Scott Conroy: Palin Backers Use Film to Spread Message Ahead of Iowa Speech

"The central issue now is crony capitalism..."
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O4P volunteers are Sarah Palin's most powerful asset in Iowa, and the documentary "The Undefeated" may be their most effective organizing tool asset as they prepare for her Saturday speech in Indianola. RealClearPolitics' Scott Conroy reports that the group has been screening the film for small audiences in churches, libraries and private homes across Iowa all summer long:

Ladd Ventling, who serves as a county coordinator for the Iowa branch of Organize4Palin, told RCP that he spoke privately with Todd Palin for over 20 minutes about the volunteer group’s efforts during the visit by Alaska’s former First Couple to the Iowa State Fair earlier this month.

Ventling said that while Todd Palin did not say his wife planned to announce her candidacy, the Webster City, Iowa, native came away from the conversation convinced that she does indeed intend to get in.

“If they weren’t going to run, he would’ve said, ‘Thank you very much for what you’re doing, but you don’t have to do that,’ ” Ventling told RCP.

Polly Doolittle, also of Webster City, is another Organize4Palin volunteer who is working in conjunction with Tea Party of America in advance of Saturday’s rally in Indianola.

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“We did a bigger showing in Emmetsburg last Saturday in a theater there,” Ventling said. “Everyone applauded when it was over. And people always want to stay around and chat and give us their opinion about what the movie did for them.”

Steven K. Bannon, the filmmaker behind “The Undefeated,” agreed with several of Palin’s Iowa volunteers who suggested that her successful 2006 gubernatorial run against incumbent Frank Murkowski, which the film recounts in detail, might serve as a prototype for a 2012 presidential bid.

“Alaska in mid-decade was like America today,” Bannon said. “You had a corrupt political class in cahoots with big oil. The central issue now is crony capitalism with this collusion of big business, big government, and big finance taking care of themselves to the detriment of the middle class.”

That last statement should serve as food for thought to those who have fancied that Gov. Palin would endorse Texas Governor Rick Perry rather than jump into the presidential race herself. Crony capitalism is one of the major issues TEA Party conservatives have with Gov. Perry. In sharp contrast, Sarah Palin's record is that of a reformer who fought such corruption both as an oil & gas commissioner and a governor.

Peter Singleton, O4P's Iowa state coordinator, says the organization has “done dozens and dozens of screenings,” and plans to do many more, mostly to small audiences of 6 to 20 people. the group's plan to increase the frequency of the showings in the first-in-the nation caucus state Iowa during the weeks after Gov. Palin’s keynote address Saturday.

- JP