Palin weighs in on GOP debate, candidates

Palin and her One Nation bus tour are making a surprise trip to Iowa, if you haven’t heard. In an email sent yesterday to supporters of her political action committee she said she’s going to “meet folks at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines this week.


State fairs hold a special place in our nation’s history and heritage, so my family is honored to highlight one of them on one stop along the One Nation Tour route,” wrote the ex-governor of Alaska.


Does this mean a President Palin would make the Iowa State Fairgrounds a National Park? Just asking.


IN PICTURES: Sarah Palin bus tour


Palin also noted that she’s excited to try some of the Iowa State Fair’s famous fried foods, including fried butter-on-a-stick, fried cheesecake, and so forth. She’ll enjoy them “in honor of those who’d rather make us just ‘eat our peas,’ ” noted Palin, in a not-so-veiled reference to President Obama’s recent statement comparing the hard choices in a debt deal with legume consumption.


Vegetables aside, we’ll say this about that: once again, Sarah Palin has proved that she is the quasi-political attention-getting master of the US media universe.


That’s because there just happens to be a debate in Ames, Iowa tonight among declared GOP presidential contenders. A straw poll follows this weekend. So hundreds of political reporters are already in Iowa – pre-positioned for a Palin drive-by. Pure genius.


Somewhere Rick Santorum is sitting in a hotel room with his face in his hands. It’s the lagging candidates who’ll really feel the tire tracks of the bus tour. If you’re a “Good Morning America” producer, which story would you rather see on the air – Gingrich Campaign Still Dead, or Palin Views a Cow Made Entirely of Butter?


Plus, SarahPAC has posted a new one-minute Palin video that makes pretty much every other Republican contender’s commercials look underproduced.


It’s a paean to small town America, which grows “good people ... with honesty and sincerity and dignity.” It invokes Harry Truman, contains several quick shots of the young Ronald Reagan, and lingers on an Iowa State Fair sign.


Perry is expected to announce he will run for president on Saturday in South Carolina. He will travel to Iowa on Sunday.
Palin also addressed the recent treatment of Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., in the press and in the debate last night.


Asked about the Newsweek cover that showed a wild-eyed Bachmann staring into space with the headline "Queen of Rage," Palin said she was also featured wearing running shorts in a cover on the magazine.


"I think the headline is really worse than the picture," she said.


Palin was also asked what she thought of the question Bachmann was asked during the debate about whether she would "submit" to her husband if she was elected president.


"Anything in a debate is fair game. I've been asked the goofiest questions and the strangest questions too in my years in public office," Palin said. "She articulated what she feels in her heart and to her submission means respect, she explained it."


She later added, "I respect my husband too. I can't imagine my husband ever telling me what to do."


While Palin is not listed on the straw poll ballot, she was mobbed by the press like she was a frontrunner from the moment she set foot on the fairgrounds.


Around noon the word went out that Palin, her husband Todd and a small entourage had descended on the Iowa state fair sending reporters scrambling through livestock exhibits to find her.


Palin's arrival in Iowa the day before the straw poll is just the latest in a series of trips the former vice presidential nominee has made that coincides with major events for the GOP field.


Earlier this summer when she happened to arrive in Iowa the day after Bachmann's campaign launch and in May when she New Hampshire the same day as former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney official presidential announcement.


Asked why she was in Iowa, Palin said she was simply "accepting an invitation to get to be here to experience this wonderful historic event" on the bus tour she launched in May.

Sarah Palin New Documentary Seeks $30,000 on Crowd Funding Site

DES MOINES, Iowa - Sarah Palin stoked speculation anew Friday of a future presidential run, inserting herself into the 2012 conversation by visiting in Iowa during an important week in the GOP race - and just as Texas Gov. Rick Perry becomes a candidate.


"There is still plenty of room for a common sense conservative," the former Alaska governor insisted to a crush of reporters as she inspected cattle with her family at the Iowa State Fair.


Characteristically, she played coy about her plans and sent mixed messages.


Palin said she hasn't decided whether she would run for president, but suggested she was leaning toward a bid, adding: "When we're ready to announce ... you won't be able to miss the announcement."


Asked about Perry, she said: "He's a great guy and I look forward to see him in those debates." But she rebuffed questions about whether that meant she'd be standing on stage with him.


Appearing on Fox News' "Sean Hannity Show" Friday night, Palin welcomed the idea of Perry entering the race, saying: "You deserve good choices. As for me, I'm still considering it."


When pressed earlier in the day about her future plans, Palin said a trip home and a visit to the Alaska state fair were in order.


"Moose season is starting up in Alaska soon so we'll go back home and moose hunt," she said, adding: "And then, we'll come back out on the road, we hope."


As she shuffled through cattle pens and livestock buildings in a casual T-shirt and black slacks, Palin posed for pictures with well-wishers and fans. She scrawled her autograph on hats and fair programs, asked supporters what they did for a living and talked about becoming a grandmother.


Nearby, onlookers jumped onto fences and craned to get a glimpse of the Palins amid the jostling throng of journalists circling her. It was a marked changfe from the declared candidates who visited the fair and met with voters without such a buzz.


Officially, Palin, the GOP's 2008 vice presidential nominee who resigned the Alaska governorship midterm in 2009, was in Iowa as the Midwestern swing of a "One Nation" bus tour that she began in the spring on the East Coast. She called it a family vacation but her political action committee paid for the trip. Part of it included a visit to the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire - the same day GOP front-runner Mitt Romney formally entered the race.


This time, her visit to the state that leads off the GOP nominating contests was sandwiched between a Thursday night debate and Saturday's Iowa straw poll in which her would-be rivals are participating. She said she wasn't planning to stick around for the results of the test vote that could indicate which candidate has the strongest organization in the leadoff caucus state.


In an effort to raise money for the documentary’s upcoming North American release campaign, Broomfield has placed the film on the crowd funding site Kickstarter, seeking $30,000.
“This film was made for the American people and Kickstarter now offers them a chance to be a part of the distribution process to directly support the documentary’s national roll-out,” he said. “We need help getting this out so voters gain a true understanding of the person who is asking for their political support.”
The film sees Broomfield as he speaks with school friends, family and Republican colleagues of the former governor of Alaska, all while battling the icy snows of a Wasilla winter. The evangelical community, where Palin attended high school and eventually became mayor, features 76 churches with a population of just 6 thousand and is the Crystal meth capital of the state.
Palin has yet to confirm whether or not she intends to run for the Presidency, but recently announced that she would be embarking on a second leg of her One Nation bus tour.

Sarah Palin

Sarah Louise Palin, /ˈpeɪlɨn/ née Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician and commentator. She was the youngest person and the first woman elected Governor of Alaska, an office she held from December 2006 until resigning in July 2009. In the 2008 presidential election, she was the Republican Party nominee for Vice President, becoming the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and the first Republican woman nominated for the vice-presidency. She has subsequently associated herself with the Tea Party movement, endorsing and campaigning for several candidates in the 2010 midterm elections, and is a possible candidate in the 2012 presidential election.

Her book Going Rogue has sold more than two million copies. Since January 2010, she has also provided political commentary for Fox News, and hosted a television show, Sarah Palin's Alaska.

Personal life

Sarah and Todd Palin have five children: sons Track (born 1989) and Trig Paxson Van (born 2008), and daughters Bristol Sheeran Marie (born 1990), Willow (born 1994), and Piper (born 2001). Palin's youngest child, Trig, was prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome.

Palin has one grandchild, a boy named Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, who was born to her eldest daughter, Bristol, and her then-fiancee, Levi Johnston, in 2008. Her husband Todd worked for the British oil company BP as an oil-field production operator, retiring in 2009, and owns a commercial fishing business.

Palin was born into a Roman Catholic family. Later, her family joined the Wasilla Assembly of God, a Pentecostal church, which she attended until 2002. Palin then switched to the Wasilla Bible Church. When in Juneau, she attends the Juneau Christian Center. Palin described herself in an interview as a "Bible-believing Christian.

Early life and family

Palin was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, and is of English, Irish and German descent. She is the third of four children (three daughters, one son) born to Charles R. "Chuck" Heath, a science teacher and track coach, and Sarah "Sally" (née Sheeran), a school secretary. Palin's siblings are Chuck Jr., Heather, and Molly. The family moved from Idaho to Skagway, Alaska, when Palin was a few months old; then to Eagle River when she was about five years old; and finally to Wasilla when she was eight.

Palin played flute in the junior high band, then attended Wasilla High School where she was the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and a member of the girls' basketball and cross country running teams. During her senior year, she was co-captain and point guard of the basketball team that won the 1982 Alaska state championship, earning the nickname "Sarah Barracuda" for her competitive streak.

College

After graduating from high school, Palin enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Shortly after arriving in Hawaii, Palin switched to Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu for a semester in the fall of 1982. She transferred to North Idaho College, a community college in Coeur d'Alene, for the spring and fall semesters of 1983. (In June 2008, the Alumni Association of NIC gave her its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.)

In 1984, Palin won the Miss Wasilla beauty pageant. She finished third in the Miss Alaska pageant, playing flute in the talent portion of the contest, and receiving both the Miss Congeniality award and a college scholarship.

She attended the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho in the fall of 1984 and spring of 1985, and attended Matanuska-Susitna College in Alaska in the fall of 1985. Palin returned to the University of Idaho in the spring of 1986, and received her bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in journalism in 1987.

Early career and marriage

After graduating, she worked as a sportscaster for KTUU-TV and KTVA-TV in Anchorage, and as a sports reporter for the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, fulfilling an early ambition.

On August 29, 1988, she eloped with her high school sweetheart, Todd Palin. After the marriage, she became a mother and helped in her husband's commercial fishing business.

Early political career

City council

Palin was elected to the Wasilla City Council in 1992 winning 530 votes to 310. She ran for reelection in 1995, winning by 413 votes to 185. Throughout her tenure on the city council and the rest of her political career, Palin has remained a Republican, first registering as such in 1982.

Mayor of Wasilla

Motivated by concerns that revenue from a new Wasilla sales tax would not be spent wisely, Palin ran for mayor of Wasilla in 1996, defeating incumbent mayor John Stein 651 to 440 votes. Her biographer has described her campaign as targeting wasteful spending and high taxes; her opponent Stein has said that Palin introduced abortion, gun rights, and term limits as campaign issues. The election was nonpartisan, but the state Republican Party took the unprecedented step of running advertisements for Palin. Palin ran for re-election against Stein in 1999 and won, 909 votes to 292. In 2002, she completed the second of the two consecutive three-year terms she was allowed to serve by the city charter. She was elected president of the Alaska Conference of Mayors in 1999.

First term

During her first year in office, Palin kept a jar with the names of Wasilla residents on her desk. Once a week, she pulled out a name, picked up the phone and asked: "How's the city doing? Using income generated by a 2% sales tax that had been approved by Wasilla voters in October 1992, Palin cut property taxes by 75% and eliminated personal property and business inventory taxes. Using municipal bonds, she made improvements to the roads and sewers, and increased funding to the Police Department. She also oversaw new bike paths and procured funding for storm-water treatment to protect freshwater resources. At the same time, she shrank the local museum's budget and deterred talk of a new library and city hall.

Shortly after taking office in October 1996, Palin eliminated the position of museum director and asked for updated resumes and resignation letters from "city department heads who had been loyal to Stein, including the police chief, public works director, finance director, and librarian. Palin stated this request was to find out their intentions and whether they supported her. She temporarily required department heads to get her approval before talking to reporters, saying that they first needed to become acquainted with her administration's policies. She created the position of city administrator, and reduced her own $68,000 salary by 10%, although by mid-1998 this was reversed by the city council.

In October 1996, Palin asked library director Mary Ellen Emmons if she would object to the removal of a book from the library if people were picketing to have the book removed. Emmons responded that she would, and others as well. Palin explained that she not been proposing censorship but instead, had been been discussing many issues with her staff that were "both rhetorical and realistic in nature. Ultimately, no attempt was made to remove books from the library during Palin's tenure as mayor.

Palin said she fired Police Chief Irl Stambaugh because he did not fully support her efforts to govern the city. Stambaugh filed a lawsuit alleging wrongful termination and violation of his free speech rights. The judge dismissed Stambaugh's lawsuit, holding that the police chief served at the discretion of the mayor, and could be terminated for nearly any reason, even a political one, and ordered Stambaugh to pay Palin's legal fees.

Going Rogue and America by Heart

In November 2009, Palin released her memoir, Going Rogue: An American Life, in which she details her private and political career, including her resignation as Governor of Alaska. Palin said she took the title from the phrase 'gone rogue' used by McCain staffers to describe her behavior when she spoke her mind on the issues during the campaign. The subtitle, "An American Life," mirrors the title of President Ronald Reagan's 1990 autobiography. Less than two weeks after its release, sales of the book exceeded the one million mark, with 300,000 copies sold the first day. Its bestseller rankings were comparable to memoirs by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Palin traveled to 11 states in a bus, with her family accompanying her, to promote the book. She made a number of media appearances as well, including a widely publicized interview on November 16, 2009 with Oprah Winfrey. In November 2010 HarperCollins released Palin's second book, titled America by Heart. The book contains excerpts from Palin's favorite speeches, sermons and literature as well as portraits of people Palin admires, including some she met in rural America on her first book tour.

Tea Party movement

On February 6, 2010, Palin appeared as the keynote speaker at the inaugural Tea Party convention in Nashville, Tennessee. Palin said the Tea Party movement is "the future of politics in America."She criticized Obama for rising deficits, and for "apologizing for America” in speeches in other countries. Palin said Obama was weak on the War on Terror for allowing the so-called Christmas bomber to board a plane headed for the United States. Palin’s speaking fee was reported to be $100,000. Judson Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, the social networking site that sponsored the convention, did not confirm the amount paid to Palin saying he was contractually obligated not to speak about it.

"Pink Elephant" movement and 2010 endorsements

In the middle of 2010, Palin flagged the launch of a new "Pink Elephant Movement. She set about endorsing a number of female GOP candidates. Her endorsement helped Georgia Gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel to take the lead in the campaign for the Republican nomination, though ultimately Handel lost the primary. Palin has endorsed several female candidates nationally. Ryan Rudominer, a spokesman for the House Democratic campaign operation has called her involvement in various U.S. House campaigns a "great thing across the board. She spoke at a May 2010 fundraiser for the Susan B. Anthony List, a pro-life political advocacy group and political action committee that supports pro-life women in politics, in which she coined the term "mama grizzly."

In the months ahead of the November 2010 elections, Palin selectively endorsed Republican candidates, and was a significant fundraising asset to those she campaigned for during the primary season.According to Politico, Palin's criteria for endorsing candidates was whether they had the support of the Tea Party movement and the support of the Susan B. Anthony List. In terms of success, Palin was 7-2 for Senate endorsements; 7-6 for House endorsements; and 6-3 in endorsements of gubernatorial candidates Palin's endorsement of Joe Miller in the August 24 Alaska primary election for U.S. Senator was identified as a possible pivotal moment in Miller's upset of the incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. According to Daily Beast reporter Shushannah Walshe, Christine O'Donnell's prospects of upsetting establishment Republican candidate Mike Castle "changed overnight" due to Palin's endorsement. O'Donnell defeated Castle in the September 14 primary for Joe Biden's former Senate seat in Delaware. Her O'Donnell endorsement further increased tensions between Palin and the Republican establishment: leading conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer described the endorsement as "reckless and irresponsible"; party strategist Karl Rove argued that her endorsement may have cost the GOP the Delaware Senate seat; and commentators including Politico's Ben Smith posited that Palin's support of O'Donnell contributed to dashing Republican hopes of regaining control of the U.S. Senate. Palin's influence over the primaries nonetheless further increased speculation that she would seek to be the party's nominee for President in 2012, with political pundits Paul Mirengoff, David Frum, and Jonathan Chait identifying Palin as the front-runner.

Possible 2012 presidential and Senate campaign

Palin's high profile in the 2008 presidential campaign fueled speculation that she will run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, and beginning in November 2008, there was an active "Draft Palin" movement. On February 6, 2010, when Fox News asked her if she would be running for president in 2012, she replied, "I would be willing to if I believe that it's right for the country. She added, "I won't close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future."

In November 2010, Palin confirmed that she was considering running for the Presidency, and was "having that discussion with my family." She stated she realised her level of experience could cause problems with winning the nomination, and criticized the "lamestream media" for focusing attention on her personal life.

During March 2011, Palin and her husband toured India at the invitation of Indian newsmagazine India Today, subsequently visiting Israel. This tour fueled speculations that she was updating herself on world affairs as a run-up to her possible future campaign. However, while in India when she was quizzed about her future candidacy, she said "I don't think there needs to be a rush to get out there as a declared candidate. It's a life-changing decision. In response to another question, she said "It’s time that a woman is president of the United States of America.

Palin's basing of her possible candidacy in Arizona has led to speculation that she may run in the Senate election in 2012 for the seat being vacated by Jon Kyl. Palin has since denied that she is running for Senate and said that her recent purchase of a home in Scottsdale was not a full-time residence.