Palin: America on 'Road to Ruin'

Sarah Palin thinks the nation's headed to hell in a handbasket, and the only way to save it is to get back in line with Ronald Reagan's policies, she said in a speech last night kicking off centennial celebrations of the Gipper's Feb. 6 birth. "This is insane," she said of Washington's direction. "This is not the road to national greatness, it is the road to ruin." The speech, sponsored by the Young Americans Foundation, focused on Reagan's 1964 "A Time for Choosing" speech, which railed against LBJ's Great Society, big government, and high taxes. "We could choose one direction or the other, socialism or freedom and free markets," said Palin.

One person not impressed with Palin's speech: Reagan's son, Ron, whose politics lean left: "Sarah Palin is a soap opera, basically. She's doing mostly what she does to make money and keep her name in the news. She is not a serious candidate for president and never has been," he told the AP. (More Sarah Palin stories.)