Sarah Palin outlines a legislative plan for Republicans

Sarah Palin is urging Republicans to see their 2010 victories as the start of a longer effort to “revive and restore” America, a goal that she says is possible only if President Obama is ousted in 2012.

In an online commentary, Palin outlines how she would like to see the new Republican forces in Congress follow through when they take control, and what it would mean for the next election.

“The 2012 story should be about conservatives in Congress cutting government down to size and rolling back the spending, and the Left doing everything in its power to prevent these necessary reforms from happening,” she writes for the National Review. “In the next two years, if all we end up doing is adopting some tax hikes here, some Obama-agenda compromises there, and a thousand little measures that do nothing to get us out of the economic mess we’re in, the same voters that put the GOP in office will vote them out in the next election.”

Palin also offered a defense against critics who say she backed candidates in some primary races who proved to be unelectable in the general election, Christine O’Donnell of Delaware foremost among them.

“We saw in the last decade what happens when conservatives hold their noses and elect liberals who have an ‘R’ after their names,” she said. “Certainly we can and should back sensible center-right candidates in bluer states, but I see no point in backing someone who supports cap-and-tax, Obamacare, bailouts, taxes, and more useless stimulus packages.”

A new video from Palin’s SarahPAC also released Thursday, highlights the victorious candidates she endorsed, including Governors-elect Mary Fallin, Nikki Haley and Susana Martinez, Senators-elect Kelly Ayotte, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, and new soon-to-be Congressmen like Sean Duffy and Allen West.

It ends with a roaring bear, evoking her talk of a movement of “mama grizzlies.”

Without discussing her own potential run for national office, Palin urges like-minded conservatives to see 2010 victories as just the beginning.

“We cannot fully restore and revive America until we replace Obama,” she said. “The meaning of the 2010 election was rebuke, reject, and repeal. … But this theme will only complement the theme of 2012, which is renew, revive, and restore.”

Palin’s own course remains unclear, and is the subject of speculation particularly among those Republicans who would traditionally now begin ramping up their would-be presidential campaigns. The former Alaska governor has said she could indeed be a candidate.

A documentary series on TLC, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska,” debuts later this month. A new book, “America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag,” will be released Nov. 23.

mmemoli@tribune.com

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