Shushannah Walshe struggles to keep up with the Magical Mystery Tour of Sarah Palin. And, glancing at CNN last night, it was a little sad to see John King, sitting there at Gettysburg, waiting for Superwoman to show up, only to find she had retired for the night at a nearby hotel. So get ready for more:
According to a source with knowledge of Palin’s thinking, the tour is a test of whether she can do it “her way,” which the source described as “nontraditional, low-cost, high-tech…. The key is to be totally unpredictable and always keep her rivals off-balance.”
After two days on the road, Palin now realizes a campaign “could be fun and exciting,” the source said, and she’s getting “more into the swing of things” as she tours and realizes “the press is not hostile to her.”
Yep: there's been some unscripted (largely friendly) journalist-on-politician action! Imagine that. And the trip – an open attempt to coopt American patriotism for herself (and highlight Obama's alleged "otherness") – is clearly the laying out of a campaign theme. What would that theme be? Three Words: America, Fuck Yeah. The implication: the president doesn't get it:
She also made a slight dig at President Obama for saying Monday at Arlington National Cemetery that his “most solemn responsibility as president [is] to serve as commander in chief of one of the finest fighting forces in the world.” Answering a question about Memorial Day, Palin said, “This is the greatest fighting force in the world, the U.S. military. It’s not just one of the greatest fighting forces. And I sure hope our president recognizes that. We’re not just one of many. We are the best.”
The only hint of a policy beyond trumpeting American supremacy? "Big tax cuts" – as we face record deficits. The obvious theme: she is championing a "Fundamental Restoration of America" versus what she will call a "Fundamental Transformation of America" under Obama. That's all she really needs for a purely cultural campaign to eject the anomalous black Muslim Kenyan from the White House. And the kind of dedication and fanaticism from the Palin base can be seen everywhere:
By 6:45 a.m., two adoring fans were already posing for pictures in front of the bus. The young women, who refused to give their names, said they had waited for three-and-a-half hours on Memorial Day at a battlefield monument where Palin was ultimately a no-show for several hundred fans.
Then there's a campaign against the press:
“They want, kind of, the conventional idea of, ‘we want a schedule, we want to follow you, we want you to bring us along with you’ … I want them to have to do a little bit of work on a tour like this, and that would include not necessarily telling them beforehand where every stop is going to be,” she told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren, who traveled with her on the bus on Monday. “The media can figure out where we’re going if they do their investigative work."
Notice that van Susteren is rightly not regarded as press. Fox will act as Palin's campaign media outreach, and van Susteren as her media alter ego. Facebook will serve as her p.r. The very reason the Beltway has dismissed her is the reason she may well do well against the tired bunch of white guys she's running against: she doesn't have the core traditional machinery to run a presidential campaign.
But you know what? In the end, all you need is votes.
(Former U.S. Vice presidential candidate and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin rides on a motorcycle before participating in 'Rolling Thunder' rally May 29, 2011 in Arlington, Virginia. Although not an official guest, former U.S. Vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin is expected to participate in today's motorcycle parade from the Pentagon to the National Mall. By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.)
The Dish 