Sarah Palin addresses Tea Party conventioneers in Nashville, Tennessee (Adapted from photos published at Climate Progress)

Ex-Alaska Gov. asks, "How's all that hopey-changey stuff workin' out for ya?"

Giving the keynote address at the first-ever National Tea Party Convention in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday night, former Alaska governor Sarah Palin showed that while she is ready for a room full of adoring Tea Party supporters, she still may not be ready for prime time.

In many ways, Palin's $100,000 speech to a packed room at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Convention Center was what would be expected:  Full of sharp criticism about the so-called "Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda" and full of enough gaffes and rhetorical blunders to keep many people interested in C-SPAN for a whole forty minutes (See video of Sarah Palin's entire speech below).

Ms. Palin began her speech with a ringing endorsement of the Tea Partiers. "I'm a big supporter of this movement, I believe in this movement," said Palin, adding, "This is the movement and America is ready for another revolution, and you are a part of this."

Palin then rallied those in attendance with a shout-out to the new senator from Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown. "In many ways, Scott Brown represents what this beautiful movement is all about.  You know he was just a guy with a truck and a passion to serve our country." Palin then added, "If there's hope in Massachusetts, there's hope everywhere."

When Palin talked about energy -- which she apparently needed reminding to do, judging by the fact that the word "energy" was written on the palm of her hand -- the sentiment was like a miniature version of her 2008 stump speech, with one exception: This time Palin didn't even lend rhetorical support for anything but "conventional" energy sources.

"We need an all of the above energy strategy. That means proven, conventional resource development and support for nuclear power," said Palin. "We need to axe that plan for 'cap-and-tax' that policy that's gonna kill jobs and is going to pass the burden of paying for it onto our working families."

About a third of the way into the speech , Palin started-in on America's current foreign policy strategy. In particular, Palin was critical of the Obama administration's desire to seek diplomatic solutions to geopolitical conflict. Palin said that because of that, "Around the world, people who are seeking freedom from oppressive regimes wonder if Alaska is still that beacon of hope for their cause." [15:07] Half-way into the next sentence, Palin appeared to realize that, perhaps, she said "Alaska", instead of "America", but didn't stop to correct the mistake.

It was a mistake, wasn't it?

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Photo Derived from photos at Climate Progress