Print edition: 
SALINA — Sarah Palin assailed federal bailouts, stimulus spending and the Obama administration's handling of terrorist activities before a record crowd at a Salina Area Chamber of Commerce meeting Friday night.
Palin, who spent the day in Salina, urged Kansans to pay attention to what's happening in Washington, D.C., and hold politicians accountable.
"In a time when folks so fear that much is going wrong, your town is an example of how to get it right and how to soar," she said.
The former governor of Alaska drew some of the loudest applause at the Bicentennial Center when she criticized law enforcement officials for questioning a suspected Christmas Day airplane bomber for only 50 minutes before reading him Miranda rights.
"We need a commander in chief, not a professor of constitutional law," she said as her words drowned in applause. About 6,000 people filled the arena.
Palin said that investigators should have asked more questions of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab before granting him Miranda rights, a right to remain silent and contact a lawyer.
"Treating this threat as a mere law enforcement matter places our country at a grave risk," she said.
That resonated with several people after the nearly 40-minute speech ended.
"I think my new motto is 'America is ailin', we need Palin,' " said Wayne Burke, a minister from Arkansas City.
As he left, he said: "It fired me up."
Loretta Reece and Robert Eaton, a married couple from Salina, said their son has been deployed to Iraq twice and Afghanistan once.
"They're not taking it seriously," Reece said of the Obama administration.
Reece and Eaton hope Palin will run for president in 2012.
"Anybody with common sense," Eaton said.
Palin is the latest big name to take the stage at the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce's annual banquet. Bob Costas, Cal Ripken Jr., Joyce Brothers, Colin Powell and former President George H. W. Bush have all spoken at the banquet.
Palin quickly became a Republican star after being picked as Sen. John McCain's running mate in the 2008 presidential election. Her folksy mannerisms and tough talk electrified political rallies nationwide and won the hearts of conservative Kansans.
Since being defeated by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, Palin has resigned as governor, been named as a possible challenger to Obama in 2012, become a familiar face on the Fox News Channel and penned the best-selling book "Going Rogue: An American Life."
Palin will be in Wichita for a fundraiser on May 2 at Intrust Bank Arena. Some Republicans think she may sell out the 15,000-seat downtown arena.
America's interest in her —or at least the media's — matches that of almost any politician in recent memory.
That has cut both ways. It has made her a darling of conservative talk shows and fundraising events.
But her lack of foreign policy experience, northern twang and some responses in TV interviews made her the target of endless jokes not only among the political left, but of mainstream shows like "Saturday Night Live."
The media's fixation on her as not only a politician but a cultural icon remains evident.
An example: "Entertainment Tonight" produced a feature this week on her daughter's ex-boyfriend, Levi Johnston, as he took care of Palin's grandson, Tripp. It included a segment on him changing the baby's diaper.
Palin was accompanied by her daughter Piper during the speech and drew applause when she said her husband, Todd, is training for a big snow machine race.
Her popularity was highlighted several times to the packed arena.
Palin said that while she was backstage before the speech a chamber official said, "'Man, this is like a Van Halen concert.' I'm like, man, I wish."
"With that response, maybe we are at a Van Halen concert," a chamber official told the crowd after the speech.
