Palin Video Spotlights Sen. Ted Cruz, Prepares for Midterm Elections

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- If anyone was wondering if Sarah Palin is going to weigh in on the 2014 midterm elections, that question was answered Wednesday with a resounding yes.

In a video released Wednesday by Sarah Palin’s political action committee, SarahPAC, she revved up conservatives and Tea Party Republicans for 2014 with snippets of her Conservative Political Action Conference speech from earlier this month as well as media coverage praising the speech and her string of successful past endorsements.

[See the full video from Sarah Palin's YouTube Channel here.]

Titled “Loaded for Bear,” the video begins with the praise from the mainstream media she is always quick to criticize as the “lamestream media.”

“Sarah Palin stole the show at this weekend’s CPAC convention,” the video begins. “She is a superstar and she’s used that to get people elected.”

“She still knows how to fire up the conservative faithful,” another television anchor says.

The video’s string of media praising her tenacity and endorsement record is a key part of the video, and despite some of the coverage being a bit dated, it still helps push her view that she doesn’t need a Fox News contract to get her point of view out there or to have the press talking about her.

The other star of the video is new conservative superstar Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who introduced Palin at CPAC.

“She is fearless, she is principled, she can pick winners,” Cruz says in a clip from that introduction. “Sarah Palin jumped in early and supported Rand Paul. She supported Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, Pat Toomey, Nikki Haley, Deb Fischer, Jeff Flake and myself.”

Over images of Palin at the Iowa State Fair in 2011–when speculation ran high she would enter the GOP primary–as well as footage from Tea Party rallies in Nevada, Palin’s CPAC speech is interspersed.

“Don’t let the big consultants, the big money men and the big bad media scare you off,” Palin says. “They talk about rebranding the GOP instead of restoring the trust of the American people. How about rebuilding the middle class?”

The video then excerpts the part of the former Alaska governor’s speech when she goes after Washington, D.C., establishment Republicans and gives a not-so-veiled dig at Karl Rove and others:

“Now is the time to furlough the consultants and tune out the pollsters. Send the focus groups home and toss the political scripts. Don’t let them invalidate you,” Palin says. “It’s time for We the People to break up the cronyism, and that goes for finding candidates. Look into our communities, our PTAs, our service clubs, small businesses, Tea Party rallies and city halls for people willing to lead.”

The video — made by a production company she often uses named Passcode Creative — doesn’t just go after members of her own party, but the president as well.

As we hear Palin say, “We deserve better than the people who call themselves our leaders,” we see an image of the president playing golf and headlines about the unemployment rate.

Interspersed with video of Palin’s greeting supporters and conservative women like New Mexico’s Susanna Martinez or Nebraska’s Deb Fischer, she warns those watching:

“But we won’t get it unless we fight and this is one fight that’s worth it,” Palin says. “The next election is 20 months away. The last thing we need is Washington, D.C., vetting our candidates.”

The video ends with another cameo from Cruz, “I would not be in the U.S. Senate today if it were not for Governor Sarah Palin,” and her signature mama grizzly roaring with a popular Palin saying, “We haven’t yet begun to fight!”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Sarah Palin Compares Obama to Bernie Madoff, Sips from a Big Gulp and Jokes About Her (Gun) 'Rack'

Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Sarah Palin served up a generous helping of conservative red meat on Saturday, comparing President Obama to white-collar criminal Bernie Madoff, mocking New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his support of a jumbo soda ban and criticizing the GOP’s post-election attempt at “putting a fresh coat of rhetorical paint on our party” rather than focusing on “restoring the trust of the American people.”

On the final day of the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside Washington, D.C., Palin delivered one of the most well-received speeches of a weekend that has featured the likes of Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. Stopping numerous times for standing ovations, she reserved particular vitriol for President Obama.

“He is considered a good politician,” the former vice presidential nominee said, referring to Obama, “which is like saying Bernie Madoff was a good salesmen. The difference being, the president is using our money.”

She exhorted him to “step away from the teleprompter and do your job.”

Dressed in a zippered black jacket, an American flag cuff, and a gold Star of David, necklace Palin lit up the room. It was a stark contrast to Romney's address on Friday when he did not even mention the president. But her barbs were not only aimed at Obama. She broadened her criticism to include the “permanent political class” who are in “permanent campaign mode.”

“Never before have our challenges been so big and our leaders so small,” Palin said.

The former Alaska governor, whose level influence within the Republican Party is a matter of some debate now that she no longer holds public office, declined to run for president last year and decided against renewing her contract as a political commentator on Fox News, said she brought a message from the “heartland of America,” which was simply this: “Things are bad out here.”

During her remarks, which lasted more than 26 minutes -- much more time that many other prominent speakers were allotted at the three-day gathering of thousands of conservative leaders and activists -- she displayed the same renegade sensibility that won her the admiration of so many Republicans when she emerged from relative obscurity (a “hockey mom from Wasilla,” as she referred to herself on Saturday) to become Sen. John McCain’s running mate in 2008.

“Now is the time to furlough the consultants,” she said, echoing a commonly-heard refrain at this weekend’s conference. “If we truly know what we believe we do not need professionals to tell us.”

And on Saturday she waded in to one of the country’s most intractable policy debates: gun control.

“Background checks? Yeah, I guess to learn more about a person's thinking and associations and intentions. More background checks?” she said. “Dandy idea, Mr. President -- should have started with yours.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Sarah Palin Asks Followers to #SaveSaeed

Spencer Platt/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has stayed largely out of the limelight in the past few months, but her social media presence is still going strong.

Now the onetime GOP vice presidential nominee, who has almost 3.5 million likes on Facebook, is appealing to her followers on behalf of an American pastor from Idaho held prisoner in Iran.

Less than two weeks ago, an Iranian court sentenced Saeed Abedini to eight years in prison for his religious beliefs after a brief trial that he was not allowed to attend, according to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

“We condemn Iran’s continued violation of the universal right of freedom of religion, and we call on the Iranian authorities to release Mr. Abedini,” Carney said during a press briefing on Jan. 28. “We obviously have a variety of means, including this podium, to express our views on matters like this, and we are very concerned about this and very concerned about the process that led to this.

The State Department remains in close contact with Abedini’s family, said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland in a news briefing two days later.

At his confirmation hearing, Secretary of State John Kerry, in a written statement, called on Iranian authorities to release Abedini, an Idaho television station reported.

But one group is reaching beyond U.S. officials to try to get help for Abedini. The American Center for Law and Justice, a Christian activist organization, has launched a campaign called #SaveSaeed, promoting a petition it plans to bring to international authorities.

Palin first tweeted about Abedini’s case in late December, before the court handed down its ruling.

On Dec. 20, Palin tweeted, "President @BarackObama, please help the American Pastor jailed in Iran for his #Christian faith! http://aclj.us/7sud via @ACLJ."

For more than a month, Palin was silent on social media about #SaveSaeed. Then Friday morning, Palin’s daughter, former Dancing With the Stars competitor Bristol Palin, wrote a blog post urging readers to sign a petition to have Abedini freed, and tweet using the hashtag and pray for him and his family.

The former Alaska governor later linked to her daughter’s post on both Facebook and Twitter.

On Friday, Palin tweeted, "Please Help #SaveSaeed http://fb.me/2qt0o5y3G."

The #SaveSaeed website claimed to have more than 170,000 signatures as of 4 p.m. Friday. Videos promoting the petition say the group’s goal is to reach 300,000 signatures before it presents the petition to the United Nation and the European Commission of Human Rights.

Other celebrities have flocked to the cause, including Christian singer-songwriters Steven Curtis Chapman and TobyMac.

A Twitter account claiming to be Naghmeh Abedini, the pastor’s wife, tweeted her thanks to those who had signed the petition Friday.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

Sarah Palin: Obama Did ‘Shuck and Jive’ on Libya

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Sarah Palin has used racially charged language to accuse “300-400″ people in the Obama administration of ignoring the first signs that the deadly assault on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was a pre-planned terror attack.

“President Obama’s shuck and jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end,” Palin writes in a Facebook post. The “shuck and jive” line also appears in the note’s title and a tweet that links to her statement.

“Shuck and jive” is a racially loaded expression that has mostly disappeared from public discourse over the past half-century.

“She never ceases to amaze,” ABC News political analyst Nicolle Wallace, a former aide to Palin during the 2008 election, said Wednesday.  “It’s entirely possible that she was ignorant about the racial implications of her comments, but at this point, I’m not sure what’s more incredible — her ignorance or her eagerness to offend.”

The phrase “originally referred to the intentionally misleading words and actions that African-Americans would employ in order to deceive racist Euro-Americans in power, both during the period of slavery and afterwards,” according to Urban Dictionary, a catalog of off-color and often racially and sexually insulting slang and terminology.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, used the term while campaigning for Hillary Clinton in 2008, saying Obama “can’t shuck and jive at a press conference… those moves you can make with the press don’t work when you’re in someone’s living room.”

When questioned about his choice of words, Cuomo told Politico he meant it “as a synonym for ‘bob and weave,’” a tactic used by evasive boxers.

Palin aide Rebecca Mansour denied to ABC News that the words had any racial undertone, calling them only a “common phrase that means to manipulatively dodge an issue.” She also pointed to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney’s use of the expression in 2011, when he used it in reference to his own behavior in the briefing room.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Sarah Palin Won't Rule Out a Future White House Run

Scott Olson/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Sarah Palin played it cool Tuesday night, refusing to rule out a future run for the White House.

“I’m not sure what the future holds… Que sera, sera,” she said with a smile when asked by celebrity gossipers Extra if she had any plans to get back in the ring. She had come close to jumping in the mix this year, before eventually standing down.

As for that other election, just 27 days away now, Palin is backing Mitt Romney.

“I think Romney is going to win the presidency,” she said. “I think people are going to realize it’s time to get on a more economically-sound path for this great country and Romney’s got a plan to do that.”

Palin, who recently announced she’s writing a book “on fitness and self-discipline,” took a few questions outside the Dancing With The Stars: All Stars after-party. Daughter “Bristol the pistol” is making her second appearance on the show and had reason to celebrate after making the cut and progressing to the competition’s third round.

“Bristol is an amazing workaholic, has a great work ethic, lots of energy,” Palin told the cameras. “As for advice, I tell her to keep everything in perspective, stay optimistic and positive and… might as well dance.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Sarah Palin, Some RNC Members Push for Convention-Floor Fight

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images(TAMPA, Fla.) -- A convention-floor fight might still be brewing in Tampa, Fla. over a proposed Republican Party rule on delegates.

Some Republican National Committee members were up in arms Monday about a proposed rule that would weaken states’ control of who gets to attend future national conventions as voting delegates. While primaries typically determine how many delegate votes candidates will receive, states typically meet later to fill out those delegate rosters. A new rule would allow presidential candidates to veto those choices.

Republican National Committeeman Jim Bopp, who had led the movement against the rule, reached a compromise with other RNC members Monday, but some of his fellow partisans have rejected it, according to internal emails obtained by ABC News.

Fanning the flames, Sarah Palin posted to her Facebook page urging Republican National Committee members to revolt against the proposed rule, which was supported by backers of presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Palin wrote Monday night:

Had a great time today in Gilbert, Arizona, at a rally for Kirk Adams. It’s very important to pay attention to these down ballot races like Kirk Adams, Jeff Flake, and Paul Gosar in Arizona. We have to remember that this election is not just about replacing the party in power. It’s about who and what we replace it with. Grassroots conservatives know this. Without the energy and wisdom of the grassroots, the GOP would not have had the historic 2010 electoral victories. That’s why the controversial rule change being debated at the RNC convention right now is so very disappointing. It’s a direct attack on grassroots activists by the GOP establishment, and it must be rejected. Please follow the link to Michelle Malkin’s article about this.

Bopp’s compromise would eliminate the ability for presidential candidates to veto state delegate selections, instead mandating that delegates vote as they are bound by primary or caucus results, but fellow RNC members are not all on board.

According to internal RNC emails, some members will push for a “minority report” to block the delegate rule change, attempting to push that to the convention floor for a vote, potentially adding a show of disunity to Mitt Romney’s coronation as the party’s presidential nominee.

Perhaps lost in the RNC’s internal dispute is a broader change that would effectively prevent future candidates from pursuing Rep. Ron Paul’s strategy of amassing delegates at state conventions.

Another proposed change, untouched by Bopp’s compromise, would eliminate unbound Republican delegates, requiring every state to allocate delegates to presidential candidates according to statewide votes. Paul remained a topic of conversation this year without winning any states, as his supporters out-organized longstanding local party members at county and state conventions in a handful of states.

Paul gained plurality delegate support in four states in 2012. Under the new rule, he would not enjoy plurality delegate support in any state.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Dick Cheney Seeks to Clarify Sarah Palin ‘Mistake’ Remark

ABC/Taylor Glenn(WASHINGTON) -- In an interview that aired Monday night on Fox News, former Vice President Dick Cheney tried to clarify what he told ABC News 10 days ago about Sarah Palin.

In that interview, Cheney said John McCain’s decision to pick Palin as his running mate was “a mistake” because, he said, Palin did not pass the test of being ready to be president.

“I like Governor Palin.  I’ve met her.  I know her.  She is an attractive candidate.  But based on her background -- she’d only been governor for, what, two years -- I don’t think she passed that test,” Cheney told ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Jonathan Karl.

“Of being ready?” Karl asked.

“Of being ready to take over," Cheney replied.  "And I think that was a mistake.”

Now, Cheney tells Sean Hannity he was talking about the “process” McCain went through in choosing a running mate.

“It wasn’t aimed so much at Gov. Palin as it was against the basic process that McCain used,” Cheney said.  “My point basically dealt with the process in terms of that basic requirement, is this person prepared to step in to be president of the United States when they’re picked?  And it was my judgment -- I was asked if I thought the McCain process in ’08 had been well done or was it a mistake, and I said I thought it was a mistake.  That’s not…meant so much as a criticism of Gov. Palin as it is that I just thought it was not -- the process didn’t meet the standards I would like to see our candidate pursue when they pick a -- a running mate.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Sarah Palin Cuts TV Ad for Sarah Steelman in Missouri Senate Race

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Sarah Palin is leaping to the assistance of a fellow “momma grizzly” in Missouri.

Sarah Steelman, who has enjoyed the backing of Tea Partiers in Missouri’s three-way Republican Senate primary, received Palin’s endorsement earlier this month.  Now, Palin is appearing in a TV ad for Steelman in the race’s closing stretch.

Steelman for Senate unveiled Palin’s ad on YouTube Monday.

Despite backing from Palin and national group Tea Party Express, Steelman, 54, is an underdog in the state’s Aug. 7 primary.  John Brunner, a businessman who has spent nearly $7 million of his own money on the race and who is backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, leads Steelman 33 percent to 27 percent, according to a Mason-Dixon poll conducted for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 23-25.  Rep. Todd Akin trailed in third with 17 percent.

All three Republicans lead incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, according to the poll.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

McCain on Cheney's 'Mistake' Comment: 'I’m Proud of Sarah Palin'

Mark Wilson/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Dick Cheney’s remark to ABC’s Jonathan Karl that John McCain’s 2008 selection of a running mate was a mistake has drawn the rebuke of his daughter.

“Rarely do I disagree with best VP ever but @SarahPalinUSA more qualified than Obama and Biden combined. Huge respect 4 all she’s done 4 GOP,” tweeted Liz Cheney, a conservative commentator.

McCain was a little more pointed in his response to Cheney Monday morning on Fox News.  He said he respects the former vice president, but pointed to their disagreements over the years, particularly on the subject of torture.

“I’m always glad to get comments four years later,” said McCain with a chuckle. “I respect the vice president.  He and I had strong disagreements as to whether we should torture people or not.  I don’t believe we should have. The fact is I’m proud of Sarah Palin. I’m proud of the job she did. I’m proud of the job she continues to do.  Everybody has their own views and I respect those views.  But I’m proud of what we did.”

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

Dick Cheney Recalls Knowing His Heart Was ‘At an End’

ABC/Taylor Glenn(WASHINGTON) -- With a new heart, Dick Cheney is back. In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, the former vice president reflects on his heart transplant and shows he is as confrontational as ever, taking on President Obama and even Sarah Palin.

Cheney, 71, details how far back he has come.  He remembers waking from weeks of heavy sedation after having a pump installed in his heart in 2010, a grueling operation that left him seeing his own mortality in the mirror.

“Two years ago this time I was on a respirator, heavily sedated.  Just had a pump… installed on my heart because my heart had gotten so weak after six heart attacks and 30-some years of heart disease that it was, you know, it was at the end,” he said.

“I lost 40 pounds.  I was heavily sedated in the intensive care unit for weeks afterwards.  I had pneumonia while I was in recovering from the surgery.  And by the time I came out from under I looked in a mirror and what I saw was my dad shortly before he died.  He was in his 80s,” Cheney said.

That is why Cheney, in his first interview since his heart transplant four months ago, calls his recovery “nothing short of a miracle.”

“I haven’t felt this good in years,” he said.

Cheney doesn’t know who gave him his new heart because protocol is to maintain anonymity, but the former vice president said there is a program that allows an intermediary to reach out to the donor family to see if they want contact with the recipient.

“At some point I would be, you know, certainly amenable to contact with the family.  But we have not at this point exchanged any information,” he said.

If contact was made, Cheney said he would “express my gratitude for what’s a magnificent gift.  I can’t think of a more magnificent gift than to be given additional years of life.”

Healthy again, Cheney has resumed his love of fishing and his frank evaluations of politicians, including himself.

Cheney left office as one of the most unpopular vice presidents in the country’s history, but the man known for his defiance of public opinion is vintage Cheney.

“I’m very comfortable with what I did, and why I did it, and how I did it,” he said.

When asked if he had any regrets, Cheney replied, “Not really.”

The former VP did not spare his fellow Republicans in the interview, calling Sen. John McCain’s selection of Palin as his vice president running mate a “mistake.”  Cheney said Palin had been governor of Alaska for two years at the time and “did not pass the test” of being ready to be president.

His harshest criticism, however, was for Obama.

“I obviously am not a big fan of President Obama.  I think he’s been one of our weakest presidents.  I just fundamentally disagree with him philosophically.  I’d be hard put to find any Democratic president that I’ve disagreed with more,” he said.

When asked if he thought Obama was “worse than Jimmy Carter,” Cheney replied, “Yes.”

Cheney gave Obama credit for killing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, but added that “a lot of that intelligence that laid the groundwork for what ultimately led to the capture of Bin Laden [was] as a result of programs we had in place in the Bush administration.”

He was sharply critical, however, of Obama’s plans to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We should not be running for the exits.  We should not be turning our backs on our friends in that part of the world,” Cheney said.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio