Few things are as surprising as Republicans claiming to be populists:
Christine O'Donnell, who rode Tea Party fervor and funding to a stunning win Tuesday in Delaware's Republican Senate primary, brought her us-against-the-D.C.-ruling-class-elites message to a decidedly friendly Washington crowd Friday afternoon, promising a "revolution of reason" that will stick it to the Beltway "popular crowd" this fall.
"They call us wacky, they call us wingnuts," O'Donnell said to a crowd of 2,000 conservative activists who filled a Washington hotel ballroom Friday afternoon at the Annual Values Voter Summit. "We call us 'We the people.'"
Reading from notes and appearing only mildly nervous before the friendly audience, O'Donnell, 41, laid out a warning to those who would underestimate the anger and desire for changed that has gripped American voters.
They call us "aging Reagan staffers and home schoolers," she said, prompting laughter from the crowd. "They're trying to marginalize us, put us in a box."
"We're not trying to take back our country," she said. "We are our country." The crowd rose in one of several standing ovations during her 18-minute speech.
And she briefly addressed criticisms of financial problems and questions of veracity that have dogged her - and have led to top Republicans in her state and nationally to dismiss her as a disaster for the party in the fall.
Yes, she said, referencing issues she had obtaining her degree and paying back due college tuition, "it took me over a decade to pay off my student loans."
One problem O'Donnell told the audience she never had to worry about? "Where to dock my yacht" to save taxes, she said, a reference to Democratic Sen. John Kerry's short-lived decision to berth his yacht outside his home state of Massachusetts for tax purposes. Kerry is Congress's richest member.
The speech was not a conservative tour de force like the red-meat offering that made her mentor, Sarah Palin, a household name after her appearance as the newly minted GOP vice presidential pick at the party's 2008 convention.
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