eskimojoe/Flickr
Sarah Palin’s much ballyhooed “One Nation” bus tour has gripped the media, as the tea party favorite cruises the eastern seaboard, takes in the sights, and plays cat-and-mouse with reporters trailing her every step of the way. In the past week she’s visited Washington, DC; Gettysburg, Pennnsylvania; Philadelphia; and New York, where she dined on pizza with none other than Donald Trump. But ABC News reports that Palin’s jaunt is quickly evolving into a national event.
After an upcoming trip to Boston, Palin described her summer plans like this:
“Go back to Alaska—in fact today, Willow [Palin’s 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.”
Palin went on to say that “our tentative plan” is to take “One Nation” to Americans all over the country in the months to come. And while she’s downplayed her own presidential aspirations, and insisted that the “One Nation” tour isn’t a campaign-like trip, taking the tour national is sure to further stoke rumors that she’s testing the waters and considering a 2012 presidential bid. That and the news that she’s bulking up her staff, possibly moving to Arizona, and had commissioned a movie by conservative filmmaker Stephen Bannon to celebrate her record as Alaska governor.
Of course, if she is indeed thinking of getting in, she’ll have to do it soon. The current roster of candidates, from Pawlenty to Romney to Cain, is already fighting over staffers and courting prospective donors. Time is short, and the big donors are already picking sides.
