New York — “Thanks for ruining our vacation,” 10 year-old Piper Palin said to one of the photographers who tried to approach her mother in Philadelphia where the most famous family in Alaska came to see the Liberty Bell, a symbol of American independence.
The mystery of Sarah Palin’s tour of the East Coast, which was launched three days earlier in Washington, was finally cleared up. It was not, as certain journalists have implied, an informal debut for the presidential campaign of John McCain’s former running mate, or a self-promoting trip organized by a media-friendly star anxious to maintain her fame.
Sarah Palin and her family were on vacation.
Not like other vacations, of course. A few days before the start of her tour, the ex-governor of Alaska had announced via her website plans to visit the “historic sites” of the north-eastern United States in order to “share the importance of America’s foundation,” no less.
And she had chartered a bus that displayed the words “One Nation,” in addition to a reproduction of the text of the American Constitution. “We the people, of the United States…”
All of this commotion has obviously piqued media interest, as they did not want to miss a single step of Palin’s tour, which began with participation in a biker parade in Washington in honor of veterans. Last Tuesday, during the stop in Philadelphia, around 15 cars and helicopters tried to follow the Alaska vacationers, according to the Philadelphia Enquirer.
It has to be said that Sarah Palin has not made life easier for members of the media by refusing to keep them updated about her daily agenda, something that journalists have complained about in half of their reports on the tour.
“The media can figure out where we’re going if they do their investigative work,” Sarah Palin told Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren, who was able to interview Palin on her tour bus yesterday during the stop in New York, where the Tea Party muse visited the Statue of Liberty and ate pizza with none other than billionaire Donald Trump.
Media Virtuoso
The meeting between the two reality TV stars with more or less serious presidential ambitions has obviously not gone unnoticed.
“She plays the media like a violin,” a Los Angeles Times commentator observed, duly impressed by the way Sarah Palin manages to show her distrust towards journalists while at the same time monopolizing their attention.
Of course, it is very possible that Sarah Palin did not tell her daughter Piper the whole truth. Several analysts have already suggested that her “vacation” corresponds exactly to the non-conformist manner in which she wanted to lead her presidential campaign if she decided to declare her candidacy.
Such an approach would surely be the opposite of the campaign launched by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney last Thursday in New Hampshire, the state that will hold the first primaries in the 2012 electoral year. The favorite in the race for the Republican nomination, he is the type to follow the proven rules of politics to the letter.
He must also have been surprised and disappointed to find that Sarah Palin had broken with common courtesy in choosing the day of his official presidential campaign launch to stop in New Hampshire, where she met with voters and answered questions for journalists from CNN, NBC and the Washington Post, among others. Before this stop, which put an end to her tour of the East Coast, the ex-vice presidential candidate also criticized the health care reform promoted by Mitt Romney during his time as governor of Massachusetts.
The following day, the most important daily paper in New Hampshire dedicated its front-page headline to Sarah Palin’s visit to the New England state and banished the report on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign launch to the inner pages.
Maybe the ex-governor of Massachusetts should think about going on “vacation” with his family.
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