Sarah Palin at Iowa state fair: I'm not stealing the spotlight

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin greets visitors in the Cattle Barn at the Iowa State Fair on Friday.

/ AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

DES MOINES, Iowa - Sarah Palin rolled onto the grounds of the Iowa state fair here to begin the Midwestern swing of her "One Nation" bus tour on Friday in an appearance that generated a mob of reporters and cameras as she greeted fair-goers and posed for pictures inside a building filled with cattle.

Palin, who has yet to decide on a presidential run, arrived at the state fair on the same day that many of the Republican presidential candidates were there speaking to the tens of thousands of Iowans in attendance. Much of the Washington press corps is in Iowa for the fair as well as Thursday night's debate and Saturday's straw poll.

But Palin insisted she had come simply to meet "the good people of Iowa," not to score votes. Asked if she was "looking for votes," she told CBS News: "Looking for votes? I'm looking for hands to shake, and I'm looking for fried butter on a stick and a fried Twinkie as soon as I can get there, just looking to talk to the good people of Iowa, these good hardworking farm families, I love it."

"I don't think I'm stealing any spotlight," Palin said when asked about the timing of her appearance. "In fact, if anybody thinks I'm stealing the spotlight, go! Go find the other folks and say hello."

At left, Palin at the state fair surrounded by reporters and fair-goers.

Palin refused to discuss timing of an announcement about whether she will seek the Republican presidential nomination, saying only, "When we're ready to announce -- when we are or not -- you guys are not going to miss the announcement."

"I'm not the only one who has not decided yet and is not ready to announce yet," she added. "There's still a lot of contemplation that needs to go into such a life-changing, earth-shattering decision."

As she fought her way through the scrum, I asked her if she ever wished she could walk through an event like this without attracting so much attention. ""Well, you know, when I'm in Alaska we don't have this woosh of YOU," she said. She said she looked forward to attending the Alaska State Fair in a week, which she said would be far quieter.

"But no, I mean, I appreciate the opportunity I have to meet so many good people, especially these good kids," Palin said, leaning down to great a pair of young girls.

Asked the same question, Todd Palin, who accompanied his wife at the fair, said "this is the life that we chose when she took McCain's nomination, when she ran for governor, when she ran for mayor. This isn't something new."

He said he and his wife planned to eat barbecue and see the famous "butter cow" at the fair. Palin is scheduled to appear live on Sean Hannity's Fox News show on the fairgrounds at 8 p.m.

Asked about DC pundits dismissing his wife's presidential chances, Todd Palin sarcastically said, "They're the smart ones, you know."

"After she resigned they said that she was washed up and done, right, and you guys are still here," he added. Asked if he was "gung ho" about his wife running, he replied: "No I have mixed feelings about it. It's a big step, you know." He said the decision was not his to make -- "you're not going to push either spouse into a direction that they don't want to go into" -- but added that they discussed the pros and cons of a run.

As she watched the scrum pass by the cows inside the building, with reporters and fair-goers pushing and shoving to get near Palin, one fair-goer joked, "Boy, you talk about a cattle call."

After about 45 minutes of interacting with fair-goers and reporters, the Palins were whisked off to a private lunch somewhere on the fairgrounds.

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31 Photos

Sarah Palin on the road

[nstarv]

G.O.P. = Get Over Palin

I understand that since her Boston trip went to well when she visited the site where, according to her, Paul Revere rode through Boston warning the BRITISH?!?!?!?, she is now in Iowa, land of cows, to visit the site where Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked over the lantern that started the Great Chicago Fire.

[nosocialists]

We like boring, destructive, bad mouthing negative, blaming Obama.

[expatriate2]

No Sarah, you're not stealing the spotlight. Your ambitions aren't that small.

[nosocialists]

Spoken like a true liberal om a truly liberal article from a liberal network. Now go back to your food stamps.

[JV1970]

MarineVet46 You're a filthy minded creep and I hope someday CBS bars you from these comment boards permanently!

[doctor_know]

Thats correct, you are not stealing the spotlight Sarah.... you are just tagging along with all the real presidential candidates.

[Blackandtandog]

I just can't believe how many people have fallen for this clown's act. How can anyone take her seriously as a presidential candidate?

[EffortPA]

I believe Sarah Palin is about the best thing it could have happened to our country. Sometimes, I disagree with what Obama is doing, sometimes I don't think he is being a good leader, but then I hear something Sarah Palin said or did and it reminds me that regardless of how bad things are right now, they could be much, much worse. That contrast would not be nearly as pronounced without Sarah Palin around. Sarah, please continue doing what you are doing, it really helps to keep everything in perspective.

[jools6009]

And how would Sarah Palin do a better job than Obama. She's an egomaniac with half a brain. The best thing that ever happened to our country was Obama. You want to really see our country in the toliet, vote for Sarah when the moron runs for President. But then it will be too late to change your perspective, whatever that means.

[JV1970]

Kenny777_y Palin is an American citizen and she has the same rights as any other American. She can go where she wants and no one has the right to tell her where she can or can't go!

[gruin2]

OHHH please run $arah run and bring us the most entertaining circus of Candidates this Country has ever seen! America so needs a good laugh and your word salad would be a good match to the 'closeted' Bachmanns and Perry's 'shoot em up' western show...so go on & steal that old spotlight & bring it on for rill.

BTW....you keep saying you want to bring America back so I'm wondering if we got invaded during the night or your minions found those weapons of destruction that Bush was looking for?????

Hope you got your fill of butter today...how's your stomach working out fer ya???

[Lindag10]

Out of curiousity why would ANYONE fry butter? Sounds totally gross to me. Of course I've decided that Americans will deep fry about anything. They're having fried cherry kool-aid at the Kentucky State Fair this year. Crazy, no wonder so many people in the US are fat.

[zenia5]

Sarah Palin is a legend in her own mind. Her narcissisism causes her to believe that she absolutely MUST be in Iowa at this time so she can steal any amount of publicity from the actual candidates. She knows she cannot possibly win, so instead of running and having to face those "tough" questions, she just follows them around in her rock n' roll bus.

I've seen a few comments praising Sarah Palin's ability to make "millions" and equate this to her being so successful. In reality, her millions are earned simply from situational luck and greed, stepping on as many others as possible on her way to the top of her financial ladder. There are successful people that are not financially endowed or considered wealthy. Success can be measured and determined by so many different arbitrary observations and judgments.

What do I consider the primary elements of success?

Integrity, honesty, moral reasoning, ethics, values, respect, good judgment, virtuous character, tolerance, fairness, self-control, altruism. In my opinion, Sarah Palin possesses little to none of these important character traits.

Abraham Lincoln once said, "Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it....the tree is the real thing." Sarah Palin is undeniably the "shadow".

[xpowner97]

SoCalSuperSage has nothing to offer so he/she results to acting like a 12-year old. Really????

[slappy-mcjohnson]

by FoundersCBS1791 August 12, 2011 6:47 PM EDT
yep, not important

------------

The espoused morals not in evidence, Flounder.

That type of hypocrisy may be ok for you, but not for those of us with self-examined morals we actually FOLLOW.

.