This past weekend wasn’t just big for football fans; it was also big for Sarah Palin, who gave the keynote address at a for-profit gathering of “tea party” activists.

The National Tea Party Convention, a grass-roots conservative movement hell-bent on starting a revolution, was held in Nashville this past weekend.

At the gathering, Palin said that the movement was “a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter.”

That’s really funny coming from a woman who happens to write her notes on her hand.

That’s right folks, at a Q&A for the Tea Party gathering, Palin was caught black handed reading prompts from her palm.

The prompt which read: energy, budget tax cuts and lift American spirits, ensued a long list of copy-catters including Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and even Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. During a press conference this week, Gibbs flashed his hand, which read eggs, milk, bread, hope and change.

Palin even made fun of herself. At a Texas rally, Palin deliberately waved around her hand reading “Hi Mom!’ for all the photographers.

I find it shocking that so many people are willing to follow a woman that doesn’t even take herself seriously, but I guess that just goes to show that people will follow anyone when no one else will step up.

Palin really brought the heat when she asked Obama supporters this: “How’s that hope-y, change-y stuff workin’ out for ya?”

Oh Sarah, maybe you’re right. I think we’ll all be much better off if we just give up all hope and believe that nothing in our country is ever going to change.

That is sure to lift American spirits so you can just go ahead and cross that one off of your hand.

Judging by her criticism, she apparently thinks that she can do a better job than our current president.

Some of the big ideas she presented in her speech were less government, lower taxes and stronger defense. I’m so glad to see that she is coming up with such original and innovative ideas. That’s totally presidential material right there.

Palin said that she would be willing to run against President Barack Obama in the 2012 election if she “believed that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family.”

“I won’t close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future,” Palin said.

Well if you won’t close it, Sarah, I would be more than happy to. Hell, I would lock it, seal the cracks and block it with something extremely heavy.

Judging by the fact that Palin pretty much annihilated any chance John McCain had at the winning the presidency in the 2008 election, I find it hard to believe that she would ever even come close to becoming the president, but apparently she has supporters.

“Run Sarah, Run,” was chanted by her backers during the tea party Q&A.

I am hopeful that by run they meant run far away to another country in seclusion, but unfortunately I think they were actually encouraging her to run for president of the United States.

A scary thought indeed.

If that ever did happen, I would be forced to retract any statements I have ever made calling the whole 2012 theory a crock, because if she is the best that the Republicans can do, maybe the world really is coming to an end.

Rabab Al-Sharif is a sophomore magazine journalism major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].