Palin Coincidentally Finds Key Primary States on Bus Tour
She'll hit South Carolina and New Hampshire, but only because they're 'American'
.Sarah Palin's bus roadtrip of historic sites will wind through South Carolina, making her "nontraditional" campaign tour look a bit more traditional. Real Clear Politics' Scott Conroy reports that the southern state will be one of three to be centerpieces of separate segments of the trip--the other two being New Hampshire and Iowa.
The Washington Post's Dan Balz reports that Republican insiders are dismissing Palin's "unorthodox approach" as "a non-starter" and "'an ill-conceived' venture." But nobody "enjoys tweaking the politico-media establishment more than the former Alaska governor," Balz writes. Here's how she's tweaking the establishment: Not by shunning the first three voting states, but by implying that her visits to them is coincidental. "I honestly don't look at states according to when their primaries are," Palin told Conroy. "To me, an American is an American, no matter what their primary election dates are." New Hampshire, which has the first presidential primary, will see Palin later this week. Voters in the Granite State are special "not just because they have a certain date of a primary election," Palin said, but "because they are Americans. And obviously they want jobs; they want safety in their communities; they want strong national defense; they want the same things that everybody else wants. I guess that's that non-politician in me."
Palin will present herself as a "non-politician" when she heads to Iowa, too, where she has the support of 15 percent of Republican voters, according to Public Policy Polling. (That ties her with Herman Cain for second place behind Mitt Romney.) In Des Moines, Palin plans to go rogue by meeting with Gov. Terry Branstad but ducking local Republican leaders. Instead, she's considering a visit to the World Pork Expo. Because no politician in history has ever tried to win over voters by tasting the local cuisine.