Sarah Palin releases campaign-style video about Iowa trip
Sarah Palin is out with a slick new campaign-style video that very much casts her as a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination.
The video spotlights Palin's recent visit to the Iowa State Fair, which just happened to coincide with a visit to the fair by many of the GOP presidential candidates. The visit was presented as the kickoff to the Midwestern swing of her bus tour, which ended after four days.
The video, "Iowa Passion," shows Palin swarmed by citizens attending the fair, as well as media. (This reporter even makes a cameo at the :45 mark.) "She's a normal person, just like every one of us," one fairgoer tells the camera. "And I like that, 'cause I'm a farm wife." Others are shown calling Palin "down to earth," "solid" and "awesome."
Palin is shown promising to eat the fair's (in)famous "butter on a stick" and pointedly taking time to answer questions from the media.
"How nice of Sarah Palin to stand there and take all of your questions," CNN's Wolf Blitzer observes; reporter Don Lemon responds that Palin urged those around her to "talk from your heart."
Later, Palin is shown calling for the country to be "put back on the right track," adding to cheers from fair-goers: "You all know better how to spend your own money than politicians in Washington, D.C., know how to spend."
"I think we're seeing a great awakening of the American public, the individual Americans who want the exceptionalism put back into our country," adds the former Alaska governor and GOP vice presidential nominee.
The video closes with a shot of a roaring grizzly bear silhouetted against the sky and a promise that Palin will return to Iowa, the crucial first state in the caucus and voting calendar, in early September. (She will address a Tea Party rally in Waukee on Sept. 3.)
Palin has vowed to make a decision on a presidential run by next month. The high production values in her new video, which was produced by her "SarahPAC" political action committee, suggest she very much wants to be seen as seriously considering entering the race.
Palin has not, however, taken the traditional steps to lay the groundwork for a run, such as hiring staff or developing organizational and fundraising networks. And polls suggest she remains a polarizing figure - even among Republicans. In CBS News polling in June, a majority of Republicans said they did not want to see her enter the race.
