As noted below, I’ll be on CNN’s “American Morning” discussing the Palin bus tour at an early hour this morning. It’s a big topic in the first Morning Jolt of the week…
The Noisiest Stealth Bus Tour Ever Gets Underway
…I see this comment, from an unnamed Palinite insider to Shushannah Walshe of the Daily Beast: “According to a source with knowledge of Palin’s operation and thinking, keep a careful eye on how long the tour lasts, because it is intended as a way to test the presidential waters. If the road trip ends abruptly, it’s a sign she didn’t get the enthusiastic responses she believes she needs to launch a campaign. If the tour heads to regions outside of the Northeast like Iowa and South Carolina that, the source says, is a “big indicator” that Palin will pull the trigger.”
Would even the most unhinged anti-Palinite expect small crowds for her? Don’t answer that, of course they would, in between Trig jokes. But for those of us here on earth, not possessed by a raving fury at Palin, aren’t we all expecting big crowds? Does anyone dispute that Sarah Palin can generate enthusiastic responses? She’s the opposite of a candidate whose support is a mile-wide and an inch deep; her backers are a plurality in GOP circles, whose depth of passion rivals the Mariana Trench.
Andy Barr of Politico apparently can’t get any answers from Team Sarah, and perhaps that wee bit of irritation may come through in his coverage of the bus tour: “For supporters and reporters looking for more details, Palin isn’t providing them. Palin’s staff has been unresponsive to reporters’ requests or told them to check the SarahPAC website, which updates with information only after she’s stopped somewhere. CNN reported Monday that some of Palin’s supporters had already started to gather midday at Gettysburg in hopes that she might be on her way. But by then, Palin’s bus was rolling into Mount Vernon, instead. Indeed, Twitter is about the only way to follow the former Alaska governor — unless you’re Fox News host Greta Van Susteren or her husband, John Coale. Van Susteren is traveling with Palin on Monday and is to conduct an interview inside the One Nation tour bus. Coale, who set up Palin’s political action committee in 2009 and serves as an informal adviser, was spotted with the Palin family at Mount Vernon. But even Van Susteren doesn’t seem to know what Palin’s up to next. “My producer, who talked to someone who works with her in order to set up the interview, told me last night that he would not tell her,” Van Susteren posted on her blog Monday. “We were told to check their website for any information they are releasing. He said they don’t want the media following them, and that includes us.’”
Talk about going over the reporters’ heads. This is a high-publicity stealth tour – the very last to know about the destinations will be the ones covering her, it seems.
Susan Duclos says “hurrah” to the entire concept: “The media seems peeved that the only straight up original news is found at SarahPac, where the donation buttons are prominent and she can get people to sign on for her email list giving her a bigger pool of email subscribers. Yes, all this is too confusing for the media outlets to understand… right. Let us not even mention the stories that have the information wrong where even their corrections screw the whole story up…no, we will leave that to Conservatives4Palin to point out. Palin has them all running in circles, fighting to keep up and failing miserably. Palin is not only getting all the media attention she wants, she is doing it on her terms. She is showing everyone, very clearly just how “lame” the lame stream media has become.”
Her tour needs a t-shirt, like concert tours, except all of the locations and dates are labeled, “For Her to Know, and You to Find Out.”
Note that on SarahPAC’s site, her last post was at Fort McHenry, Maryland. No schedule is posted. Where is the next stop? Somewhere in Delaware? (Do the tollbooths on I-95 count as a site?) Philadelphia? The much-rumored stop in Gettysburg?
UPDATE: My CNN appearance can be found here. At the link, you’ll find the freeze-frame midpoint with my eyes closed; I was slightly more awake than that image might suggest.