Sarah Palin went to Wisconsin over the weekend to tout her preferred candidate -- Donald Trump -- at a GOP fundraising dinner in advance of the Badger State's presidential primary today.
What happened next will stun you. I promise.
The entire speech ran 18 minutes. Palin got applause three times: 1. When she was introduced 2. When she mentioned Hillary Clinton and Benghazi and 3. When she finished.
Here are a select few of my favorite lines -- in the order in which Palin said them.
-- "Getting off the airplane ... Seeing all the green and gold and the green and gold until I'm dead and cold paraphernalia everywhere."
-- "This awesome awakening, the shifting and sifting and the exposing of this rabid bite for them to hang on to any kind of relevancy and to hang on to their gravy train."
-- On immigrants: "Inducing and seducing them with gift baskets ... 'Come on over the border and here's a gift basket of teddy bears and soccer balls.' "
-- "In order to work, to produce, to strive and to thrive, and to really be alive in the greatest country on earth."
-- "Trashin' our economy, shippin' out jobs, lettin' us foot the bill, palin' around with the same old politicos and insiders."
-- "And we won't retreat, we'll reload. We'll reload."
It was like watching Walt "Clyde" Frazier give a political speech. It was awkward as hell and impossible to stop watching all at the same time.
Palin, since she has slipped from the public eye following the 2008 campaign, has become increasingly convinced of the fundamental rightness of the persona she took on in that race: A straight-talking slam poet telling it like it is to the powers that be. All of them. Everywhere.
By those standards, Palin was at her absolute peak in this Wisconsin speech. Or her absolute nadir. I'm not sure which.