Palin Vows "110 Percent" Commitment to Iowa -- If She Runs

Real Clear Politics
By Scott Conroy

PELLA, Iowa -- Though she indicated that she is still not close to announcing her decision on whether to run for president, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Tuesday said that she would fully commit to the traditional process leading up to the Iowa caucuses -- if she does throw her hat in the ring.

"110 percent," Palin told RealClearPolitics before entering the premiere of a documentary that extols her accomplishments in office. "Doing as much as I can to garner that support. It's necessary."

Dressed down in bluejeans, Palin strolled through the center of this picturesque town with her husband, Todd, and greeted supporters who gathered to cheer her on outside the screening of filmmaker Steven K. Bannon's "The Undefeated" at the 110-year-old Pella Opera House.

Asked about her daughter Bristol's pronouncement during an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday morning that her mother "definitely knows" whether she intends to launch a White House bid, Palin said that she texted Bristol after hearing about the remark.

"I said, 'What did you say this morning, honey?' " Palin said with a smile. "I told Bristol, too, what is talked about on the fishing boat stays on the fishing boat."

Palin said that she was not yet ready to announce a decision and instead remarked on the beauty of Pella and the history of this small Iowa town located about 40 miles southeast of Des Moines. Pella was founded by Dutch settlers in the 1840s, and its downtown area continues to highlight Holland's heritage with several prominent windmills, Dutch bakeries, and shops that sell wooden shoes.

As Palin finally made her way to the entrance of the opera house, she greeted Bannon with a hug.

"I'm very grateful that someone would bother to go to these efforts to make a documentary about the record of my team in Alaska that worked so hard for energy security and ethics reform and privatizing businesses that should never be in government's hands," Palin said. "This film really is a great illustration of what it is that you can accomplish as a team, a bipartisan approach, just common-sense solutions to some tough issues. We tackled it, we succeeded, and someone went to the trouble of documenting what it was that we accomplished. I appreciate that, so that brings me to Iowa."

Scott Conroy is a national political reporter for RealClearPolitics. He can be reached at sconroy@realclearpolitics.com.