Sarah Palin hits Iowa on book tour
Sarah Palin made her post-election debut in first-in-the-nation Iowa Sunday, but her appearance could have easily taken place in any state. There were no meetings with influential local activists, no contact with the state GOP, nor any time devoted to chit-seeking efforts to raise cash for other candidates.
But if the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate's maiden trip to the Hawkeye State as a presidential prospect was unusual by Iowa precedent, the event illustrated why she doesn't necessarily need to stick to the traditional playbook – and raised the possibility that even sacrosanct political dictums of Iowa can be bent or even broken.
Signing books in a suburban chain bookstore, as she has throughout her publicity tour for "Going Rogue," Palin's visit to conservative western Iowa's hub city bore little resemblance to the typical forays of White House hopefuls into the state that traditionally kicks off the presidential campaign.
Instead, she breezed into a Barnes and Noble an hour-and-a-half after her scheduled noon starting time and penned her name into hundreds of books before heading up the interstate for another signing in South Dakota.
Asked between autographs why she chose to come to Iowa, Palin told a small group of reporters: "It's great to be in Iowa, everybody loves Iowa."
When a reporter inquired if she had any message for caucus-goers, Palin said only: "Thank you, appreciate you very much."
The small group of journalists was then quickly hustled out of a curtained-off section of the store where Palin was seated.
But does standard practice matter with Palin?
What makes her potentially so formidable was on vivid display in the hundreds of admirers who waited for hours on the ground in a mall hallway – and some began the vigil overnight in the bitter cold - to get a quickly scribbled signature, handshake and fleeting glimpse at the person most just called "Sarah."
Though some wearing Cornhusker red came from Nebraska, just over the Missouri River, many were from this city and the surrounding northwest Iowa counties that traditionally give Republican candidates some of their largest margins in the state.
But they weren't the sort of party regulars who comprise the county GOP committees and always show up when a national politician comes to town. Many said they hadn't previously participated in the state's quadrennial caucuses and some indicated that they weren't even sure what the caucuses are. And while most were self-identified conservatives, there were also registered Republicans or independents who had previously backed candidates of both parties but who were drawn to Palin because of what she represents.
Jane Mild, along with her daughter, Sarah, left their rural Guthrie County home at 6 in the morning to drive to Sioux City.
A precinct captain for Gov. Bill Richardson, a New Mexico Democrat, in 2008, Mild said she and her teenage daughter were inspired by Palin and see her as a model for women.
“I wish she was treated more fairly,” Mild said, noting the reports about her family and wardrobe. “She gets asked a lot of questions men don’t get asked.”
Palin, as this event and her previous well-attended book tour stops make clear, continues to enjoy a following that transcends politics and could potentially bring thousands of new participants into the Republican primary process.
Most of those interviewed here said they were ready to support Palin if she runs in 2012 and would caucus for her. If Palin capitalizes on this sort of dedication, she could enlarge the caucuses in the fashion that such non-traditional politicians as Pat Robertson did in 1988 and Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama did last year.
The impact Palin and her still-soaring celebrity could have on the 2012 GOP field was underscored in how sharply her book-signing Sunday differed from that of Huckabee, a potential 2012 rival. When the former Arkansas governor and reigning Iowa caucus champion signed copies of his latest book at a suburban Des Moines bookstore last month he had about 100 supporters stream through the line, many of them his loyalists from the 2008 campaign.
Yet for now, and it's still very early in the process, Palin appears to be doing little to build an organization. There was no sign-in sheet here that could have captured the valuable names and email addresses of potential caucus precinct captains.
Jason Recher, who travelled with her on the campaign and is now with her on the book tour, suggested Palin had little interest in using the 32-city swing to bolster her presidential prospects, at least outwardly.
"This book tour is about people - not politics," Recher said.
Yet anytime a White House prospect arrives on Iowa soil, of course, politics suffuses the appearance. And no Republican can draw buzz like Palin, whose picture took up most of the top half of the front page of the Sunday Sioux City Journal with a headline that read: “Something about Sarah.”
Palin was careful to apologize after the event for her tardiness (She blamed weather on the East Coast, though she had also spent some of her Sunday morning visiting wounded troops at Washington, D.C.’s Walter Reed Army Hospital). She said she didn’t know when she’d return to the state.
Some local Republicans – who are used to being courted by top national political figures – indicated disappointment that Palin only did the book stop.
“I guarantee we’d have 20,000 people show up for an event here,” Mark Lundberg, chairman of the Sioux County Republican Party told Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson.
A far smaller crowd, about 30 people, arrived at the bookstore parking lot on Saturday night to be in the front of the line. Swaddled in blankets, hats, gloves, hunting camo and all manner of layers, they sat in canvas, fold-up chairs as the temperature plummeted into the teens.
By mid-day Sunday, hundreds more were inside the mall, waiting quietly in line and thumbing through “Going Rogue” while a Santa Claus and Abe Lincoln looked on.
With a mix of Midwestern hospitality and wariness for an out-of-town reporter they explained why they were so drawn to Palin.
Patricia Anderson, a registered independent from Sioux City who hadn’t caucused, approached a reporter to make her case for the polarizing former governor.
“She tells you what she believes,” Anderson said. “You don’t have to guess. It’s better to listen to her than the media.”
Alice Revell, from rock-ribbed Sioux County to the north of here, sported a pin that read: “I Don’t Want To Have To Say Happy Holidays.”
“Her values are my values,” said Revell. “She’s pro-life. She doesn’t just talk the talk, she walks the walk. She’s a hunter, my husband is an avid hunter.”
A pair of women from Omaha wearing shirts that identified them with the “Minuteman Patriots” said Palin represented what they called real American women.
“Not the elitists you see on television,” explained Pat Carro. Asked who she had in mind, Carro cited “the ones you see on “The View.’ ”
Another Omahan, Ray Hansen, braved the afternoon cold to pose for a picture in front of Palin’s book-tour bus, festooned with her image and an Alaska backdrop, after having his book signed.
“She’s a real American, that’s why,” Hansen said, when asked why he liked Palin.
Back inside, Palin, wearing her usual blue star pin along with a USO pin, took a marker to book after book, looping a large signature before greeting her admirers and asking their names as country music played.
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Sources: Politico, Amazon.com, Google Maps
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