Ditka Endorsement of Palin

FoxNews blog:

Former Chicago Bears coach and Pennsylvanian, Mike Ditka, introduced Palin and gave a hearty endorsement of the Republican ticket–and the crowd a pep talk.

“I’m not here because I’m a Republican, which I am, and I’m not here because I’m a conservative, which I am. I’m here because I am an American. It’s time in this country you put party lines on the backburner and you put your country first.” Ditka said, “When I was growing up, it was back in 1963. Then John Kennedy became president-he made a statement: ‘ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.’ Now, it seems to be just the opposite. This is the land of opportunity. It’s not a land of handouts. If you’re willing to work, you can find a job. I want to say how proud I am because I think Sarah Palin epitomizes all the good things, all the good values, of this country. She’s a wife, she’s a mother, she’s a hockey mom, she’s a part-time coach. She was a great leader and is a great leader in the state of Alaska, and she will make a great vice president of the United States, Sarah Palin.”

UPDATE: Gov. Sarah Palin on GMA. Byron York, NRO with Sarah Palin in Pennsylvania:

It’s connecting; this is an audience that knows its Bill Ayers from its Rashid Khalidi. But here in Pennsylvania, white working-class voters seem to remember one thing about Obama above everything else: his remark, made six months ago, that when the economy goes bad, people like them, in places like this, “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” That rankled them at the time, and it rankles them now.

“We were referred to as ‘bitter’ because we treasure the Second Amendment and choose to practice our faith on a daily basis,” Rob Kauffman, a local state representative, tells the crowd before Palin arrives. “Ladies and gentlemen, they just don’t get it.”

Huge cheers. And still more when Palin talks about “a candidate who would lavish praise on working people when they are listening, and then talk about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when they aren’t listening.” As the audience roars, she adds, “You know what I’m talking about! We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Shippensburg and another way in San Francisco!”

Here’s a tip for the McCain-Palin campaign: If you really want to win Pennsylvania, you might want to make sure that everyone in the state hears Obama’s “bitter clinging” soundbite at least once an hour from now until Election Day.

And while you’re at it, send Palin to central, southern, western, and northern Pennsylvania — pretty much every except Philadelphia. “I love her, and I was so thrilled when John McCain picked her,” a woman named Janice, from Mechanicsburg, tells me. “I think she’s more qualified than Barack Obama. They say she’s not qualified, but they ought to look at the top of their ticket.”