Sarah Palin's speaking engagement for Heroic Media at Houston's First Baptist Church Tuesday night had plenty of what was expected: pro-life rhetoric, personal stories about her life and choices, Republican politicking and Alaska folksiness.

But that doesn't mean Palin can't surprise you.

Palin walked energetically onstage looking sharp, in a cropped houndstooth jacket and black sheath dress, with her dynamite runner's gams on display.

Palin opened with talk about how great Texas is, basketball (including something about women's "bizarro" rules from back in the day), Gov. Rick Perry shooting a coyote (she was for it), Glenn Beck's D.C. rally (apparently the AP news wire "doesn't want you to know" how many people were really there) and her own current mix of blueberry and caribou blood under her fingernails.

Where were we? Ah, abortion.

Actually, the first topic Palin really focuses in on is the health care bill, also known to this crowd as Obamacare. According to Palin, it violates the commerce clause, "the will of the people" and our consciences by publicly funding abortion. To healthy applause, Palin implores the audience to make repealing the healthcare act one of the top priorities for the midterm elections.

Palin finally reaches the subject at hand, and she employs the soft language the new center-friendly pro-lifers use about how abortion providers and supporters demean women by telling them they aren't strong enough or smart enough to handle motherhood and their lives, and how crisis pregnancy centers help women "feel empowered to listen to their heart, their conscience and their creator."

Heroic Media is a non-profit whose goal is to reduce the number of abortions through media outreaches. Those in the crowd for the nearly hour-long speech know what they are in for and they paid $50 a person to hear Palin preach.

Oddly, a lot of people here use the word "choice": Bristol's choice, making the right decision, adoption as "the beautiful choice," etc. Choice, choice, choice. It's a sad sort of irony that no one else seems to notice (likely because I'm one of the "media infiltrators" Palin calls out), but as far as I'm aware being strictly pro-life tends to take the choice out of the equation.

Palin talks a lot about her pregnancy and life with youngest son Trig, who has Down Syndrome, as well as Bristol's decision to have a baby. It's warm stuff, personal, often funny (an Arizona Down Syndrome support group sent her a bumper sticker that says "My child has more chromosomes than your child") but lacks a certain authenticity, an openness about any kind of internal struggle, lost in the swelling wave of the awesome power of motherhood and God's plan.

Palin takes a couple more shots at Obama, EMILY'S List (an organization committed to electing pro-choice Democratic women to office), and, of course, Planned Parenthood before stumbling her way through a short panel Q&A and hitting the road.

But not before dropping the nugget that Dancing With The Stars originally wanted her husband Todd on the show — surprise!

Was anything new said, or new policy outlined? Not even close.

Did the base love every minute of it? You betcha.