Sarah Palin’s One Nation road trip streamrolled through New York City on Wednesday, boasting all of the makings of political theater ... but none of the politics.
Make no mistake: The traveling circus act is more about brand maintenance than it is the first steps in a run for the White House, analysts and consultants tell TheWrap.
By hopscotching across various patriotic landmarks, the former Alaska governor has pushed fellow conservative firebrand Michele Bachmann off the front pages and -- temporarily at least -- reclaimed her place as the biggest name in Republican politics.
It also has allowed her to gleefully torment her favorite target -- reporters -- by keeping them in the dark about the details of her visits to Civil War battlegrounds and Revolutionary War touchstones.
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If it works, the trip will help burnish Brand Palin at a time when it has more than a few dents in its ultra-conservative facade.
“Basically, she’s firing up her base and letting them know she’s still there,” Bill Schneider, a former CNN political analyst and fellow at the think tank Third Way, told TheWrap.
Schneider and others believe that Palin and her multi-million-dollar industry of personality has not fully recovered from her response to Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ shooting in January. In a lead-footed public statement, Palin accused journalists and pundits of unfairly blaming her for the carnage and said they were manufacturing “a blood libel.”
With its anti-Semitic undertones, the remark prompted mass outrage and seemed to temporarily douse the conservative icon’s spark.
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Prior to the Giffords comments, Palin had been seemingly everywhere -- launching best-selling books, popping up in the stands of “Dancing With the Stars,” and successfully launching a cable reality series “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.”
Afterwards, save for a few spots of punditry on Fox News, she left the headline-grabbing to Bachmann and Donald Trump.
“She must be doing this with the blessing of Fox News,” John Feehery, a Republican political consultant and president of QGA Communications, told TheWrap. “It’s going to get her better ratings if she remains in the public eye. It gives her more opportunities to sell books, and perhaps it will become some sort of television program.”
Fox News, which pays Palin $1 million a year as a consultant, is the only network with a seat on the bus. A distinction that spouse Todd Palin acknowledged owes to his wife's job at the media company. Anchor Greta Van Susteren has traveled with the Palins and aired exclusive interviews during her show, “On the Record.”
Still, Palin’s tour is heavy on photo ops -- there’s Sarah in front of the Statue of Liberty -- and short on the sort of chicken dinners with GOP party leaders that presidential candidates need to endure if they’re serious about campaigning.
