Palin bus tour to roll into Iowa
(CNN) - After a more than two-month hiatus, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is planning to crash the presidential party once again with a heartland-themed re-launch of her "One Nation" bus tour this week in Iowa, according to a Palin fundraising email obtained by CNN.
Palin is bringing her Constitution-draped bus to the Iowa State Fair, just 30 miles south of where the Republican presidential field will take the stage on Thursday for a presidential debate in Ames.
It's not yet clear which day the tour begins, but her surprise arrival in Iowa will happen before the closely watched Ames straw poll. Palin is not on the straw poll ballot.
According to a video link included the fundraising solicitation for Palin's political action committee, Sarah PAC, it appears the bus will also take Palin to Missouri and Illinois to visit the respective hometowns of former presidents Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan.
"The heartland is perfect territory for more of the One Nation Tour as we put forth efforts to revitalize the fundamental restoration of America by highlighting our nation's heart, history, and founding principles," Palin wrote in the email.
Sarah PAC Treasurer Tim Crawford would not provide more the details about the tour.
During the opening act of her bus tour in May, Palin toured historical sites along the East Coast, grabbing countless headlines along the way and stealing a share of the political spotlight from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who announced his presidential bid in New Hampshire at the same time her bus was driving into the state.
Federal paperwork reveals that her political action committee shelled out nearly $20,000 on the tour this spring.
The bus tour sequel adds even more drama to a blockbuster political week in Iowa, which holds the first contest in the presidential nomination fight.
Along with the debate and the make-or-break straw poll, most of the Republican candidates are slated to deliver stump speeches this week at the Iowa State Fair on the Des Moines Register-sponsored political soapbox.
And on Sunday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Palin ally who is on the verge of joining the 2012 race, will make his Iowa debut at a Republican fundraising dinner in Waterloo.
Palin's re-emergence in Iowa just hours before the debate is a reminder that the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee intends to remain part of the presidential discussion as long as possible, despite being largely dismissed by party insiders.
While polls show that Republicans harbor doubts about whether she should run for president, Palin would undoubtedly be a factor in the GOP primary thanks to her popularity among conservative activists and a knack for attracting media attention.
A Gallup survey out Tuesday showed that Palin generates more enthusiasm among GOP voters than most of the candidates already in the race. And as Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour recently put it, "she could raise enough money to burn a wet mule."
Her advisers have long emphasized that such star power gives her the ability to delay a decision about joining the race until after Labor Day.
Palin has pointed to September as a loose deadline for making a decision about whether she will seek the GOP presidential nomination.
There is also anecdotal evidence that Palin has the potential to shake up the Republican race in Iowa.
Despite having no formal campaign infrastructure in the state, hundreds of supporters turned out in June to catch a glimpse of Palin when a sympathetic film about her rise to power debuted in Pella.
She has plans to return to the state over Labor Day weekend for a Tea Party rally in the Des Moines area.
Ms. Palin has illusions of grandeur thinking that she could be POTUS, but the is a very smart woman. While she is on the payroll of Fox (to the tune of One Million Dollars) she cannot become a candidate or she will lose he position, and the salary, with Fox. However, if she continues to be a 'spoil sport' to other candidates, she gets her message across – particuarly with CNN her favorite fawning network covering everything word that emulates from her untalented mouth.
Palin's main interest is Palin, her secondary interest is in making as much money as she can while she can. Hopefully the Republican party has enough moxie to write this showoff right off the potential ballot. If they don't then we all can be assured that the Democratic candidate will once again be elected POTUS.
Ha! What a total waste of news, life, gas, etc. She doesn't stand a chance to win any kind of election, especially a presidential. Don't fool yourselves..
I am a conservative republican and I would vote for Obama all day long before I would even think about voting for this nutjob. Maybe we could all chip in a few bucks and pay her to go away forever, what a dimwitted, polarizing media hound she is.....sigh. I rue the day McCain released this scourge on our society
The media follows her because she is comedy in the making every time
She speaks.
This smegma in the form of 'silly sarah walking into town backwards upside down' may be the best example of the personification of the evil of that is wrong in and with America today! At this point there is nothing mccain can do to ever repay the vileness that he has loosed upon us. If you are an truely honest person of the so called christian faith, her greed and disdain for others now that she has reaped the rewards of one of the seven sins you could not wish for anything but a pox on her and her lying vile offspring!
That woman is nothing but a mouth with glasses and a hairdo. I've never heard such a big-talking do-nothing in my life.
hey America,
What if Palin got to Iowa and nobody was there to greet her. She has lost many followers...It's a thought!!!
Better yet-use YOUR money to fight off all the lawsuits and stop throwing Alaska under the bus. It that the real reason you ran for gov? to use the name even though you QUIT?? stay away from Alaska!!
Can't wait to see how the real candidates welcome her bus rolling into town. I'm sure they're all going to be delighted to see her. She's playing the media and she's playing her "fans" like a fiddle. Sarah cares about one thing only and that's doing anything she possibly can to get attention. Sarah needs attention like the rest of us need air.
Here's some advice Mrs. Palin......Stay on hiatus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sara who?
This looks a lot like an 11th grade student body presidential campaign
Hahahaha...did I see someone refer to her as "smart?" Hahahaha. C U Next Tuesday
A bus tour? Is it called THE BIMBO EXPRESS?
Please, Sarah - just go away and die already. No one...absolutely NO ONE, likes you. EVERYONE thinks you're an idiot.
Oh goodie, let the crazy begin. I call dibs on the popcorn and beer concessions.
Maybe they'll give her jury duty again. Last time, they apparently gave her only two days notice, since she had to suddenly cancel the tour in NH.
HURRAY FOR YOU PALIN. You are so far smarter than the bag in the Oval Office. Millions of us are out here waiiting on you to come on and commit to run. Don't let the ignorance of Obama supporters stop you. PALIN 2012
Yes, Sara. Run, run, please run! We ignorant Obama supports don't want to stop you! We want you to run so the bag in the Oval Office will get re-elected by a landslide! The country didn't want you in 2008 and we don't want you now. Please run Sara.
She won't run, but if she did, and somehow won, can you imagine if World war III seriously broke out, and Sarah Palin is the Commander in Chief? This isn't like running for president of student council.
The thing that bothers me more than anything which the media does is to continue to call her a christian. She is no more christian than my cat. She is just a ridiculous nobody that thinks because John Mccain picked her for a running mate, , because Bill Crystal had been to visit her and decided to throw it out there that he thought she might be okay, her head swelled about 4 sizes and she still is on that high. By the way, she was not the winner of that beauty contest, she was just in it. She is so ridiculous, she thinks she is the most precious thing in the world. She certainly is not a christian.
You're doomed liberals.... and you know it.
Palin will be our be our next president. Palin will govern as a commonsense leader , representing the vast majority of Americans. In doing so – she will destroy what little is left of liberalism/socialism/marxism and communism in this country.
Presient Palin will also rescue this country's financial spiral from destroying us and will regain America's place as the global leader it's always been. All to the dismay of liberals and their stooges in the media.
Palin is WAY too smart for lefties and the media to out wit , try as they have. She will continue to manipulate you. Make you lie awake at night with worry about your failed ideology , make you scream at your TV set everytime she appears , make you either rush to the polls or make you stay home on election eve.
Palin will make you do whatever she wishes you to do. Palin will make you....
LOL! The Germans thought the same thing about Adolf Hitler. If anyone is doomed, it's the Tea Party and the sooner the better. Come on Sarah, run!
What has she ever done besides polarize and breed hate?
The Palins are coming!.....The Palins are coming!.....woops, wrong State.
Since Bachmann is getting more attention than she is, she just has to show up and try to screw up the show. It is a shame that all the republicans can show is a bunch of clowns. But then we have a bunch of clowns who post messages. Any body that supports this nut just has to have lost most of that straw in their brains.
Who cares what this quiter/loser does?