Sarah Palin Restarts Bus Tour, Heads for ... Iowa

Somewhere in Texas, Rick Perry just groaned. He was all set to steal the thunder from the candidates competing in Iowa's Ames straw poll on Saturday by announcing his candidacy that same day in South Carolina. Now he's got serious media competition: Sarah Palin is firing up her bus again and plans to be at the Iowa State Fair that day, reports the Alaska Dispatch.

"Whatever weaknesses Palin may have as a politician, timing isn’t one of them," writes Amanda Coyne. Recall that Palin turned up in New Hampshire "to great fanfare" the same day that Mitt Romney announced his candidacy there, notes Coyne. And she visited Iowa the day after Michelle Bachmann declared in that state, "taking much of the air out of that announcement." Click to read about Palin's new grandchild. (More Sarah Palin 2012 stories.)