CNN's Hamby: Actually, Palin engaged with media on bus tour

"She took questions from the media 17 different times over the course of four days"
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Now that the One Nation Tour bus is at rest in the garage before the next leg of Sarah Palin's great American adventure gets it rolling again, CNN Political reporter Peter Hamby looks back on the week and concludes that Gov. Palin actually treated the media quite nicely while on the tour:

Her strategy is unlikely to change as the patriotism-themed tour makes its way through the Midwest, West and South later this month.

But once reporters tracked her down, Palin was eager to engage. At stop after stop after stop, she answered questions on everything from energy subsidies to the debt ceiling to her favorite brand of designer jeans.

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...she took questions from the media 17 different times over the course of four days.

That's a remarkable number for any national political figure, particularly for one locked into an exclusive television contract that normally precludes her from talking to other media outlets.

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But Palin seemed at ease at most events, lingering outside her bus or SUV to answer every possible question despite Piper's best efforts to drag her away and helpless shouts of "Last question!" from her aides.

During a stop at a café in central Pennsylvania, even her normally reticent husband Todd opened up to reporters about his family's readiness for a potential campaign.

At a clambake in the coastal New Hampshire town of Seabrook on Wednesday, Palin cheerfully chatted at length with a pack of reporters from national outlets like CNN, NBC, CBS, The Washington Post, Time and Bloomberg.

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She certainly seems to have treated the media better than it has treated her. But hasn't that always been the case?

- JP