Sarah Palin delivers keynote address at CPAC

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Sarah Palin speaks at CPAC

Former Alaska governor speaks at annual conference for conservative activists

Sarah Palin on Saturday took her requisite swipes at President Obama and the rest of his Democratic Party but saved some of her sharpest criticism for the old guard of the Republican Party -- telling potential voters to get rid of the “GOP beltway boys.”

The former GOP Alaska governor and 2008 vice presidential candidate delivered her remarks as the keynote speaker of the Conservative Political Action Conference -- a friendly audience that hooted and clapped at her sometimes comical and irreverent speech.

“ObamaCare suckers,” Palin began. “You are the ones paying the bill in this brave new world.”

Palin told the hundreds in the audience that America is on the edge of an awakening -- sparked last year by Tea Party champion and Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s effort to defund ObamaCare.

“The filibuster worked by waking up America to the folly,” she said to applause.

She argued that Congress already has “some good guys” including conservative scrappers such as GOP Reps. Louie Gohmert, Texas, and Trey Gowdy, South Carolina.

But it’s time to send them re-enforcements,” she said. “They need their re-enforcements because people are hurting today. … I feel good today because people aren’t putting up with it. There are stirrings of a great awakening. I do feel the eyes of America are being opened.”

Beyond Obama and other Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Palin argued, the Republican establishment is to blame for many of the country’s problems.

“And they are a different breed of cat,” said Palin, suggesting the GOP establishment has become too complacent in their election strategy by focusing only on criticizing ObamaCare and watching the economy tank.

“Why reward them with your vote,” she said. “The age of Obama is almost over.”

Palin closed the event and her speech by arguing that Democrats, not Republicans, have waged a war against women.

“We know better than to fall for that victimization line,” she said. “But if you have a sister or a friend, you have to set them straight. They entice girls to think they need guys to grow government. That’s not liberation; that’s subjugation