Sarah The (Iowa) Farmer

WASHINGTON -- Tease-in-Chief Sarah Palin, forever stoking speculation about a presidential run, now is touting her Alaska "farm" experience on the eve of a book-tour visit to first-caucus-state Iowa on Saturday.

As usual, the political pitch is part of a multimedia exercise: touting her TLC "reality" show as she promotes her book and woos rural Iowans who will be crucial voters in the Republican caucuses in 2012.

In a new tweet, the former governor and veep candidate argues that her family fishing business gives her a keen understanding of farm life on land.

"Like family farms, our Bristol Bay commercial fish business works the same way," she writes. "Watch Sunday on TLC; see work ethic rewarded out on the water!"

The GOP caucuses in Iowa are sure to be the scene of ferocious competition for conservative, pro-life "values voters," which is why Palin and other members of the FOX den -- former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- have taken tours of the state this month.

Anyone who doubts the seriousness -- or savvy -- or Palin's game plan needs to look closely at her book-tour travel schedule, particularly as it relates to what for her would be the make-or-break state of Iowa.

She is visiting Des Moines Saturday -- an obvious and central stop.

But also on Saturday she is stopping at Norfolk, Nebraska, a seemingly out-of-the-way place until you realize that coverage of the event there (and funneled through Omaha TV and Sioux City, Iowa TV) will blanket Western Iowa -- the most staunchly conservative and Republican part of the state.

She will reach those voters again on Dec. 2, when she travels to Spirit Lake, Iowa. It's not just a nifty name -- it's a central tourism spot in the midst of the farm-and-lake country of west-central Iowa.

Indeed, if there are parts of America (and Iowa) where people "cling to their guns and their religion," as candidate Barack Obama once famously said, Sarah the Farmer is heading right to 'em.

Comments

[Steele361]

12:49 PM on 12/02/2010

She will never be president, accept it and get over it.

[triplettam]

11:45 AM on 11/28/2010

Well, if they only could have taught her how to grow brains, this trip would have been worthwhile. I'm sure we'd even be willing to pay a subsidy for that.

[loeska]

05:52 PM on 11/27/2010

(in Norway).. Thank you for your answer. Yes indeed, she could never have been
taken seriously in my (granted, very small) country. People that I know are rather
shocked and disgusted. The USA, being our political ally, is held in great esteem
by the vast majority of Norwegians. Let's hope that sanity and good sense will win
the day.

[BLACKCAT66]

02:15 PM on 11/27/2010

"Watch Sunday on TLC; see work ethic rewarded out on the water"... Yeesh! hearing this woman talk about ethics really makes your skin crawl. A failed govenor who was found guilty of ethic violations and who was found guilty of fraud and had to pay tons of donations back because she was caught scamming her supporters. Sarah Palin supporters and fans must be the dumbest creatures on the planet.

[rain2000]

09:11 PM on 11/27/2010

Thank you for mentioning those. I cannot stand her self description of good American, or common sense American. She is total psycho and pathetic.

[CRAVECOFFEE]

01:32 PM on 11/27/2010

Add a 'g' to the end of Palin - paling meaning fence, barrier. I'm an Iowan - maybe she thinks she's a fence post - it's a part of farming! She's an idiot and smart Iowan's and Nebraskan's see right through her.

[deirdreflanagan6]

01:12 PM on 11/27/2010

Anyhoo...were there any mentions of the billions of dollars in GOVERNMENT subsidies all the folks enjoy?

[Johnny in Queens]

12:07 PM on 11/27/2010

Well hopefully as a true free-market conservative her speech will ask why massive agricultural corporations in Iowa and Nebraska need the rest of us to support them with government subsidies. Since true conservatives don't need "government handouts", I'm sure all conservative farmers send their subsidy checks right back to the government.

[senseandnonsense]

12:01 PM on 11/27/2010

Does she simply catch the fish or does she re-stock them, too? If you re-stock and catch, you are more like a farmer. If you simply catch fish, you are more like the story of the Red Hen.

[david1967]

09:20 AM on 11/27/2010

She is a phony...Left the governorship to make the money...not a true fiscal conservative at all.

[AlienPet13]

06:27 AM on 11/27/2010

So Tundra Tush is a Farmer now???

I can't wait to hear her talk about what it was like to walk on the Moon.

[Walkwithme1966]

01:11 AM on 11/27/2010

For some reason I don't think commercial fishing is the same as running a family farm in Iowa - growing crops, harvesting, getting crops to market - sorry just not like fishing. http://maboulette.wordpress.com

[Traynor]

04:54 AM on 11/27/2010

Especially since she rarely even goes with Todd fishing unless it is for the rare photo op. She's too busy down South.

[henrypapillon]

01:04 AM on 11/27/2010

The closest she ever got to farming was being fodder for Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric , spreading her line of BS, and being chickens***.

[dadw5boys]

12:49 AM on 11/27/2010

And the people who know Palin in Alaska say she hates the fishing harvest and only goes if the cameras are there.

[alkamm]

09:29 PM on 11/26/2010

Palin is the archetype of a very devious sort of human being. The female form, a type that advances herself with bald-faced lies, craft, dissembling to promote oneself far beyond herself to be able to handle. Then, when the tricked realize she's not competent, they move her up the food chain to a higher administrative position, glad to see her leave, so they don't criticize her lousy achievements or point out her habit of lying. They write her a glowing recommendation and she move on the further her agendas of self-aggrandizing without merit.
There are men who do the same, of course, the female specimen pulls out stops the male cannot. That's the danger of Palin, or what other see, her promise. Some promise from some source.

[Walkwithme1966]

01:14 AM on 11/27/2010

The Peter Principle - Rising to her highest level of incompetency - I believe that was the Governor's job which she sort of quit!

[AlienPet13]

06:48 AM on 11/27/2010

I think she quit to avoid the inevitable onslaught of scrutiny that would have been brought to bear on her Governorship... and all the dirt, misconduct, and ethical and/or criminal violations that may have taken place under her watch. She probably bailed out to avoid getting busted. When things were nice and quiet for her up in AK, and there was little national attention, she could get away with whatever she wanted and probably did. That's just my wild guess though.

[AlienPet13]

06:42 AM on 11/27/2010

She is EXACTLY like those "American Idol" try-outs she, whom she criticizes as having the delusion of competence... the ones who's friends all told them they were good (just to be nice and supportive), and they believed it and actually thought they could contend with the best of the best! I have noticed her tendency to criticize that which she personifies...almost on cue. Is this her attempt to indemnify herself from criticism? --in the way that if she beats you to the punch, then when you point out her hypocrisy she can say, "See? They are just stealing what I have already said about such-and-such... What a bunch of copy cats!" It's like if she says it first about someone else, then it can't be used against her. If so, then she is subconsciously trying to cover, what deep down inside, she knows are her own flaws, and projecting them onto others hoping to avoid people (stupid Palinites who are easily distracted) realizing.

[senseandnonsense]

12:05 PM on 11/27/2010

She's a projector.

[maxinebr]

09:13 PM on 11/26/2010

According ot her she has been everywhere and done everything and still knows nothing