Bus tour trial run for Palin family
Image by Getty Images via @daylifeFormer Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will travel to Iowa next month as part of her nationwide bus tour, two sources with direct knowledge of the plan told RealClearPolitics.As I have noted the "One Naion" theme is a way to counter her media reputation of being divisive. She is also hitting the hot button themes of the Tea Party backers as she visits the sites of foundational events and documents.
Palin's trip to the nation's first voting state -- where she has not yet set foot this year --will further escalate the already feverish speculation that she is leaning toward a White House run.
Though Palin has insisted that her "One Nation" bus tour -- being kicked off from Washington over the holiday weekend -- is intended merely to "highlight America's foundation," RCP has learned that the road trip was designed as a test run to find out whether she can execute a decidedly unconventional campaign game plan.
Palin -- and especially her husband, Todd -- is said to be leaning toward running. But multiple sources said that their foremost remaining concern was whether it would be logistically feasible for their large family to hit the road together for the next several months in a prospective campaign that would rely heavily on bus travel.
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A political Merry Prankster, Palin clearly relishes her unique ability to confound and surprise her prospective opponents, as she test-drives a possible presidential run that she and her team -- with a discernible wink -- have publicly billed as something akin to a mere sightseeing trip.
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If Palin does enter the race, it is not difficult to imagine a scenario by which Romney -- the presumed national front-runner who already enjoys high name recognition -- might be better able make a case for coalescing the Republican establishment around his candidacy, in an effort to stave off an unpredictable insurgent who figures to "go rogue" on the party machinery that she so detests.
But Romney still has a long way to go before he can claim a stranglehold on the establishment, and Pawlenty and other viable contenders will remain right on his heels.
The level of political momentum that her nationwide bus tour will generate is still unknown, and Palin's image problems with large swaths of the electorate remain glaring. But her reemergence has made clear at least one reality: rumors of Sarah Palin's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
It is not an all in trip. She is advertising heavily for donations to her PAC where she could influence races other than her own. I think the theme of testing how the family will do on the bus tour with how her candidacy will be received makes it a dual mission. We probably will not know how it plays out before her movie is released this summer in Iowa.
Meanwhile she continues to frustrate the media who desperately want to follow her around while at the same time desperately wanting to shoot down her chances. The irony is that she is in the process creating just the kind of media frenzy the media has said it wants to avoid. That makes it fun to watch from this perspective.
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