“Alaska Governor Sarah Palin visited the Iowa State Fair yesterday... She had also said to numerous reporters (and supporters) that she hasn’t decided yet... But she was with Becky Beach, a prominent fundraiser in Iowa. A good connection for her to make if a presidential run is in her future.”- JP
Palin said she hasn't decided whether she would run for president, but suggested she was leaning toward a bid, adding: "When we're ready to announce ... you won't be able to miss the announcement."Consider that she did not say, "If we announce..." She said "When we announce..." That's just one in a long series of sometimes not-so-subtle clues that Gov. Palin will shake up the 2012 GOP presidential field with an announcement before the end of September.
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And when pressed about her future plans, Palin said a trip home and a visit to the Alaska state fair were in order.
"Moose season is starting up in Alaska soon so we'll go back home and moose hunt," she said, adding: "And then, we'll come back out on the road, we hope."
As she shuffled through cattle pens and livestock buildings in a casual T-shirt and black slacks, Palin posed for pictures with well-wishers and fans. She scrawled her autograph on hats and fair programs, asked supporters what they did for a living and talked about becoming a grandmother.
Nearby, onlookers jumped onto fences and craned to get a glimpse of the Palins amid the jostling throng of journalists circling her. It was a marked change from the declared candidates who visited the fair and met with voters without such a buzz.
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“Palin and her husband Todd spent a lot of time answering questions from reporters. When Jake Tapper of ABC News arrived in the scrum, with more cameras, Palin stopped taking ad hoc answers and started an impromptu press conference. She made some news, saying she would probably make up her mind on a 2012 bid by next month,”- JP
It was wonderful to be back in Iowa today to visit the historic Iowa State Fair! Thank you for the invitation and tremendous hospitality, Iowa friends. We had the opportunity to meet more great Americans from the heartland and talk about the issues confronting our country today and the sort of leadership we need to move forward. Iowans have big hearts and a great deal of common sense, which makes visiting here all the more inspiring and insightful. Like the majority of Americans across the nation, the good folks here know that our country is in need of a restoration of the free market and constitutional principles that have made us strong and free and will make us that again as we get our country back on the right track.Photos: Iowa State Fair - 08/12/2011
The work ethic shown here by these farm families is so encouraging. The kids involved in healthy activities like 4-H and FFA are proud, strong young Americans who’ll grow up to help feed the country and run the nation’s economic engine – our small businesses. Keep up the great work, farmers!
What an inspiring day with great Americans. Oh, and the butter cow really is amazing... as is the fried butter-on-a-stick, the fried twinkie, the pork chops, etc.!
- Sarah Palin
When she did show up at the fair, dressed in a white t-shirt and a pair of black jeans from her favorite Alaska designer, Palin was immediately swarmed by dozens of reporters and television cameras as news of her sudden appearance ricocheted around the fairground.- JP
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Palin was escorted through the fairgrounds by a team of advance staffers and an Iowa GOP operative, Becky Beach, who has assisted Palin during past visits to the Hawkeye State. She had more staff on hand Friday than she did during the first leg of her bus tour.
Her husband Todd, who expressed enthusiasm about a potential campaign, was also at her side. He seemed to be enjoying the spotlight.
“After she resigned they said that she was washed up and done right?,” he said with a grin. “And you guys are still here.”
As for her own thinking about the race, both she and Todd said there is plenty of time to make a decision. Palin said she would not be a candidate by the time she returns to the state over Labor Day weekend, when she is slated to address a tea party rally in Waukee.
“There is a still a lot of contemplation that needs to go into such an Earth shattering, life-changing decision,” Palin said.
She engaged with the media for more than an hour, all while signing autographs and posing for pictures with star struck fair-goers.
Palin had nothing but kind words for the candidates who could become her rivals for the GOP nomination.
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“Each campaign that I’ve ever run in these 20 years of elected office have been kind of unconventional -- right, Todd? We’ve always been outspent two to one, 10 to one, five to one; never won any polls heading into election night but usually won the election. So it would be unconventional and very grass-roots. Very grass-roots. And I wouldn’t be out there looking for hires out of that political bubble that seem to result in the same old ideas, the same old talking points, the things that Americans get so sick and tired of hearing and kind of suffering through.- JP
“You know, we want new. We want new energy. We want conviction and passion and candidness -- even if through that candidness you make mistakes and you say things like ‘the executive power in Texas is different than the executive power in Alaska.’ . . . I’m just saying that candidness, not fearing so much what the interpretation is going to be when it comes to the comments and positions you’re articulating but just speaking from the heart and saying, ‘Here’s where I think America needs to head, and here’s how I think we can turn the economy around, and here’s what I’ve done in the past to show you truly a foundation of where my beliefs come from of what works in a small town, in a state, in a big industry like oil and gas -- what is it that can be done to turn things around.’ I’ll express that and not fearing what the ramifications of the expressions would be.”
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Swarmed by media and supporters at the Iowa State Fair, the former governor of Alaska told The Daily Caller that she’s not concerned that Mitt Romney is considered the frontrunner at this time.- JP
“No, nothing worries me at this point,” Palin told TheDC. “Could I support somebody like Mitt Romney? Yeah.”
When TheDC pointed out that some tea partiers have pledged to make sure Romney doesn’t get the nomination, Palin said, “I’m of the mind of ABO — Anybody But Obama, at this time.”
“We’ve got to get this country on the right track, we need fiscal conservatives with executive experience who’ve run businesses, run a state, [and] understand what it takes to allow the private sector to create jobs,” Palin said, in full stump mode.
“We don’t see that in Barack Obama,” Palin added. “We don’t see that in the Pelosi–Reid agenda. So that has got to stop and we need a Republican to get in there. And whether that’s Mitt Romney or one of the other candidates or one of the potential candidates, I have great faith that we will get back on the right track when things change in 2012.”
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Will tea party rock star Sarah Palin endorse anyone while she’s in Iowa – maybe Texas Gov. Rick Perry?Apparently for security reasons, the governor made a stealth entrance through a back-door gate used to bring in livestock, and the first place where she visited with Iowans at the fair was the Cattle Barn.
A beaming Sarah Palin, surrounded by a pack of camera-armed fairgoers, said no.
“Oh, you know the process hasn’t even played itself out yet, so no on premature endorsements,” Palin told The Des Moines Register as she eyed livestock in the Cattle Barn.
“And I haven’t even decided yet if I’m going to jump in or not yet.”
But she added later that Perry is “a great guy.”
Sarah Palin arrived at the Iowa State Fair at about 10:45 a.m., just as presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty was finishing up with his pork-chop-flipping photo opp.
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Republican Sarah Palin said today that if she runs for president, she will campaign on her record as a mayor and governor in Alaska.- JP
“Just speaking from the heart, where I think America needs to head and how I think we can turn the economy around and here’s what I’ve done in the past to show you truly a foundation of where my beliefs come from, of what works – in a small town, in a state, in a big industry like oil and gas. What is it that can be done to turn things around. I’ll express that,” Palin told reporters who huddled around her at the Iowa State Fair.
Palin will be in Iowa just for one day, she said. “I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes so I won’t be in the state tomorrow,” she said.
When the Iowa Straw Poll begins tomorrow, “we’ll already be on the bus, heading out of here.”
But next month “has to be kind of a drop-dead timeline” for deciding whether or not she will make a bid for the White House herself, she said.
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Palin is here at state fair talking to babies and moms by livestock barns #iacaucusand:
Palin to family farm owner "feeding America, good job we love you." #iacaucusWe wonder how she managed to get there without being noticed. Another nondescript rental car?
Palin dings Perry: "I'm glad he's entering the race, even though he said he wouldn't"Tim Albrecht, Gov. Terry Branstad's communications director, tweeted that Gov. Palin is with Iowa GOP fundraiser Becky Beach at the fair.
If Palin had a political goal today, it was to dampen speculation that she would endorse Rick Perry, which she did effectively. musing on the contrast of the "very powerful" Alaska governorship with the "not as powerful" Texas one and allowing that she'd be enthusiastic about him only in case he wins the nomination.CBN's David Brody:
Just talked to @sarahpalinusa at the fair.Video: Taking reporters' questions, via NECN:
Says Presidential decision coming before
end of september
