WASHINGTON — Without leaving home, Sarah Palin will be able to reach much of her political base, courtesy of a soon-to-be television studio in her living room paid for by her newest media patron, Fox News. From her house in Wasilla, Alaska, Palin also sends missives to 1.3 million Facebook "fans," writes newspaper columns, Tweets and signs copies of her book for donors.
She reads daily e-mail briefings on domestic and foreign policy from a small group of advisers who remained loyal after her tumultuous vice presidential campaign in 2008. And though she has fashioned an image as an anti-establishment conservative, Palin also speaks regularly to a bipartisan nobility of Washington insiders who have helped enrich her financially and position her on the national political stage.
Palin is becoming increasingly vocal and visible, with a series of events scheduled this weekend: delivering a paid speech to the Salina, Kan., chamber of commerce on Friday night, headlining a national Tea Party convention in Nashville on Saturday and appearing on behalf of the re-election campaign of Gov. Rick Perry of Texas in Houston on Sunday.
This latest foray "Outside" (Alaskan slang for the "Lower 48") culminates a week in which she achieved a typical run of multimedia ubiquity: She e-mailed a high-profile endorsement of Rand Paul in a Republican Senate primary in Kentucky. She called — via Facebook — for the resignation of the White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel for using the term "retarded" and announced — via a column in USA Today — that she would attend a Tea Party gathering next month in Searchlight, Nev., the hometown of the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid.
Her growing cast of advisers and support system could be working in the service of any number of goals: a possible presidential run, a de facto role as the leader of the Tea Party movement or a lucrative career as a roving media entity — or all of the above.
Said Robert Barnett, one of her Washington-based advisers: "Few public figures not in office have leveraged the nexus between media and political positioning as Sarah Palin has."
