Sarah Palin: “America’s Enduring Strength” from Sarah Palin on Vimeo.

About time.

(Politico)– Sarah Palin released a video statement Wednesday calling the rush to pin blame on conservatives for the Tucson shooting “reprehensible” and a “blood libel.”

“Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own,” she said. “They begin and end with the criminals who commit them.”

In the eight-minute video, Palin says, “. . . Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.”

Though some “claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently,” Palin said it has always been “heated.”

“. . . When was it less heated? Back in those ‘calm days’ when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols?” she asked.

“In an ideal world all discourse would be civil and all disagreements cordial. But our Founding Fathers knew they weren’t designing a system for perfect men and women. If men and women were angels, there would be no need for government. Our Founders? genius was to design a system that helped settle the inevitable conflicts caused by our imperfect passions in civil ways. So, we must condemn violence if our Republic is to endure?”

Palin said that “America must be stronger than the evil we saw displayed last week.”

“We are better than the mindless finger-pointing we endured in the wake of the tragedy,” sh added. “We will come out of this stronger and more united in our desire to peacefully engage in the great debates of our time, to respectfully embrace our differences in a positive manner, and to unite in the knowledge that, though our ideas may be different, we must all strive for a better future for our country.”