Attn. Lamestream Media: Sarah Palin says her bus tour isn't over

Only in your dreams, media clowns.
*
Gov. Sarah Palin knocked down reports Wednesday in the making-things-up media (Bam! Taste her nightstck...) that her One Nation bus tour had come to an end after completing only its first leg. From The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:

Palin, a potential presidential candidate, sought to put an end to speculation that her "One Nation" tour is over. The talk was sparked by a RealClearPolitics report said that it's going on hiatus. Other news organizations reported that the tour is coming to an end.

The bus tour initially prompted speculation from political observers that Palin — the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee — was preparing to enter the presidential race and was using the tour as a test run.

The tour began around the same time as an reports that a feature-length documentary about Palin was to be released in July in the early primary states Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

[More]

Gov. Palin also responded to the media hysteria on Facebook:

*Sigh* Reports of Tour Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated

Imagine our surprise when reading media reports today that the “One Nation Tour” has been cancelled. Why didn’t anyone tell me? Oh, wait, that’s because it hasn’t been cancelled. (Good ol' media... you never cease to amaze!)

As I said myself at the end of the east coast leg of the tour, the summer is long, and I’m looking forward to hitting the open road again. The coming weeks are tight because civic duty calls (like most everyone else, even former governors get called up for jury duty) and I look forward to doing my part just like every other Alaskan.

I wouldn’t think it to be such a slow news day that, what with numerous wars and serious economic woes concerning Americans, a bus is driving news stories today. The next leg of the tour continues when the time comes. In the meantime, no one should jump to conclusions – certainly not the media with their long track record of getting things wrong or just making things up.

- Sarah Palin

One of the many problems with the media is that it doesn't even bother to read its own material unless, of course, it's patting itself on the back or gushing over Barack Obama, its main squeeze. As ABC News reported just three weeks ago:

Palin confirmed that... after the northeast, she'll go back to Alaska before re-launching the tour - called the "One Nation Tour," after all - on the West Coast.

She told ABC News about her plans after she leaves the northeast:

"Go back to Alaska - in fact today, Willow [the middle Palin daughter] already had to get back to work so she had to leave - go back to Alaska, come back on the trail again, and take the tour west as the summer progresses."

Asked if she'll go all over the country, Palin said, "that is our plan, our tentative plan, anyway."

Ah, but the media has never let pesky things like actual facts get in the way of its wishful thinking that Sarah Palin will just go away, leaving them free to lionize Obama 24/7. Only in your dreams, media clowns. Only in your dreams.

- JP

More Quote of the Day Honorable Mention Part 286

"Hell Yeah" Edition
*

Tony Lee, at Human Events:

“Palin has also reiterated the insinuation that the last hurdle between her and a run for the presidency was how the process would impact her family. But could her family have already decided in the affirmative regarding a presidential run? When Palin stepped down as Alaska’s governor, Palin said she decided to resign after polling her children. Palin said she asked them if they wanted her ‘to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our children's future from OUTSIDE the Governor's office.’ Palin said the response was four ‘yes’s’ and one ‘hell yeah!’ The ‘hell yeah’” sealed it, Palin then said. Palin also said ‘someday I’ll talk about the details’ of the vote; this week’s announcements indicate Palin may soon reveal that the ‘hell yeah’ was in reference to a run for the presidency. With the historically themed bus tour it may not be too crazy to wonder if Palin will explain that her family said ‘hell yeah’ and gave her the green light to run for the presidency in an announcement on the fourth of July.”

Melissa Clouthier, at Redstate.com:

“Sarah Palin is a savvy and flexible politician. Going her own way may scare some donors who are used to doing things the way they’ve always been done, but I would submit that the old ways haven’t worked so well.”

Terence Jeffrey, at CNSNews.com:

“Palin’s itinerary has not been released but her planned trajectory—north from Washington, D.C. toward New England—would suggest that possible stops might include Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was crafted; Valley Forge, Pa., where George Washington wintered his army in 1777-1778; Washington Crossing, Pa., where Washington brought his army across the Delaware River on Christmas 1776; Wall Street, where Washington was inaugurated; the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; Quincy, Mass., the home of John Adams; Lexington and Concord, Mass., the sites of the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War; Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill, site of the Revolutionary War battle; Paul Revere’s house and the Old North Church in Boston. And, of course, Boston harbor -- scene of the original Tea Party.”

Rush Limbaugh, to Greta Van Susteren:

“If I were Obama, I would not want to run against Palin.”

bc3b, at Be John Galt:

“In her Tax Day speech in Madison, Sarah Palin called Obama out and told him ‘It starts here. It starts now. Game on!’ About a month ago the sarahpac.com website underwent a total upgrade. Sarah has a new foreign policy advisor. She bought a home in Scottsdale. There’s a million dollar Sarah Palin documentary about to be released. Palin’s Facebook follower count surpassed the 3-million mark. She has been to Hong Kong, India and Israel. She is dominating the news like no one other than the President can. Now she’s planning to tour the country in a campaign bus. What could all this mean? ‘I’m not doing this for my health,’ Sarah Palin, circa. 2010.”

Taegan Goddard, at Political Wire:

“According to the Daily Beast, the final part of the upcoming movie about Sarah Palin's tenure as Alaska governor is introduced with a caption that reads, ‘From here, I can see November.’”

Dan Riehl, at Riehl World View:

“Whether she runs or not, Sarah Palin has already changed GOP politics with her confrontational approach, along with the way the base has previously responded to it. What remains to be seen is if Pawlenty and Romney have the genuine fire in the belly it takes to do such things and mean them when it counts, or if they simply hired some new advisers who told them it might be smart to do as a tactic. Still, there should be no confusion as to who led the way nationally in challenging Obama, even when it, perhaps, was not fashionable to do so. Just as with Stephen K. Bannon's soon to be released Palin-based movie, The Undefeated, which came from an idea of Sarah Palin's, she is contemporary, innovative and changing GOP communications single-handedly, whether the establishment will want to admit it, or not. That, my friends, is leadership.”

Jim Geraghty, at NRO's Campaign Spot:

“We know what’s going to happen, right? Palin will attract huge crowds. She almost always attracts huge crowds: 8,000 on Super Bowl Sunday in Cypress, Texas; 6,000 to 9,000 at a Tea Party rally in Madison, Wisconsin, big crowds in Searchlight, Nevada; Columbia, South Carolina; Vienna, Virginia, etc.”

Jamie Dupree, at The AJC:

“When the news reached the Press Gallery in the Capitol that Sarah Palin was going to be starting a bus tour in Washington, D.C. on Sunday - maybe an indication that she was about to get into the Presidential hunt - you could feel a bit more excitement creeping into the 2012 race for the White House... Whether you like or hate Palin, she moves with a wide berth through Republican circles, and cannot be ignored if she gets into this race. ‘Our nation is at a critical turning point,’ it said on Palin's web site. We'll see what happens in coming days.”

The Right Scoop:

“First a movie and now an exploratory bus tour that starts in DC and heads north up the east coast? Oh yeah, I think it’s on...”

John Nolte, at Big Hollywood:

“One of the most impressive parts of Palin’s record is her willingness to fight oil companies who had previously enjoyed a much too cozy relationship with the Republican establishment in Alaska — what she calls the ‘good ole boys’ network. One can only imagine how much differently a President Palin would’ve handled the BP Oil Spill. Barack Obama was the number one beneficiary of BP campaign contributions and anyone who thinks that didn’t add to our corporatist president’s dithering over that disaster isn’t paying attention.”

Andrew Breitbart, via Shushannah Walshe:

“It goes to incredible lengths to point to how everybody, including the Democratic Party, accepted the fact that she was fiercely independent and went against not just the Republican establishment, but went against ExxonMobil and in heroic fashion.”

Matt Lewis, at The Daily Caller:

“A lot of political insiders and campaign experts I talk to are convinced Palin is just in this for the attention — that she won’t run because running and losing would destroy her ‘brand.’ ... But their conventional wisdom falls flat when it comes to Palin, [who] is anything but a conventional politician. The fact that she’s not building a traditional campaign organization implies nothing. Should she run, Palin will be unconventional — like a guerrilla insurgent fighting against the Redcoats. The experts can point to the number of soldiers against her, the training and weapons they have at their disposal, their nice uniforms, etc. — but the problem is they all march in a line. They are fighting an old-style fight. Palin believes the world has changed — that the old rules no longer matter. She may be right or wrong, but either way, the fact that she’s not checking off the traditional boxes shouldn’t be cited as evidence that she isn’t running.”

Steven Nelson, at The Daily Caller:

“Sarah Palin savors an opportunity to ridicule the ‘lamestream media.’ Recent coverage of a possible Palin candidacy presents an opening...”

The Editors of The New York Sun:

“The growing signs that Sarah Palin may enter the race for president are igniting warnings that she takes inspiration from Esther... Andrew Sullivan... writes ‘I, for one, feel nothing but a chill go up my spine.’ And then: ‘Queen Esther is coming. Look busy.’ ... What’s with this angst over Esther? She is, after all, one of the great heroes in the Jewish story... So what about it could possibly cause a chill in a sage of the left? Maybe they fear that by expressing admiration for Esther Mrs. Palin is suggesting that the leftist leaders might be comparable to Haman. We don’t believe that is what Mrs. Palin is suggesting. But surely the story of Esther will give her comprehension the current tyranny at Iran is comparable to the tyranny from which Esther delivered the Jews. So her admiration for Esther does not send a chill down our spine. It engenders in us a sense of encouragement that here is a leader who understands the long history and the current emergency.”

Bernie Quigley, at The Hill's Pundits Blog:

“Palin understands that we are not the world. But we are Israel.”

Mark Whittington, at Yahoo/Associated Content:

“Material that is sometimes written about Sarah Palin is often so at variance to reality that it is the cause of laughter to sensible people... Which brings us to a new ‘tell all’ book called ‘Blind Allegiance,’ penned by a disgruntled former Palin staffer named Frank Bailey with the help of two anti-Palin bloggers. What sort of revelations does this book have? The folks at Powerline have read the book so no one else has to. Apparently the big reveal is that at one time then-candidate for Gov. Palin allowed herself to be filmed inside an Anchorage hotel and this, in some way, violated campaign finance laws. As political scandals go, it certainly does not measure up to Watergate in seriousness or even to Monicagate in frivolity. The takeaway from these... rhetorical assaults on the Lady from Wasilla is that those making the assaults are running out of ammunition. It also denotes a form of desperation...”

Aaron Worthing, at Patterico's Pontifications:

“I Don’t Want to Hear Anything More About How Stupid Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann or Any Other Republican Woman Is… At least those women know what year it is...”

Ben Johnson, at Floyd Reports:

“If Dan Quayle, Sarah Palin, or George W. Bush had so flubbed royal protocol that the Queen of England politely ignored them, every major network would have played the clip on continuous loop and the late night comedians would belittle the rustic rubes for days. Did you know Barack Obama did this very thing during his state dinner with Queen Elizabeth II, sovereign of Great Britain — that The One screwed up his toast to QE2? Thought not.”

ZIP, at Weasel Zippers:

“Joy Behar Says Sarah Palin Is a Bad Christian… Because when one looks for spiritual guidance, Joy Behar is the first name that comes to mind.”

Adrienne Ross at Motivation Truth:

“Tara Jollie, a former member of Governor Palin's staff, has provided me with the inside scoop on Frank Bailey--who he is, what made him tick as a member of the Governor's staff, and what is most likely driving his current actions. She also shared with me who Governor Palin really is, discussed her own relationship with her, and described how the Governor conducted herself professionally.”

Alex Pappas at The Daily Caller:

“It appears that Fox is waiting for more concrete signs from Palin that she’s actually preparing for a campaign before suspending her contract. She does not have any campaign infrastructure or staff in place in the early primary states.”

Dana Loesch at Big Journalism:

“Wait, you mean a guy who makes his living via the sexploitation of females with grandpa porn has a low opinion of a female whose ideology is one he cannot either make vulnerable or exploit? Shocking! ... Yes, Flynt still made money off of Palin. In terms Flynt can understand, a strong conservative woman put food on the table of a progressive man. Emasculation. Rather awkward, yes? ... I bet if I asked my family members who have Down Syndrome if they would rather be alive or nonexistent, I’m guessing that they would choose ‘alive.’ Interesting how a progressive’s idea of ‘compassion’ is to end someone’s life and how quality of life is subjective to their experiences... The Palins have been insulted by better.”

Dewaine Shoulders at Palin Promotions:

“If you happen to see this bus rolling down a highway near you, follow it. Inside, a leader is preparing to make history.”

FireAndreaMitchell:

“Be careful what you wish for progressive communists! Snotty Andrea Mitchell got another thrill up her leg because she got to interview Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. You might have already read about Sarah Palin’s “national bus tour” which some claim will lead in to her announcing her run for the Presidency. Far left hacks like Mitchell are giddy about the idea so they can bash her, her clothes, her hair, her children, and her family... Valerie Jarrett, who herself is a big snob, didn’t exactly take the bait of Mitchell’s question and basically dodged it.”

- JP

More Quote of the Day Honorable Mention Part 285

"Revival" Edition
*

Joel B. Pollak, at Big Government:

“Sarah Palin will have a strong impact on the 2012 race, whether she runs for president or not. She will continue to rally conservatives, and Democrats and journalists will continue to target her as a proxy for Republicans as a whole... It’s also important to acknowledge the role Palin has played over the past two years. She rallied the opposition to President Barack Obama during a time when opposition seemed impossible, when even conservatives wondered if Obama’s election marked ‘the end of a conservative era’ and the beginning of a ‘revived liberalism.’ She did more than support candidates, provide new ideas, and comment on TV. She led a revival. Sarah Palin served, unofficially, as the ‘Leader of the Opposition’–a powerful position in many parliamentary democracies, even enjoying constitutional status in some of them... It’s too early to know whether Palin will turn her unofficial opposition into an official campaign. But it is not too early for even her opponents to concede that she has done her job well.”

Stephen Bannon, on his Palin documentary "The Undefeated":

“This film is a real-life version of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Shane Vander Hart, at Caffeinated Thoughts:

“I wasn’t quite ready to bet on it back in April, but it seems it seems like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is getting ready for a 2012 run... She came in second in a straw poll at the Pottawattamie County [Iowa] GOP straw poll in absentia; the winner was Herman Cain who spoke at the event. Obviously not a scientific poll, but it does demonstrate that many activists are not happy with the current field. A recent Pew Poll found that Governor Palin benefits the most from former Governor Mike Huckabee’s decision not to run. Obviously nothing is definite, but I’d wager she’s in.”

Lara M. Brown, assistant political science professor at Villanova:

“Republicans need her, even if they fear her.”

Mark Preston,CNN Senior Political Editor:

“Palin is performing much stronger than Bachmann and just about everyone else in the early national polls such as Thursday's Gallup Poll, which said Palin, with 15% support, is just 2 percentage points behind front-runner Mitt Romney... If she runs, it is the core group of social conservatives who Palin would be counting on, not the so-called GOP establishment types. Palin relishes being the anti-Washington politician, which is a powerful message to send to conservative voters angry at the direction President Obama has taken the country.”

John Nolte, via Twitter:

“Ohnoes! Sarah Palin is taking her message directly to the people! Quick to the JournOlist Cave! More pieces on irrelevancy & her family!”

Erika Bolstad, at McClatchy Newspapers:

“Since former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shot to fame after her 2008 vice presidential bid, she's kept her intentions — if not her ambitions — closely held. But on Thursday, Palin's ambitions began to look increasingly presidential. Her political action committee announced that she'd launch a multi-state tour over the Memorial Day weekend, beginning at a motorcycle rally in Washington and winding its way up the East Coast to New Hampshire, the site of the nation's first presidential primary. And although Palin has said that filing deadlines, family considerations and the other aspiring officeholders in the field would shape her ultimate decision, the blue bus emblazoned with the motto ‘One Nation’ left little question that the upcoming tour is but a precursor to a full campaign.”

Tammy Bruce:

“Oh Look – A Bus!”

Peter Ingemi, at Datechguy's Blog:

“For months the MSM has gone with the meme that a Palin candidacy helps Obama and if she is nominated it guarantees the president a second term. Every report, every signal, every single statement over and over again has attempted to reinforce this idea to the general public and to gullible establishment republicans. As we get closer to the nominating process and the election actually takes shape I suspect we will be finding out just how much these people believe it... If she guarantees a victory for Democrats the media would do all in their power to make sure that she is the nominee... When you see the attacks by the media intensify and the leftist blogs follow suit, you will discover what some of us already know; the left will tell you who they fear, and they’ve feared Sarah Palin from the moment she was announced by John McCain.”

Bernie Quigley at The Hill's Pundits Blog:

“Will Sarah Palin denial now turn to panic? ... It has been said here from the beginning: It is now and always has been about Sarah Palin. On the Republican side, the rest is side meat.”

Conservative Curmudgeon, at Redstate.com:

“Hmmm… ‘Tis something in the Wind that makes me think Sarah Palin might be this Generation’s JFK… Oh, I know, I know: This opens me up to the hackneyed Lloyd Bentsen trope about knowing John Kennedy, and you, Sarah Palin, are no John Kennedy… To which, one hopes, she would answer, ‘You’re right. I never cheated on my spouse, got involved with the Mob, and my Daddy never bought me a Pulitzer Prize.’ But, the analogy is this: JFK created a whole new set or rules, a whole new road-map to the Presidential nomination of his party in 1960. And, we may be witnessing the same thing, fifty years later, from Sarah Palin.”

TWB, at The POH Diaries:

“The libs will lose their ever loving minds once she officially unofficially hits the campaign trail.”

Freedom Fighter, at Joshuapundit:

“Governor Palin accomplished more in her two and a half years then some of her predecessors did in two terms, and ultimately she only resigned because of an organized and concerted attempt to bankrupt her and her family, because she was honest enough to admit that attempt was preventing her from doing what she promised to do for Alaska and because in Sean Parnell, she had someone she could trust to carry on successfully... I still say that if she gets into it, she’ll enter the race in mid to late summer after everyone else starts flaming out, and given what I see on the economic horizon, there's no doubt in my mind she could win the White House.”

Doug Powers at The Powers That Be:

“Am I convinced she’s running? Not yet, but this bus tour is almost certainly an exploratory committee on wheels.”

Merv Benson, at PrairiePundit:

“Palin makes preliminary moves to run for GOP nomination... She attracts so much attention that she will not need as much money as others to get her message out and to get free coverage. Her problem is that she will also get negative coverage from those in the media who hate her and her policy positions. It will be interesting to see how disciplined she will be on the campaign trail. She needs to develop a message of the top three to five things she wants to do as President and hammer them. She is also good at attacking President Obama. That is another reason the left hates her... I like Sarah Palin. I think she is right on most of the issues, and the criticism she receives is just the mean nature of leftist politics.”

More Quote of the Day Honorable Mention Part 284

Special "Magic Bus" Edition
*

David Brody, at CBN's The Brody File:

“Sarah Palin is back in the game. She’s going on a bus tour across America. Watch out folks. Is there a better chance now that she’ll run for president? You betcha... Let’s cut to the chase. Palin sees an opening. Now that Huckabee is out as well as Mitch Daniels, the road to the nomination becomes more doable... So we’ll see what Palin does, but a bus tour across America that takes her through all the early primary states smells like a presidential run.”

Andrew Malcolm, at Top of the Ticket:

“The tour obviously has two purposes: One, to get her name and image back on the scene as grumbling grows about the bland Republican field of candidates for 2012. And two, to provide a kind of unofficial exploratory tour, instead of exploratory committee, for a possible candidacy.”

Andy Barr, at Politico:

“The first stop will be at the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally. Palin will then travel up the East Coast in a trip that will include her first stop in New Hampshire since running as the GOP’s vice presidential nominee in 2008. Palin will also be stopping at other spots of symbolic national significance on the East Coast, including the Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg and Antietam, and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia.”

Whitney Pitcher, via Twitter:

“I'm so confused. Oprah never had a bus tour of the country.”

Steven Ertelt, at Life News.com:

“Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been seen for months as potentially unlikely to run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination to face pro-abortion President Barack Obama. Today, speculation is running rampant that she will run... But nothing is stoking speculation more than news unveiled today that she will embark on a bus tour that will take her across the country and have Palin in New Hampshire, home of the first presidential primary election... Some political observers thought the field may be set, with the exception of Palin. But her entry into the race could shake up the Republican primary as she would bring with her a core group of supporters and voters eager to see her run for president...”

Susan Duclos, at Wake up America:

“Sarah Palin is having another good news day...”

Terence Jeffrey, at NewsBusters:

“Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R.) announced today that she will be taking a bus tour that tellingly will begin with a visit to the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and then head north through historical sites associated with the nation’s founding, heading in the general direction of … New Hampshire... Palin will visit the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence which are on display in the National Archives building, which sits on Constitution Avenue directly across the street from the Mall.”

Rob Port, at SayAnythingBlog.com:

“This will be a success, drawing huge crowds, because that’s what Palin is best at... If Palin hasn’t made up her mind to run yet, this tour may be about gauging public interest in a run. If she likes what she sees, she takes the momentum from the tour and throws it into her campaign.”

Bryan Wilson, at The PJ Tatler:

“Between this and the feature-length film that’s coming out next month, it’s beyond fair to say that Palin is getting her game on, and that she aims to re-cast the image that many hold of her thanks to media portrayals, Tina Fey etc. The question is, can she win? And that’s actually two different questions. Can she win the primary? And, can she win the general election? The polls at this point say no, but what else would you expect from polls that consistently oversample Democrats?”

Jonathan Weisman, at the Wall Street Journal Online:

“Republican organizers say her re-emergence would siphon support from other tea party favorites, such as Rep. Michele Bachmann and Mr. Cain. But it could acutely damage Mr. Pawlenty, said Kevin Smith, the politically influential director of Cornerstone Action, a socially conservative think tank in New Hampshire.”

Jay Newton-Small, at TIME's Swampland blog:

“The tour, combined with a forthcoming independently produced film about her tenure as Alaska’s governor, is sure to drum up speculation that Palin is planning to run for President, something that would radically shakeup the current field of Republican contenders. She has always said that she would be an unconventional candidate and the newly announced tour is certainly unconventional. One can only imagine the mob scene when the bus, emblazoned with ‘Join the Fundamental Restoration of America,’ pulls up to Gettysburg with hundreds of reporters in tow.”

Michelle Malkin:

“What a great combination: Sarah Palin and Rolling Thunder. Memorial Day in Washington, D.C. sounds like it will be a blast... Roll on!”

Matt Lewis, at The Daily Caller:

“If there weren’t already enough speculation about a possible Palin presidential campaign, this would have done the trick... The timing of this is interesting. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza just noted, ‘there remains no evidence in any early voting primary or caucus state that she or her political team are doing anything to lay the groundwork for a 2012 bid.’ Could it be that Palin is rapidly moving to make up for lost time?”

California4Palin, via Twitter:

“Just like Harry Truman's Whistle Stop Tour!”

John Hayward , at Human Events:

“The conventional wisdom on the Republican primary season thus far is that it’s a snoozefest full of uninspiring candidates. It has been richly seasoned with pinches of trump and gingrich, yet the taste is still bland... Of course it’s exciting, and not just to her supporters, judging by how many liberals claim they can’t wait to run Obama against her. ‘Maybe’ has a powerful allure, which can be tricky to preserve when it evolves into ‘yes.’ Only one person gets to be last season’s lightning-rod vice-presidential nominee, so comparisons between the Palin maybe-campaign and others are difficult to draw... Palin has just announced a ‘One Nation Tour,’ in which she will visit ‘historical sites that were key to the formation, survival, and growth of the United States of America’ in a snappy bus that has a giant map of all fifty states painted on the back. I can't help but see this as significant, but maybe I'm reading too much into it.”

- JP

One Nation Tour: Sarah Palin's Statement (Updated)

"We need a restoration of all that is good and strong and free in America!"
*
Here's a statement from Gov. Palin about her bus tour:

Restoring the Good in America!

Our nation is at a critical turning point. As we look to the future, we are propelled by America’s past. It’s imperative that we connect with our founders, our patriots, our challenges and victories to clearly see our way forward. A good way to do this is to appreciate the significance of our nation’s historic sites, patriotic events and diverse cultures, which we’ll do in the coming weeks on our “One Nation” tour.

We’ll celebrate the good things that bring Americans together; those things that will give us the needed strength to meet the heady challenges ahead. I’ve said many times that America doesn’t need a “fundamental transformation,” instead we need a restoration of all that is good and strong and free in America! So, together let’s prepare ourselves for the days ahead by reminding ourselves who we are and what Americans stand for.

We’ll celebrate the meaning of our nation’s blueprints, our Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, which are the threads that weave our past into the fabric necessary for the survival of American exceptionalism. Our founders declared “we were born the heirs of freedom”, and despite our difficulties and disagreements, we remain one nation under God in freedom, indivisible. Through visits to historical sites and patriotic events, we’ll share the importance of America’s foundation.

We encourage you to support the pro-America events we’ll be privileged to participate in during these coming weeks. Discover the ties that bind Americans, our history, our traditions, and the exceptional nature of our country!

Follow the One Nation tour at www.sarahPAC.com

-Sarah Palin

Update: The Governor's statement is now cross-posted on her Facebook Notes page.

- JP

RCP - Palin's 'Exploratory' Campaign: A Nationwide Bus Tour

"Yet another strong indicator that she is leaning toward jumping into the race"
*
Scott Conroy has the details of Gov. Palin's bus tour at RealClearPolitics:

In a move designed to propel her closer to a presidential run, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will set out on a bus tour of the country on Sunday, making stops at symbolically significant venues along the way.

"Starting this weekend, Sarah Palin will embark on a ‘One Nation' tour of historical sites that were key to the formation, survival, and growth of the United States of America," SarahPAC treasurer Tim Crawford said in a statement to RealClearPolitics. "The tour will originate in Washington, D.C. It will proceed north up the east coast."

Details were still being hammered out on Thursday, but sources indicated to RCP that the bus tour is expected to last several weeks and will be divided up into separate geographical stretches for logistical reasons.

Members of Palin's immediate family are expected to join her on the trip, which will eventually take her through key early voting states.

[More]

Looks like gov. Palin will kick off her tour Sunday when she joins in the annual Rolling Thunder Memorial Day weekend motorcycle rally in the naiton's capital city. Riders will gather outside the Pentagon before the traditional motorrcyle parade rolls down Constitution Avenue to the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial.

The Sarahcuda is a long-time motorcycle admirer, Conroy reminds his readers, recalling her campaign event with "American Choppers" star Paul Teutul in 2008 and her appearance on the show in 2009.

Image by Chris Muir

Check SarahPAC.com for more information on the tour, which should be posted soon. Drop off a donation while you're there.

Update: Students4Palin tweets an advisory that SarahPAC has photos up of Gov. Palin's tour bus getting its finishing touches here.

- JP

Gov. Palin will announce a bus tour this afternoon

Game On, Let's Roll!
*
News flash from Carl Cameron via GretaWire:

Sarah Palin will announce a bus tour at 3pm [EDST] today.

It will be in connection with the Rolling Thunder festivities in DC this Memorial Day weekend, either starting or ending with the festivities at Rolling Thunder.

Greta wants to know, "...does this mean she is running?" That question is purely rhetorical, my dear Greta.

h/t: Doug Adams

- JP