As fund managers we want to hear about the United States as a whole, not just about Alaska. And she criticised Obama a lot but offered no solutions.”

Hmm. (What solutions should she have offered? Vote him out?)

Bloomberg reported:

“She started the speech with the Alaskan fishing industry, which I think is a safe topic for her,” said Suyeon An of RCM Asia Pacific Ltd, who left before Palin stopped talking. “She was avoiding the important economic issues. She tried to talk some about Hong Kong in general, but it was nothing specific. It was a very safe speech, boring I have to say.”

Double hmm.

The New York Times reported:

“The speech was wide-ranging, very balanced, and she beat all expectations,” said Doug A. Coulter, head of private equity in the Asia-Pacific region for LGT Capital Partners.

“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,” he said, adding that she mentioned both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. “She brought up both those names.”

Triple hmm.

I suspect some people expected Joan of Arc while others expected Tina Fey. I think they got Sarah, a bright person from middle America who is more mainstream than the geniuses we have in Washington, more intelligent than the media gives her credit for and more informed than even her supporters think she is.

It is too bad our current president did not face the same scrutiny before he was elected.

As I said earlier, the AP did the best job (Read the AP story here).